WC:440 // <333
Colibri padded lightly along the dirt path, following the winding trails as she had all morning. She needed something to distract her; she could not stop obsessing over her chance meeting with Alder, over Crimson Dreams, over the reason she kept lingering in this area. The springtime sunshine was warm on her back and shoulders, gleaming on the tiny braids she had woven into her chocolate-brown mane. She ignored the warmth, though, flicking her tail stump in irritation. Think about something else, anything else. There were old structures in this area, crumbling foundations and the dilapidated remains of abandoned houses. Not all of the old human settlements had been adopted by the werewolves, and this was what happened to the ones nature claimed. She let her ice blue eyes wander, noticing the tiny movements of mice and voles darting from the stones. She might have distracted herself by pouncing on a few, but she did not have the patience right now.
Sighing, the lean female turned her back on the rodents, moving her attention instead to the nearby lake. The placid surface glittered with the sun's reflection, sparkling on the horizon as she approached. She stubbornly pushed aside the memories of Rabbit Lake, refusing to dwell on the turbulent emotions she thought she had stifled years ago. She was hardly a lovesick little girl any more; Colibri was a bitter husk of an adult, too far gone for anyone to save. She should just claim a den somewhere, and remain a loner forever. A hermit, even. No one would know she returned, or who she was, and she would just stay alone until she died. That sounded suitable for someone like her.
Grimacing at her own defeatist attitude, Coli shut her eyes, inhaling deeply. It was an effective tactic for calming herself, whenever her many anxieties threatened to consume her. The scents filtered in a rush, the aromatic grass, water reeds, flowers of early spring like the daffodil... She turned to exhale, facing the other direction. Now the scents were of the musty wooden boards, the mossy stone foundations, the scurrying rodents, and the exposed dirt. Her eyes fluttered open again as she caught a faint scent of something else on the air... another wolf. Not being a tracker, Coli was unsure if the scent trail was old, or if there really was another wolf out here exploring the ghost town and the lakes. It warranted a closer look, since she was too edgy to ignore the possible threat. Steeling her nerves, the chocolate-and-cream furred Luperci moved quietly toward the derelict shacks, ears swiveling cautiously for the faintest of sounds.
