Eyes the colour of dark honey squinted, squeezing shut firmly against the drastic change of lighting— a sudden flash, as if having fallen through worlds in a dream-like way. As the breaths calmed in his lungs, flanks falling gently now beneath monochrome furs, Roryn stifled a breath and peeled open his eyes, digesting the scenery like a wild beast. Uncertain, almost fearful, dark woodlands loomed overhead, the ground splayed with thick trunks and gnarled roots.

A serene, chilling silence encapsulated the forest save for the odd croak of a toad or the chirps of insects, a warm breeze swaying the foliage. Thick canopies of summer leaves packed the sky, blanketing the twilight forest in near-darkness.

Somewhere between the gawking and a stumbling of limbs, Roryn clambered to his paws with a rough shake of his frame. A plethora of new scents danced in his nostrils, those of prey, predator, and wolf.

“Well shit.” He huffed, muted golden eyes flickering left to right. What was he to do now? Stumble around like a drunken idiot? Something had plucked him from his sorry life, tossing him into the unknown like a pitiful scrap. Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. Grumbling, broad paws drifted aimlessly as the male picked his way through the forest, his strides slow and sluggish, a sleepy ache gnawing at his bones.

The faintest sound of crunching snow had his ears swivelled upright, muted honey eyes squinting as a figure of amber furs parted the white forest, like a fire within a blizzard she strode toward him, its eyes a beaming golden in the twilight. A sudden rigidity steadied his wavering form, brutish paws pressing firmly into the earth, perhaps in reassurance. It speaks with a disinterested yet gentle tone, addressing him just as suddenly as she’d appeared.

Roryn held his tongue, watching the rise and fall of her flanks, warm breath blowing from ebony lips. ”Ill?” He snorted, muzzle creasing with a twitch of a nose. “Never felt better.” The male chuckles through a tensed jaw, feigning a polite, practiced grin.

No, I feel as if I’ve been buried for centuries. Roryn winced, a creak of branches leaving him unsettled. Whatever might he had possessed in his previous life had retreated, replaced by a facade and aching bones. “Do all wolves around here fancy walking around at night, or is it just you and I?” He tested, watching the way her expression shifted with each breath. Calculating, preparing, should it decide to chew his ears off.