Shiloh was exhausted. She slept in very late the morning after returning to the pack lands, and she woke yet-groggy and guilty as well. She didn’t remember where the impromptu idea for the trip had even come from, but in hindsight she saw that it’d taken her away from her pack as they launched into projects to clean up the lands after the hurricane. She didn’t want the others to think that she was too stuck-up to lend a hand, and that the whole business of the trading trip was an elaborate excuse not to be around, but she kept these worries private and tried to look at it from a different angle. She’d plenty of gifts for her pack mates, and there were a few new horses in the stables, too; some that might have training to pull larger branches from where they’d fallen about the territory.
She comforted herself with these thoughts, snuggled in her blankets, the tortoiseshell cat curled in a ball against her shoulder. She opened her eyes again and reached out to pet the feline’s dark mottled fur before looking at the sunlight streaming in through the windows. There was no putting it off any longer; she had to get up if she was going to be useful to Vinátta and make her rounds with the gifts.
A walk would do her some good, first, and maybe she could visit her gelding at the stables. She smiled at the thought and donned her woolen dress, the warmer in this chilly autumn weather, before opening the door. Muddy scampered out before her, tail high and bright yellow eyes already searching for smaller creatures to pounce on. Shiloh shut her door gently and looked at the lovely versicolor crown of leaves of the tree closest to her home. It was a pity that they’d lose their vibrant mantles soon, though many had already been stripped bare and knocked down with the storm.
The white she-wolf walked at a leisurely pace along the trails, letting her mind grow blank as she enjoyed the scenery and pushed aside her worries. Over the sounds of the winter birds and the wind, though, was the dull thunk of an axe hitting a tree. Milk ears stirred in honey hair, and she quickened her pace slightly, curious to know where the sound was coming from.
She got her answer soon enough. A rich redwood-colored Luperci was pulling at a dead tree, his axe on the ground nearby. A sudden smile flickered across her features, and she wordlessly stepped forward, getting a hold on a branch stub and lending her strength to push the tree off the path, playfully silent and refusing to meet his eyes.
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