The cloying scent of blood was closing in, though the summer’s fanciful breeze had carried the strongest notes of it away from her for some time. Caithe had laid head on paws to observe the carnage beyond with the detachment of one who had heavier matters upon her mind. She had not eaten for many, many days but at first approach the idea of making a kill and filling her hollow belly had been all but repugnant. Her last meal did not even live in her memory, something taken perhaps when she’d wandered the world in a stupor of grief. Now that great sadness was drying up, covering itself over with a fragile skin. There would be no healing, not really, not while something still festered beneath, but that was the way of these things.

Mother Nature would not have her starve herself, not matter what she was feeling. Caithe found she peering out toward the fray more intently her head raised now and black nose straining toward the smell of an easy meal. Forgetting any company she might have been keeping, the small sable woman rises and follows her muzzle down into the open where more wolves than she had ever encountered in her life set after their meals with enthusiasm. Caithe’s walk turned to a gentle lope and then an all-out sprint. The buck she ran down was larger than many of the wee bunnies the others were doing with. He had been poised in terror, staring at a nearby knot of wolves that were all but invisible to the prey-focused Caithe. Her jaws closed on the hare’s neck before he could even recognize her approach, and she felt a thrill as she pivoted and jerked the creature bodily from the ground. He kicked briefly, but it was over in seconds. Caithe was a lady; she did not play with her food.

When she stood upright, the hare hung from her mouth and with a guarded posture she cast her dark blue eyes around at the strangers all around. None of them meant anything to her, but some might be eager for an even easier meal than was already available. Deciding her best course of action was to make for higher ground, Caithe trotted east until she reached a little ridge from which she could observe the action while she dined. Without formality, she dropped the long-eared creature’s corpse onto the ground and fell after it. Realizing her own hunger, she found that the meal was gone soon after she’d started it. Her ravenous body called for more as she broke bones and plucked fur in order to reach every last morsel. It was not a glamorous task, but why waste what she had already caught?