<3 ^^
Cold aggravated his joints. Last year's winter had been difficult more due to the changes in his life: the bear attack on Iskata had happened sometime around then as well as his sudden promotion to subleader and surge of responsibilities. Iskata's death had happened soon after, sometime in January, and he'd taken over the pack from Deuce on a day's notice in February. Clearly, Jefferson's handicap had slowed him down a little, but the ache in the joints of his bad leg was primarily overlooked and ignored throughout those few months due to the business he'd been dealing with. The entire winter season was hardly more than a moving, one-thing-after-another blur that had blown by and quickly introduced a slightly calmer spring. It was all well and good: Jefferson hated winter either way.
Moving about four-legged in cold weather was hard enough with that constant ache, but trudging through snow made the experience worse. He could barely place his leg to the ground without hissing in pain, and pushing through the snow as such was laborious. The cyclops could have shifted to make things easier -- and usually, he did -- but the shift from three legs to two was especially difficult in the cold for him, not to mention incredibly painful for his leg with its already doubled ache. There were days were he could not bear to go back and forth, and apparently that was one of those days; he moved along grumpily, working his way along the borders. He collapsed more than once and had to take several breaks, but was getting it done. The drifting scent of Geneva, who had recently passed and was not far off-territory, however, distracted the reluctant lover; the cyclops quickly changed route and followed it, only to find her barely a walk away.
"You don't wander off packlands very often," he said in his approach, trying to hide the wince of his eye and make his limp typical, but the pain of the regular pressure was easily driving him berserk. "If you were trying to get away from me, you'll need more effort than that." Strange, since Jefferson had been the one running away from her, originally. "Something wrong?"
