Cottongrass was bored, cold, and alone. And with nothing better to do—he sniffed. Everywhere he went he was sure to make sure his nose was twitching, even when he dipped his head down too low and he accidentally inhaled a bunch of snow that seemed to go straight to his brain. The splitting brain-freeze didn't matter, not one bit. All because he was sniffing. Sniffing along an invisible trail with his head down and tail swaying distractedly behind him.

He didn't know what he was doing or why he was doing it, but, well, at least he was doing something. And that's all that really mattered to him in the end. Besides, it wasn't like his pointless task would get him into any trouble. So far he only walked into a tree once! And he was super lost but...

If Cottongrass were to be honest, he was always sort of lost. Which confused him to no end, because how did a wolf like him even get lost in the first place? It wasn't like he had a place that he even wanted to call home, there was no pack eagerly awaiting his return, and he knew where all of his friends were. He did it. Solved all the mysteries in his life and his mind said that it just meant it was time for him to do something drastic. Like—well, he wasn't even going to think about it because he was really bad at ignoring those thoughts one he had them.

And thus, Cottongrass sniffed. It was his duty. His personal task that he was assigned to by some ambiguous figure that he didn't think to make-up at that point. Everything was fine. He wasn't going to be the first wolf to die from boredom or anything. It went along in silence—

Until he heard it. Somewhere in front of him he heard the sound of branches snapping. His gaze jumped forward, body still with one of his paws awkwardly caught mid-step. There was more snapping. And if he sniffed—that's what he was supposed to be doing in the first place!—he smelled something best described as meaty and bloody. It was enough to tempt him forward, just past the thicket of spindly branches.

He blinked, just barely avoiding getting a branch in his eye as he went. And just as his vision cleared, time stopped. Because it wasn't the snapping of a branch he heard earlier, it was instead the crunching of breaking bone. He knew this because he couldn't do anything but stare as a deer—just a regular old deer—proceeded to chomp down on the remaining half of a rabbit.

The longer he watched the gory scene unfolding before him, the more and more surreal it got. Because there was just a deer crunching away on the bones of a rabbit like it was normal. And Cottongrass found that he could only just watch. Because he left the forests northwest from here in the name of adventure. He was supposed to find the qalupalik or something! He was supposed to find and slay a dragon just because he could! Maybe he would even take on the mythical mountain lion that Reyes had spoken of forever ago! Instead he got whatever was happening in front of him.

It was enough for him to consider turning around and high-tailing it out of there. But it was then his gaze fell on the wolf, standing silently in the brush with a look that he could relate to. He looked back to the clearing, only to watch as the deer took another crunching bite. Then he looked at the wolf standing across from him in the brush. And after a few seconds of heavy silence and internal debate—

"That's really messed up." Cottongrass blurted out ever so intelligently, his voice so loud and abrupt that it startled himself. And with nothing else to do—he cringed. His ears rolled back against his head while his gaze flew to that of the stranger's deep orange, searching for the confirmation needed for him to continue his line of thinking. Which was that whatever they were both seeing was truly messed up and all sorts of wrong. And in that moment, the meat-eating deer standing between them was forgotten by Cottongrass while he focused on seeing the man's reaction to the horror...

Cottongrass was pretty sure that if he kept track of all the weird and horrible things he ever witnessed in his life, this would no doubt be on the top of the list. Because it was a deer eating a rabbit. The only sounds blaring in his ears was the whistling of wind and the grinding crunch of flat teeth working bone. It was like a scene out of a nightmare and probably a sign that the world was ending or something. And even the stranger before him no doubt agreed as they nodded along to Cottongrass' earlier statement. Which was that everything was messed.

So royally and thoroughly messed up.

When the stranger asked what he thought what the clearly not-deer was, there were already a thousand answers ready on the tip of his tongue. But from among the chaos of his mind he could only string one word into a coherent sentence. Which was that the deer was—

"A monster." Cottongrass blurted out, wild yellow eyes seeking out the bright orange of the stranger's in that moment. Because they understood him. They saw what he was seeing and it clearly wasn't pleasant. And briefly he found himself wishing for the presence of Tumblebelly. The little wolf seemed so fearless and he had experience with this sort of stuff. He could remember how his friend said he killed a dragon which were fast, sneaky, and strong animals.

Some weird monster deer would probably be a walk in the park for the wolf. But he didn't know where the little wolf might have went. Where Tumblebelly might have disappeared to or where he should even start looking for his friend. And so it was that the man and him were alone in facing the monster. They had no immediate back up and Cottongrass was probably more than useless in this scenario. When the other wolf asked if they should chase after the deer his response was almost instantaneous.

"No. What if it uh, eats us or something?" He didn't want to be eaten, not today and not ever.

The other guy seemed hellbent on chasing away the monster deer. And he knew that was the only right thing to do in these kinds of situations. That you were supposed to banish the big evil beast and save all of humanity to be hailed as a hero for the rest of your days. But Cottongrass wasn't having it. He was more than ready to slink away into the woods. That way he could forget about this moment until he could boast about how one time he encountered a monster in the mountains and barely survived to tell the tale. But apparently the stranger wasn't like that. It was almost like they wanted to play the role of hero and tell the story with facts instead of lies and gaudy embellishments.

Huh.

He leveled the wolf with a blank stare. The kind that had his yellow eyes distant while his mind whirred away. Somewhere in the moment his ear twitched and he faintly acknowledged how the deer punctuated the passing seconds with helpful bone crunches. He didn't understand the stranger. And maybe if the entire scenario was different Cottongrass would be swooning over the man and his brevity in the situation. But they weren't playing pretend and it was just harsh reality. He licked his lips and opened his mouth to reply.

"You should scare it away." He blurted out with a look of wildness in his expression. Because he was out of his element and it probably showed as he continued to talk. "I'll uh, I'll uh, help. From where I'm standing." It was a weak response and he refused to acknowledge it. Because he was pretty sure this was how he disappeared off the face of the earth like everybody else seemed to do.

Was this how it happened? Did a monster deer eat all of his friends? Only the higher powers above probably knew the horrible truth. He was playing a losing game of standing strong before the other wolf.

The stranger was trying to kill him.

There was no other possible explanation for the way this encounter was playing out. Because what the heck did the man have planned that required him not to move no matter what happened? The only conclusion his panicked mind could settle on was that he was being murdered. All of this was just one very elaborate set up and the wolf before him was controlling the monster deer this entire time.

He couldn't even bring himself to be upset.

It was a good plan! One that he would have never been able to come up with because he wasn't a murderer and he didn't have access to monster deer. He might have been jealous in hindsight. But there was no time for him to mourn over his wholesome life choices.

The man launched himself forward. Cottongrass did his part and played along. His ears rolled back against his head and his eyes fluttered shut. He braced himself for impact and the pain that would no doubt explode across his body when the deer made a meal out of him. It was a shame that he was the world's next victim in this string of disgusting crime. But he was ready. Ready for something that was never to come because none of the above ever happened.

There was nothing but silence. The kind that weighed heavy upon the air until he felt like he was going to explode from the suspense. He cracked one eye open and peered into the snowy woods and mountainside. The monster deer was gone and all that remained was the same wolf from before. He wondered if his paranoid and rambling thoughts had led him astray.

Huh.

It was time to shift gears.

"You did it!" He barked because like hell was he going to let his earlier assumptions loose. The man wasn't in control of the monster deer apparently but Cottongrass suspected that he wasn't completely safe from ending up dead. Who knew how the stranger would react to being called a possible murderer. His paws stamped in the snow and his tail wagged like crazy. He bound forward to give them an overjoyed nuzzle to show his thanks.

(For, you know, being the hero Cottongrass always knew he was.)