I will love forever

tae The black wolf trotted through the snow. The fields appeared barren, and were it not for the tracks that broke the snowy-white surface, the wolf-girl might have thought that she was utterly alone in this world. She would have preferred it if she was. Nose to the ground, Tae followed the scent of something. It smelled big and meaty and like it possessed bones large enough to suit the collection that she had started as a girl. Though her twin was not with her, Tae was not particularly worried or fearful. She was an accomplished hunter on her own, and the body of whatever it was she was hunting would make a fine gift for her twin. And so, in the moonlight like a slip of darkness made into flesh, the wolf prowled, and scented, and hunted.

Usually the leggy white fox hunted the woodlands when he needed a late dinner to fill his belly. He did so less often now that Vervain served him food at the Rathskeller, but he'd grown oddly accustomed to keeping his animal senses keen and instincts sharp since arriving on Caido, and he didn't want to let all that practice go to waste.

Besides, there was a special kind of hunting to do in the wintertime, in flat, open areas. The kind that foxes excelled at, which took quite a lot of practice... and which was, unfortunately, far from dignified. Two mice had already escaped him, but this time as he crouched, ears perked forward to follow the squeaking beneath the snow, Jigano thought he had his aim down perfectly. He waited for his moment, motionless and nearly quivering with excitement.

Wait for it...

Wait for it...

Softly, quietly, the snow crunched a little ways away. The fox was already still but now he froze, nose working to catch what the breeze could blow, and ears tilting slowly, slowly, to catch the sound again.

Paws, larger than a fox's dainty feet, moved over the top of the crust. A dark form paced in the night, undeniably canine - wolf, the scent read - but alone. Strain his senses though he might, Jigano could find no sign of the rest of a pack. A lone wolf then, but... one so large?

Once it was safely past the little fox he rose, little by little, to watch where it tread. He hadn't gone far enough to see the tracks before, but when he went to sniff the wolf's trail he found them. They were... strange. Unfamiliar.

A mystery.

Whiskers quivering, contemplating the wisdom of his choice, he eventually erred on the side of curiosity. Moving low to the ground, as silently and smoothly as he knew how, the little fox followed in the wolf's wake, far enough back to hopefully not be spotted as he tried to figure out what she was hunting.

random event The wolf was hunting? No. She was being lured. It waited, drifting lazily beneath the snow, caring not for the cold, not for the wind or the night. If the wolf was bold and sharp of eye, she would notice, perhaps, how the snow twitched and moved every now and then. As if something was buried deep beneath it, and just now drew close to the surface. She was close and it knew, feeling the thrum and pad of her paws. Another set of paws had its world vibrating a short distance away, but it had already decided on the wolf for its meal. Finally - finally - her paws stepped upon it. The snow parted in a rough circle around her - a circle bigger, bigger than Tae by a large margin. The circle lurched up, lifting her with it, before starting to close. Jaws. They snapped shut, wolf and all, before the Land Shark plunged deep, deep underground once more to slumber. Delicious.

tae The girl was not alone, but she did not care. The wind whipped any number of smells her way, but she had only eyes and a nose for that which smelled big and meaty and full of the type of bones that would bring her twin great joy. The type of bones they once used to make a cart, and to build an effigy to Gaucho, her father. Nose to the ground, Tae raised a cautious paw, still and smelling. Quickly, like water being thrust at her, the scent of the creature engulfed her in a way that made her head snap up sharply as she looked about. But there was only the desolate stillness and the silence of snowfall— —the earth erupted around her, and before the wolf might have done anything about it, she was lifted into the air, and then pulled down into an eternity of blackness. Her last thought, in a language so few knew anymore, was Anha zhorre lei yer seestra. And then for the second time in her life, Tae died.

He kept his distance, curious but wary, and well aware of their difference in size and strength. Camouflage was his best defense, and the wolf's preoccupation with her prey... whatever that prey was. Something far too big for a fox to consider hunting, which made it all the more curious. So many creatures inside the confines of the barrier were stunted, lessened by the bubble's limits and shortages. Jigano couldn't help but want to know what had made the tracks the wolf followed, what it looked like, how it survived. Was it another seasonal oddity, like the gourds and luxere?

Or was it--

There was no sound, not at first. Only movement, white in the darkness as snow flew upwards, and then--

Teeth

The fox froze, crouching still and not even daring to breathe as the wolf was not so much devoured as swallowed whole, all her strength and fierceness come to naught against the great beast that parted the earth like water, burying itself once more beneath the snow and dirt and stones.

The fox waited seconds and then minutes, and then he ran, low and sleek and in utter panic. Across the snow, paws barely touching, away from the fields and into the forest, dodging trees and bushes and luxere he ran, seeking, in his heart, the only safety and comfort he knew in Caido, the fox's only friend.

For the night was long and cold and dark. And they were not alone in it.