The lone female moved through the snowy scape, pausing every once in a while to study the scents on the shifting air. She thought she'd caught the scent of a deer, just for a moment, on the fleeting breeze. It had spurned her to keep moving, even as the sun sank low behind the clouds that gathered on the horizon. The temperature was dropping, and common sense told her it would be a good time to find a nice place to hole up and stay warm.

The drive to eat, though, was stronger, and so Nayeli trecked onward, toward the foreboding woodland. The wind ran icy, skeletal fingers through her pelt once more, hissing gently over the heaps and mounds of snow. Something about the place put Nayeli off, and it was hard to keep her hackles from rising on her back. Her pace picked up, and her silver gaze began to flicker nervously from side to side as she trotted along, one ear tipped back in worry.

She had waded deep into the shadowy forest when she heard it - a low, brittle, rattling howl on the wind. Nayeli knew the wind could make strange sounds, but this was too much. I don't think I'm that hungry after all, she thought. Cursing herself under her breath for being so foolish, she turned heel and began to lope out of the woods, casting a glance backwards every few meters. The shadows seemed to dance around her, stretching from the depths of the woods hungirly. It seemed like it was taking much longer to get out of these trees than it should have, but that was probably just her nerves getting to her. When a screech owl called out in the trees directly overhead, her fur stood on end. She tried to smooth it and her nerves with a light laugh as she trotted along. What was it about this evening, this place, that was so unsettling?

A new sound rang out, and she halted suddenly, panting plumes of steam into the evening air. Was that a voice? She couldn't be sure. Her head panned around, senses alert, but to no avail. She couldn't even be certain what direction it had come from, although she had a sickening feeling that it had come from ahead of her, directly between herself and outside. Shaking off the chills that climbed her spine (they were not just due to the weather), she started off again. Hearing voices, she told herself, was probably not a good sign. She just needed to get somewhere warm, get her head straight... there was nothing out here that was different than any other woodland. With a cautious pace, she continued on.

Before she knew it, she had come upon a form in the swirling, shadowed snow. Blinking, Nayeli froze, trying to see the other wolf who had loomed so suddenly out of the snow. Her nose tipped into the air and her ears snapped forward, and her voice called out hesitantly "Hello? ...who's there?" she tried to sound casual and not nervous, but it was hard to keep the spectre of the strange forest from making her voice waver. To counteract this she flicked her tail as she took in the stranger. "Are you okay?" she asked. This time the concern in her voice was for the male. He didn't look well....