Skittles had been trying to follow the woman Anne for quite some ways, but her movements and pace were exhausting for a wolf who didn't get to eat much. His last hunt was to try to usher some rabbits into the mouth of that same wolf, but it didn't work out well. He knew then that the energy expenditures were more than he should have spent, and he felt it twice over in retrospect. Now, feasting on the body of Kamota as Anne had tried to do , however taboo, seemed appealing.

The trek to follow the sickly and sorrowful woman wasn't going well. The best Skittles could do was a fast and pointed trot, where as it seemed that Anne managed long runs, and then would suddenly plop down and do a vigorous scent-rolling. Not that he knew her name, nor did he realize that these motions were the mark of something horribly, horribly wrong. Anne's seemingly playful tackles into the ground seemed to Skittles what a woman might do in heat, rubbing herself about sensiously. They gave him time to catch up, but for much of the journey, he had to rely on his nose to track her fresh scent trail. Sometimes he was lucky enough to view her hind quarters from a great distance.

He felt proud and accomplished that he had indeed found a female to be Hotei's alpha, and done it so quickly and easily. She was even in heat, or so he thought. Hotei wouldn't be able to resist, and Hotei would surely thank him profusely. Then, Skittles could have a pack, and thus food to eat, and thus not die. Because all of his tryings to join a pack had been an utter disaster ; it didn't help that such attempts always included trespassing, often eating things that shouldn't be eaten, and on more than one occasion, pissing his pants.

Panic washed over him as he heard a cry for assistance, and his nerves felt like they were on fire with anxiety and fear of the unknown. He tried to trot faster, but he felt he had to sacrifice his energy savings plan in order to get to the cry.

"Hawwooooouu!", he had done the best he could think of and howled wordlessly. It meant nothing in particular, though one could easily decide that the howl meant that at least one other wolf was near.

He began to rush forwards in abandon. But there was no way his run could catch up to Anne, especially being so far behind, and especially because Anne was running herself. He tried to reach her ...

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