Her day started the same as any other. It was still dark when her gold eyes blinked open, dawn would not come for another hour. With each passing day the sun took longer and longer to rise into the sky. It was tempting to curl up and wait for the sun, but she pulled herself from the den. The sun was also setting earlier and she could not waste the daylight. Outside of the den her breath billowed white in the cold air. Her steps were quiet, the way so memorized that the dark was not a hindrance. In the graying gloom she checked in on her pack mates. Pausing just long to see each sleeping soundly before continuing.
The thicket was heavy and quiet, so she headed to the border. By now the sun was beginning to creep over the distant mountains. Weak rays of light stretched across the ground as the hunter set her nose to work. She sifted through the scents the night had left behind, going through the cacophony of sweetly-decaying leaves and rich earth to pull out a single instance of rabbit. It was the same every day. The silence was a habit, the pale wolf traveled along with nose fixed to the trail and eyes trained out the undergrowth. A large smear of blood laid over the leaves and when her nose came up to it she hesitated. Iopah was a practiced hunter, she knew how much blood-loss was too much for most animals. The trail continued, now spattered with blood, so she continued.
The sight that greeted her was like no other. There was her rabbit, awkwardly shoved in a gap between two large rocks. Under it lay an assortment of similarly bent animals. Her eyes widened and she glanced around, sure to find something watching protectively. Nothing shifted, no eyes stared back at her. Delighted now, she poked her muzzle into the unguarded cache. If it wasn't for the glassy-eyed fox wedged inside she would have assumed it was a fox cache. She set about pulling the pile apart, much like a child pulling everything out of a toy chest.
Once it had been up-ended, she went back over everything. Soon four squirrels, three rabbits, a pair of robins, and the single fox were spread out around her. Her lips curved into a smile. She laughed aloud, a sudden happy sound in all the silence. It was all hers now. The rabbit was still warm and greedily she pulled it to her. She was going to have an early breakfast this morning.