Drooping Willows Not a creature was stirring

For @Enoki
RE: Mordacai, you cannot see more than a few feet in front of you because of the fog

Freezing Fog
2° F/-16° C
12/20/14 9:00 pm

Mordacai had decided to take stroll around the borders tonight, a task he would have to take responsibility for everyday once he was given the title of Guardian. Well, practice makes perfect, the swarthy male had thought to himself before leaving his den. Well tonight was certainly good practice. He had finished about half of his route when a freezing fog set in, making him shiver despite his long, thick coat. The cold was uncomfortable, but nothing the Ashrelle prince couldn't handle. The eerie silence of the forest was something else altogether.

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. Everything was tucked cozily away in their dens, avoiding the freezing fog. As if the silence alone wasn't off putting enough, the fog made it impossible to see more than a few feet in front of him. With the low hanging branches of the willow trees, and the song wispy leaves that brushed the ground, Cai kept running into walls of leafy drapes that set his guard hairs on edge as the leaves pulled through his fur.

Cai wasn't one to scare easy, but he had to admit that tonight he was definitely on edge, ready to attack the first thing that made noise. At this point he was itching to sink his teeth into something, to feel the thrill of the kill. And to feel like he wasn't as much of a screw up as Sorya had made him feel like on their first day of training. He respected his mentor, but she could be a bit of a hard ass. Of course, it was that kind of attitude that would help Cai reach his true potential, so he didn't want to spend too much time whining about it. Instead, he focused on keeping all of his senses on hyper alert s he meandered trough the fog, tracing the border.

Unable to find rest that night, Enoki sighed as her slender frame squeezed past the entrance to her den that nestled at the base of the largest willow in the forest, breaking through the curtain of drooping leaves that helped conceal her personal abode. With the constant drop of the temperature at night the Ashrelle woman found it harder to find a good nights sleep when her body was constantly racked with shivers as Jack Frost ran his icy fingers through her fur, chilling her to the bone. Of course she knew she could seek the warmth of the main den site, but recently she had begun to recede to her old ways. The lone wolf within was making its appearance this winter as she stuck close to her personal den and often waited for others to seek her out rather than the other way around. Though nobody as of late sought after the piebald woman which in turn left the woman to muse herself with little day to day chores such as keeping her den clean, scouting the boarders for trouble and filling the caches with snowshoe hares that darted across her path.

Tonight though she opted to just peruse the territory with hopes that a little exercise may help her to eventually fall asleep the remainder of the night. Upon leaving her den though, a freezing fog that kept her from seeing more than a few feet ahead of her and an eerie silence greeted her, forcing a shiver to travel down the length of her spine to the tip of her tail. This would be an interesting night to say the least she thought as her amber eyes squinted to gain a better visual of her already distorted surroundings, her paws dragging her at a casual pace along the eastern boarder. She wondered if anyone else was awake at this hour and had found themselves engulfed by the thick layer of fog, imagining one of her pack mates helplessly walking in circles around the same tree trunk. Lowering her head to the ground she scented at the white powder that covered the ground, shoveling it with her snout to try and pick up the scent of something, anything, but found the effort useless as the watery substance erased the trail of anything that lay beneath it. Not even a paw print could be seen thanks to the frozen water crystals suspended above the ground, causing a slightly defeated sigh to pass her lips and break the silence. Well, that meant hunting was out of the question tonight.

@Enoki

The fog was only getting worse as Cai continued his patrol. At this point he wasn't even sure if he was following the edge of the border anymore. For all he knew he could be walking around in circles! Cai let out a frustrated growl that broke the eerie silence and almost seemed to echo through the unusually still forest. Well if anyone was trying to cross his borders he had certainly made his presence known now. Cai might have been worried about how starkly his black fur would stand out against the snow but there was no way anyone would see him until they were within reach of his jaws. No one would be able to surprise attack him anymore than he could surprise attack them.

Or so he thought...

Cai had continued trotting through the snow and fog, letting his amber eyes drift from right to left so that he could try and make sense of his surroundings. Unfortunately, his amber gaze was trained on the willow trunk on his left when he passed by something on his right that made his guard hairs jump to attention. As he passed he had felt hair brush against his own. Not willow leaves or branches but actual hair. Wolf hair. How had someone managed to sneak up on him like that? He was a miserable Guardian if he let someone get that close to him! Cai was on edge tonight and had the mentality of attack first, ask questions later. Without hesitation the swarthy male turned and barreled into the wolf to his right in an attempt to pin him/her to the ground. A low warning growl passed through his maw.

That was when she felt it. The eerie brush of fur on fur as she made her way through the thick cloak of fog that hampered her ability to see what was around her and who it was that brushed up against her. It was the briefest of encounters, but enough to send a chill down the length of her spine, shaking her pelt in the process. Who had she managed to bump into this night with the weather so horrible bad? There was no time to even begin thinking of the names of fellow pack mates as a frenetic force barreled into her left shoulder sending her into a pile of legs and teeth onto the cold ground as the two siblings unknowingly tumbled down the small knolls of the forest, an equally frenetic noise mixed between a yelp and whimper from the surprise of this sudden attack. Instinct kicked into overdrive as her fight to survive took over all rational thinking and did the first thing that came to mind in protecting her life. She bit down with a mighty force on the first bit of fur she could get her jaws closed around and it just so happened to be her brother's rump, teeth barely penetrating the surface due to the momentum of their tumbling.

Once reaching the bottom of said knoll Enoki used her weight to roll onto her back, kicking her back legs at the mysterious attacker to give herself enough time to catch her stance. With her body right side up again her body went rigid with anticipation for another rush, the black lining of her lips pulled back to reveal the clinking of her ivory fangs clearly displeased with the sudden turn of events. "Who the hell are you?" She demanded with a voice as firm as an iron hammer, unable to see clearly the identity of her attacker. All she could see was the faint outline of a medium built wolf and the blurry dark coloration of their pelt. No thanks to the heavy fog she couldn't sample their scent from the air to figure out who this wolf was. There was no way to determine of this person was friend or foe.