The days had been getting longer and longer with each one that passed, winter was not here yet but already there was a breeze so cold that it cut to the very roots of one's fur. Between the soft underlay and the skin it would rest, taking a while to get warmer. Sam had been used to wandering, it had always been how he had worked and how he would work till the day he died. He hated packs, so much politics, so many toes to step on and normally the leaders did not take kindly to his... interesting behavour.... we'll leave it at that really. Today was much the same as it had been almost this very same day when all he had worked towards fell apart. Right before his very brilliant green eyes. As if ripped out from under his mismatched paws. He stands at the edge of one of the many cracks that had formed into caves the day the earth shook, looking back on the past few seasons he had been alone.
Yes, it had been like any other fall day that day, he had gone out hunting for them with a fierce hunger in his belly he'd been able to nab quiet a few hares and had started back to their den. Yes, he had been a one woman man back then, so it had only been her that he had eyes for. The trek hadn't been that long in the first place and he made good time on the way back home, paws had dug into the wet landscape as he'd come around the corner of a rock face and let the hares drop to the ground outside the den. His nose had taken in a deep whiff of air and found only staleness to it. Surprising how fast a scent fades once it no longer resides, eh? he'd poked his large head in and found the den empty. Not a single trace of her besides a small patch of fur towards the back of the den.
He had never claimed to 'own' her in any shape or form, but it had been a silent mutual agreement so to speak that she would be there, waiting for him. And now she was gone. He'd busied himself with cleaning up the hares thinking that maybe she'd gone out for a bit and was coming back later, but later came and went, a few more days came and went, the ground turned cold and frost began to form. He'd gone out searching nearly every day. Trying to find even a small scrap of her scent some where. Anywhere. But to no avail he found nothing. Not a thing. And so he'd given up, that small part of him that had remained loyal to her snapped and soon he'd gone on a binge of sorts.