wide awake in bed words in my brain
secretly you love this, do you even wanna go free?
The snow had begun in earnest in the early hours of the morning and as the day had progressed so had the snow. Twilight had begun to settle on the fields and Aithne was no closer to finding her goal than she had been to begin with, her ears settled back and a furious press to her large paws in the snow the only outward sign of her displeasure. It was unlikely she would sleep this night for her blood ran hot and she had yet to head back to her kingdom or the comfort of her well-worn den. Besides, the thickness of her winter coat and the muscles and fat that clung to her kept her quite warm. Still it fell and landed across the coarse blackness of her fur, coating it until the shifting of her body would rumbled it loose and it would cascade down her side and into the thick snow drifts that already consumed the land. This winter would be harsh as a loner as the prey would be much harder to find, already having moved elsewhere for sustenance. Iromar was well kept, the warmth lingering in the marshland so taht even when it snowed it only stuck in some places. Winter was much easier there and so she did not struggle like some.
The crack of a branch catches her attention and she pauses in her walk across the deserted meadow, ears flicking forward as her deep emerald eyes looking off towards the border of Diveen to watch the branch fall beneath the weight of a snowflake. Strange how such a light, insubstantial thing could make even an old and strong branch crack beneath it. Almost signifying, she thinks with a sort of inward grunt at the irony, shoving it away to begin her walk once more. Aithne moves with her head low between her forelegs and huffs of steam escaping her maw, angling herself to mvoe up a small hillock so that she can spy the world in white all around her. Trees near Diveen and Glorall and the frozen bed of the lake in the distance.
It is quiet, the only noise the soft fall of the snowflakes around her, and she cannot abide the silence any longer. She lifts her maw so that a loud howl echoes across the land, a searching howl to see if life still existed, wondering also if Raven might hear her call. It is not beautiful, not like some, but it gets the point across and she does it twice more before falling silent, a watcher over this winter land.