The invitation from Aeolus hadn't gone forgotten. Though Penny had intended to explore more- meet more wolves, maybe decide to join a pack based on her relationship with one of them, her intentions quickly changed when the weather began to worsen. Food was becoming more scarce and the wolf, who relied both on plants and animals for her diet, was finding it harder than ever to keep her stomach full. The plants she usually ate as a dietary supplement were of little use to her now, as they were either rotting or frozen beneath the ground and too hard to dig out. She fell to scavenging what she could and hunting small things, but even then her success was limited. She knew that if she wanted to survive the winter, she'd have to join a pack.

The only one she knew much about was Pitch Pine Trail- so she found her way back to the forest where she'd met Aeolus and tracked her way toward the borders, making sure to halt before getting too close. She could smell them, and where certain plants had been marked, and made sure to avoid going past those markings. She'd hoped to catch something to give as an offering, but she'd had two unsuccessful hunts and had only managed to scavenge a few bones from what she assumed was a kill made by a cougar. Fortunately, the felines didn't seem terribly interested in chewing through bones, so she'd been able to wrestle a thick femur from the skeleton which had once belonged to a moose. The meat and gristle had been stripped, likely by birds, but the bone itself was intact, and within it would be nutrient-filled marrow. For a lone wolf, it was a pretty good deal, and the most she could afford to offer without jeopardizing her health too much in the process. She hoped they'd understand.

The snow drifted down lazily onto her silver-speckled back as she waited, and she offered a small, polite howl- one which was low and quiet, hoping that someone would be in the area to hear it, rather than raising her voice to alert the whole pack. She wasn't a diva. Right now, she knew she had to be as humble as possible, and it wasn't something she did very well, not without being excitable and clumsy.