The small white wolf panted slightly as she made her way up the base of the monadnock, her breath expelling brief puffs of fog on the chilly air as a small hare swung from her jaws. Saradathia had been out most of the day in her routine hunting trips. Ranging further and further from the massive plateau in order to find adequate meat for the pack. A small and somewhat twisted sense of familiarity filled the girl. Prey was becoming scarce and hard to find, something she was familiar with and well versed it. It may have been bad that she felt a little happy with the small comfort from her old home, albit one of the only sure things from the frigid north. SHe managed quietly up the trail planning to visit the biggest ghost of her old home, the only other arctic wolf she had met so far, Anaia.

A small sigh escaped the yearling as the familiar bend toward the coyote den that had been assigned to the injured wolf came into view. Saradathia had some mixed feelings about Anaia, while it was nice to have another wolf around that had been in similar areas to her, it also proved a link to the past that she was trying to escape. The scar on her muzzle throbbed, her torn left ear flinching in memory of the harsh and vicious pack she had grown up in.

There, the female wolf laid outside of the den, maybe getting some fresh air Saradathia wondered as she came closer, she laid the scrawny hare down with a gentle smile, overall She had become what she had considered close to the other yearling, spending as much time as she could allow so the newest and possibly temporary packmate would have some company in this cold season. “Hey there, hows your leg?” She asked quietly as she settled down on her haunches, her pelt brushing against Anaia’s.

Saradathia squints her silver gaze at the other wolf as she spoke. Mentioning how useless she felt, tto that, the small wolf could relate to, being unable to contribute, even for a few days would have been a death sentence back home. It made her wonder..did Anaia come from a similar pack? Were there other kinds of packs back in the arctic circle where only survival wasn't the sole stressing and binding point of a bond among wolves? She looked carefully over the slightly larger female before smiling a little. They couldn’t have been products of the same life style if she had been so willing to forgo a full stomach just to share.

“If your sure, I guess I can, though catching something else wouldn’t be too hard.” The yearling said with a blatant lie, she was tired, exhausted and still panting slightly. To try and hunt again would have done nothing but hurt her, though she just wasn’t willing to admit it, she wasn’t wanting to look weak. A small yawn escaped, revealing just how tired she was indeed as she glanced down at the hare “You get the first bite though.”

Pausing for a few moments, Saradathia eventually gave voice to something that had been bothering her for a few days now, she still knew little about Anaia’s pack, or how she had ended up in an avalanche. “I was wondering...what was your pack like?”

Saradathia listened quietly, her torn ear twitching subtly as Anaia spoke the recollection of her past. She felt the sadness that her companion seemed to radiate and pressed her shoulder into Anaia’s side before nodding. Her head tilting slightly when it was her turn to speak. “Yea..survival was harsh for my pack too...we were on the larger side in a bid snowy tundra, blizzards on a regular basis and scare prey, even more scarce with some competition from a nearby pack.” A sigh escaped the yearling as she laid took a quick bite from the hare before going on. “To us...survival was all that had mattered, I don’t remember much from my early days as a pup but...well my father always used me as the chew toy for my older brothers..we’d always have to fight in order to eat, to prove we were strong enough to make it.”

The arctic wolf tensed a little, some of this she hadn’t told nor planned to tell anyone ever but it seems to just spill out around Anaia. “There was this field of ice, sorta like a like with a massive glacier in the center of it..we’d always have to train there, biting, fighting and hurting each other….if we were too slow, dad would always punish us...I got this for being too slow once…” she mumbled quietly, her torn ear flicking as she gestured toward it. Feelings swelling up inside of her that she had been trying to hide for so long threatened to break free and spill over.

She paused for a few moments, pressing into Anaia’s fur before going on “I ended up down here though after being forced from my pack, one of the wolves..Jake had gotten killed by a polar bear...that’s how I got this scar..” she said quietly, her voice falling in volume as a reel of memories played through her head, a wolf’s pained howl, something heavy slamming into her and landing hard on the ice. She gave a violent shake to dislodge them all. “With him dead, the alpha decided to shrink the ranks...I was the youngest female so out I went…”

The smaller female’s closed eyes slowly opened as Anaia spoke, her silver gaze looking the female over is disbelief. It couldn’t be possible, she had traveled miles and miles through unknown territory. Through blizzards and mountain passes. The fact that someone else could have been from the same region was too much of a coincidence, but from her very border? Impossible. It couldn't be, Though Saradathia was a very logical kind of wolf. Things couldn’t have been so close so similar without some kind of similarity, there were plenty of glaciers out there after all.

She took a deep breath, looking into the golden amber eyes of her companion, one who may have once been considered an enemy or even rival in the harsh climate of the arctic. “I don’t know...I try not to think about my old pack...they were too much.” She swallowed slightly, uncomfortable while adding absently “Besides, the Monadnock is my home now, and a better family than I ever had back then, it was like we weren't even related.” Saradathia’s thoughts drifted back toward her childhood with her pack, the fights as puppies, the loose training, the very little affection she had ever seen shown had always been shown toward her two elder brothers.

The small white female went absolutely rigid as the stones that served as the pack’s den as Anaia spoke. Muscles tensed as if prepared to leap up and run, Saradathia shook her head quietly whispering “N-no.” as a dreadful memory played over and over within her head. Screams echoing out over the snowy icefields of her old home, teeth tearing deeply into flesh. Blood spreading over the slick ice and freezing from freshly opened wounds. A quiet whine escaped as the yearling pressed into Anaia whispering “Punishment.”

She sat there, quite as moments stretched into minutes, scenes playing soundlessly within her mind before eventually dispelling like mist in the morning light. “No.” she whispered quietly. “It just can’t be, the distance, the lengths of time she had trekked over icy fields and through deep forests to reach the regions of Relic Lore, somehow a wolf from the very same region had made it this far south too, and was now counted as a packmate. {b} “I thought I escaped all connections to my past.” she murmured quietly. “Anaia, I want to believe it’s impossible, i really du...but you’re right…” A small sigh escaped the silver eyed wolf as she gazed upwards slightly at the larger arctic female.