Asteraia had become a winter wonderland. The snow blanketing the landscape sparkled brilliantly in the afternoon sunlight. The glare from the bright light caused Nakato to squint as she walked through the heavy snow, her daughter, Jakuta, at her side. The white girl seemed to blend into the frozen world around her and only her icy stare gave away her presence… that and her constant talking. It was understandable really. The child was excited to be learning how to hunt for the first time and she wouldn’t stop talking about how she was going to play with the beast she caught.

The healer did not tell her child this, however. She wanted her daughter to learn on her own why they were not finding something to eat and sure enough, after an hour, the demi-goddess gazed up at her mother with a frustrated look upon her puppy-like face. “Momma, why aren’t we finding anything? You always bring home food for us and it doesn’t seem to take you this long.” The bob tailed wolf looked down at the child with wise eyes. “Why do you think, Jakuta?” The little girl scrunched her nose up in a very unladylike fashion. “Because they are afraid! They don’t want me to eat them so they run. But I will get them!” Nakato could not hold back her bark of laughter as she leaned down and gave her daughter a fond nuzzle. “You would be afraid too if a you were being hunted. But that’s just it. They know we are here and have time to run away before we can catch them. A hunter is silent and patient and thus far you have not been either.”

Before anything else could be said, an unfamiliar scent reached the healer’s nose and she raised a paw in a sign for Jakuta to stop. The look in her mother’s eyes stopped the pup from demanding what was going on. It only took a moment for Nakato to understand that Asteraia had been invaded by a loner. With hackeles raised, she looked down at the cub. “Go back to the den. Take Athena and hide in the back until I return. Now!” She spoke the last word more firmly, knowing her child would object. When she had left, the gray wolfess moved silently through the snow towards the area the scent was coming from. The closer she got, the more she realized that the boarders had not quite been breached but whoever it was had come close. The smell was strange and something the wolfess was not expecting. It was the scent of a child!

Before Nakato howled for help from her fellow pack mates, she followed the trail until she came upon an abandoned den. It wasn’t in the packland, but very nearly. Cocking her head to the side, the healer moved closer as she wondered who had lived here. “Hello? Is anyone in there?” she called.