A storm was gathering.

His gaze shifted overhead, taking in the black clouds that loomed in the distant sky. The warmth of the surrounding air only gave their presence a more ominous meaning. With the cold winds still lingering from the winter, a warm, damp night was an invitation for the weather to wreak havoc on those who stood to do nothing about it. A distance rumble of thunder left him with little doubt that before the night was over, he would be soaked to the skin. Even so, he kept his momentum going. Traveling in the midst of darkness had more advantages than disadvantages. Many of which involved using too much energy or running into too many other wolves with malcontent.

But then, maybe Teo had been running alone for too long. The anticipation of too many other wolves as a threat forced him to mull over what it was that he was seeking. For if he sought nothing at all, then there would be nothing to bind him to these lands. Or any other, for that matter. He spent his time doing as he wished, hunting for food and keeping himself in good condition, avoiding the cautionary lines where pack life met the lives of wolves who spent their lives as he did now; making it. It was questionable, in his mind, just what constituted a life well lived. Must it mean something to a number of others, or only the individual who led the life?

Teo knew he had been born into a social species. He felt the pull now and then, the urge to seek out others of his own species. Others of the opposite gender. And he fought them. Not because he despised them, but because in his own experience, they had lead to nothing more than chaos, pain, and misunderstanding. It wasn't wolves he avoided, it was the pack life. His own history was riddled with it and his loyalty, however misguided it may have seemed, had been tossed back in his face. It wasn't something he wanted to live to go through again. So it was better just to nip it at the beginning and force himself to move on with his life.

That's how he'd been managing for damn near three years. One grew accustomed to their habits, and when there was little to tempt change in them, then they merely lingered on.

The grasses in the meadow whisked around his body, catching and releasing with the combined effort of his movement and the wind that billowed their thin blades in the opposite direction. Fleeting scents of other creatures were carried to him and then whisked away the next moment, giving in a piece by piece picture of the things that surrounded him. A harried rabbit, caught out in the open for a midnight snack. A vole burrowing back into the ground after a short trip above the soil brought little more than a resisting wind. A bobcat, leaving a hiss of warning in the wind, just for him. And then another scent, one of his own before it was whipped away.

His movements halted, ears rotating as his eyes flicked about. The grasses brazed his chest, some stalking to five feet in height off to his left while others were short enough to walk nimbly through at the tree line. And then words. Her words carried to him on the wind, though his eyes could not find her. They were soft, broken and he barely caught their meaning. In that moment, however, he felt something pull at him. Something he hadn't felt for some time, but for the company of his own family. The need to be known. To be heard. To let the world know that he existed.

The howl that rose through the night was haunting; a low timber in the back of his throat that deepened and broadened as his volume increased, spilling forth the tainted song that had been held in for far too long. A song sung to the star that rose above them, before the darkness of the clouds cast down it's light and blanketed the world in their storm.

His eyes remained closed as his last note rang through the air; a crack of thunder picking up before it died completely. The wind was picking up as the minutes strummed on, swaying the grasses around him in half before they paused momentarily at full height only to be whipped in another direction. He breathed deeply, inhaling the invigorating atmosphere, muzzle finally lowering as he once more took in his surroundings. The sounds of the approaching storm covered easily any of the softer sounds that he had heard only minutes before.

It would be a heavy rain with high winds. It enthralled him.

His gaze slipped smoothly from one direction to another, seeking the form of the creature he knew lingered within visual distance. It was only a matter of finding where her form was hidden. It didn’t occur to him that the wolf wouldn’t want to be found. He was the one accustomed to slinking away from the wolves that dotted the area, not the other way around. He didn’t do the seeking; and yet, here he was, hunting a wolf in the darkness.

The light of the star had been swallowed, and it left the moon to it’s own biding. Though for how long that light remained was debatable. The clouds could just as easily swallow it’s form and leave the darkness to cover what it may. He was determined to find the other before what light the orb offered disappeared.

It wasn’t the snap of the thin branch he heard, and he would have been miffed that he had missed such a noise had he known it had occured, it was the high pitched yelp that pierced the air above the rush of winds. A flash of a white form against the low light; a face, a form, a wolf.

And then she was gone.

His brow furrowed, a moment of calculation finally coming to him. In his brief visual, the wolf looked very much as though she did not wish to be seen. The light had been to low to determine her features or too much of subtle body language that determined the wariness that a wolf exibited. She could have easily been stalking something in the winds, though it would certainly be a feat with the way things were tonight. It would be difficult to follow a scent and if she were going by visuals, then she would have to be very close to her prey. A flash of the white creature stalking him zipped through his mind, but he eliminated it quickly when he took her yelp into consideration. A yelp that would make any prey animal aware above the din of the storm.

Hm.

Pushing the thoughts aside before too much time had ellapsed, his muscles bunched beneath him as he gathered himself, moving in nimble leaps towards the white wolf that had disappeared so quickly. He attempted to approach the wolf with a small bit of distance between them, to give each of them their own space. Of course leaping through the grasses, he was just as liable to pounce on her, but he was rather hoping to avoid such a squishy surprise.