"Heh, my pack doesn't know I've left, and you and I are still on their territory. I can still fight, I haven't been blundering around, I've been resting. Taking you on would be easy," Zavi snarled contemptiously. "But lucky for you, I'm not looking for a fight. I need to get out of here," Zavi noted, glancing around.

"Just so you know, I'm the daughter of Pack Seven's alpha," Zavi called over her shoulder as she turned, heading back into the storm.

Zavi cursed, and turned around. Had she really expected the other wolf to follow her? She began to retrace her pawprints, which were already covered in a light dusting of snow. Reaching the clearing, Zavi stuck her nose in the snow, until she found one of Krael's tracks. She snorted slighty at the sight of it, but then she took another look. The track was beautifully shaped, she could tell how big the loner must be, because next to her print, the track looked huge.

Zavi sat and admired the print for a little while longer, before standing and following the path he'd took. After a few minutes' time of tracking, Zavi noticed the tracks were beginning to look staggered, as if the the other wolf was giving into exhaustion. For some reason, Zavi felt a slight tinge of worry for the loner.

She shook her head, Why should I be worried about him? Zavi growled to herself, before plodding on through the storm. He's a loner.

But so were you, when your mother was still alive, taunted the voice in the back of Zavi's head, that she hadn't heard in over a year.

"Go away, I don't need you!" Zavi muttered, the snow now coming down thicker than ever.

((It's fine, I just figured you were busy.))

The loner's scent was stronger now, Zavi could now pick up the trail on the pine boughs around her. After a short distance, the tracks seemed to end at the mouth of some sort of den. Zavi couldn't tell what animal it belonged to, but she had the distinct impression it was probably on old badger hole.

Shifting her weight onto her front paws, Zavi crept lightly forward, and sniffed the den entrance. Pulling back she rammed her ears forward, listening. She had discerned fom scent that the black wolf was in there, but how far back she wasn't sure. If he's even alive, Zavi thought grimly, remebering the staggered tracks.

But Zavi thought she could hear breathing from inside the badger set. Satisfied, she turned to observe the dark forest, she spotted some pine trees that had grown close enough together to form a little, sheltered space just beneath the lowest branches.

Perfect, Zavi thought, before padding over to the trees. Wriggling, she carefully worked her way under the prickly branches, until she could lie down on the soft bed of fallen pine needles.

Yawning, Zavi curled her tail over her hind feet, and rested her head on her heels. Tomorrow, she would continue north, and hopefully leave her former pack's territory. And just maybe, she might brave another meeting with the loner.

((Time skip?))

((Okay, if your busy, please don't feel like you have to post, I don't mind waiting at all.))

At first Zavi thought she was dreaming, but then she realized the wolf howling from what seemed to be a great distance away, was not just a figment of her imagination. What was worse, she recognized it. Damn, Duna certainly didn't waste any time, Zavi thought, her stomach dropping in her anxiety. If a pack wolf was missing for a minimum of twelve hours, they were to be considered a loner, unless found captured or otherwise in a similar situation, and loners on pack territory were supposed to be hunted down and killed. Zavi was way outside the twelve hour limit, and Duna had obviously picked up her trail.

Several answering howls followed the first. Zavi, now fully awake, took a few minutes to gather herself and take in her surroundings. There was a cold grey light shining through the pine branches, the light that procedes dawn and dusk. It had stopped snowing, and thankfully, the loner's tracks and Zavi's own had been covered.

The loner! He of course, wouldn't understand what the howls meant, and might head towards them, as Zavi assumed, he had been doing before. She had two options, flee for her life emediately, or stay and wake the loner, with the hope he didn't bite her head off, and was strong enough to travel. She settled on the latter.

Groaning slightly, her sore muscles screaming in protest, Zavi slipped carefully fom under the pine boughs, and began to pick her way over to the old badger set. She sucked in her breath, and ducked inside.

((Heehee, I think he'll have to do something now.))

Zavi was regarding the black wolf with mild amusement. She had watched him twitch and whimper in his sleep until she'd prodded him cautiously with her paw. Whatever he'd been dreaming about, it hardly looked like he'd been having a good time. Between his startled reply and the way his silver eyes seemed to hold an almost guilty light, she figured his cool composure wasn't much more than a mask he was wearing over his true emotions.

But she was wasting time, Duna and her hunting party would be fully rested, and with a trail to follow, it wouldn't take them long to stumble across this place.

"Look," Zavi snapped coldly. "I don't think you heard those howls a few moments ago, because you were sleeping, but they're a hunting party, they'll be looking for me, and if they find you, they'll tear you to shreds," she said briskly. "I know you're probably still tired, but if you value your life, you've got to move," Zavi murmured gently.

Then Zavi did something that surprised even herself, she reached out slowly with her muzzle, and licked the black wolf's ear. She drew back quickly, but added: "We'll be safer if we stick together, but it's your call."

Without a backwards glance, Zavi backed out of the den. She shook herself and gave her soulder a couple quick licks. She wasn't sure why she'd reached out to the loner, but she just couldn't push away her curiosity about the black wolf. Who is he?

Zavi turned and blinked at the loner in surprise, she hadn't really expected him to follow her. "Well surprise, surprise," she murmured, giving him a long, searching look. "You coming?"

Taking in the ex
pression on his face she added, "really now, what reason would I have to hurt you? I'm the one being hunted!" There was a touch of a snarl in Zavi's voice, and her eyes were cold as she spoke, as if daring the loner to question her. "I'm assuming you haven't been living in Pack Seven's territory, I know loners live higher up the in the moutains.... Is it safe to hide there?" Zavi asked, with a note of pleaing in her voice. Another, much closer howl had just split the silence between the two wolves.

Zavi glanced around, and whimpered. The third howl, to her, had been like a death sentence. Abandoning all hope of working out a plan with the wolf in front of her, she turned tail and bolted in the trees behind her. She had one thought in her head: I've got to get out of here!

((Oh wow, fail on my part XD))

(('Tis fine.))

Zavi slowed her pace, panting and shaking from fear and exhaustion. She hadn't been asleep very long, and she was still quite tired. She looked at the loner, and decided right then and there that she would push away any doubts she had, and listen to him. "Alright then. My name is Zavi. If you can get us the heck out of here alive, then maybe I'll reconsider my thoughts about you," Zavi dipped her head, flicking an ear nervously. She still wasn't sure how she really felt about the loner.

Looking around, Zavi could tell the sun was well on its way up. With a slight pang of guilt and embarrassment, she realized that as she'd been running, she'd been going in the opposite direction of the mountains. She shrugged off these thoughts however, she needed to work with Krael if the outcome of this was going to come off in their favor.

"So, I guess you'd better lead the way then," Zavi sighed, a hint of a growl in her voice. She hated when others had to lead her around, it made her feel helpless.

((Fail post xD))