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Naia could have sworn it was a beautiful sunny morning when she entered the woods, but a few hours’ travel into the forest of twisted, malnourished pine trees had extinguished every trace of the dawn’s previous brilliance. The slight female picked her way carefully through the thick underbrush, her progress slow because there was no real path that she could discern that would take her in the correct direction. When I get home, I’ll ask my new family to show me the path they take, the tawny wolf thought to herself, and the reminder that this was the only time she would have to bushwhack like this cheered her up somewhat. She inhaled deeply, trying once more to capture a trace of the smell she had committed to memory several weeks ago: the scent of her new leader, Shade. She had no way of knowing for certain that this was the fen Shade had spoken of when describing her new pack’s territory, but there was some sort of innate sense that pushed her forward. In her gut she could feel that her family was close, even though she couldn’t see or smell any other living thing around.
Quite suddenly Naia stumbled into an opening in the trees; a small meadow where a few rays of light had managed to fight their way to the forest floor. The small wolf sighed happily and stepped out into the bright clearing, simultaneously shaking the dried leaves and thorns from her pelt. Immediately the scent of pack wolves flooded her senses, and weaved into the essence was a faint tendril of the scent she was searching for: that of Shade Slayer. I’ve found my family, the young wolf thought, relief rolling over her all the way down to her paws. The meadow she was standing in appeared to be some sort of rendezvous point for the pack wolves, or at the very least it had to be part of a routine border patrol. Naia began sniffing around, searching for the path that might lead her toward her new den and of course, her new family.