Almera

The dark femora padded into the terra, her black fur rippling with a mixture of wind and movement. Her mouth was closed, her nose exhaling chilled breath. Her piercing green eyes overlooked the area, searching for a sign of small prey in which to satisfy her acute hunger. It was in her nature not to worry over a meal unless dangerously close to exhaustion. For a wolf of her age, her stamina was extraordinarly high.

*Possible Prey*

The wind carries the scent of many things. One was the overpower stentch of the musk oxen; so aply named. But if their trail is followed, it will lead to a formidible group of seven creatures. One would offer plenty of food, but it would take the skill and determination of a pack to bring one down.

Perhaps a more welcoming ordor is that of a group of rabbits. They are arctic hare, and not too far; if you follow their scent, you will find three of them rolling about and sparring on the top of a high esker.

A ground squirrel colony is a few hundered yards away on a more level patch of land. Their high-pitched chirps and whistles give away their location.

And last but not least, there is the pungent wiff of bear and some old carcass. That is half a mile away near a large stream; it's impossible to tell if the bear is at the carcass or his scent is just lingering.

Almera

The femme looks in the direction of the rabbits, her ears perked forward with interest. Although masculine and aged with wisdom, she knew better than to attack prey larger than herself. Squirrels were more a nuisance to her than anything, and so she crept forward, following the scent of the tasty rabbit colony.

*Arctic Hare*

Two were rolling about on the cold, dry earth and sending up clouds of dust. A third stood as temporary sentry. Suddenly, the sentry reared up on his hind limbs and stood very tall. The other two rabbits did the same, looking up into the sky.

There was a hawk drawing closer, watching the rabbits intently. But the rabbits stood and flashed the white coats at him. It was a unique method developed by the cold-land rabbits to show predatory birds that they've been spotted and couldn't hope to catch the rabbits now.

For the moment, their attention was drawn from the hungry wolf.

Almera

She noticed the lapse in attention and crouched, preparing for attack. Darting as fast as she could of acutely brittle feet, she leapt for the closest hare, her maw open to grab it round the neck.

*Arctic Hare*

One rabbit noticed the approaching wolf and thumped its large foot agains the ground in warning. Against wolves, they only tactic was to run! But the warning hadn't been given quick enough to Almera's target. As he turned to spring away, her jaws clamped about her target, quickly killing the creature.

The others began to run swiftly away.

Almera

She glanced at the others running away, keeping her maw clamped down on the rabbit, making sure his death was complete. Fearing not the little rabbits, she ignored them and let them go, the one would satisfy her hunger for a while-long enough to regain some strength in the winter. She laid down, placing her paws over the body of the deceased rabbit and began her carniverous ingestion.