Clouds stretched across the sky, hiding blue behind a mask of gray. Beppe had found a strange pathway, one that wound itself through the forest like a serpent lost on land, and he followed it. The snow had barely fallen down to the narrow path, lighting instead on the tips of the trees, but the snowflakes that were fortunate enough to make it down to earth were preserved by what seemed to be permanent shade. The stocky male left deep footprints in the icy snow as he walked, his eyes fixed on the space carved in front of him. He had no clue what was going to appear ahead, if anything. Perhaps the path merely carried through until it reached the other side of the woods, dumping him out on plains that were almost exactly the same as what he had been on before he entered the forest. Though he was anticipating something different, even common land would be okay. The adventure was in the journey itself, and it had been a long time since the wolf had followed a path without knowing where it led, at the complete mercy of whatever creatures had created it.
His anticipation was justified when the woods seemed to thin out, a little copse opening up in front of him. There were little houses with odd red rooves, constructed with brick in a style that Beppe hadn't seen before, though they were reminiscent of some structures he had seen when in Europe. The solitude of the place was almost unnerving, and the wolf wondered if the ghosts of its old inhabitants still roamed about, and if their bones were still in the bedrooms they died in. Thinking of it gave him chills, the type that was more than just that of a nippy day. The feeling seemed to leak into his bones and move through his veins, but he savoured it. Someone else's misery was much sweeter than his own, though he drank both readily.
He did not move far as he observed the strange village, taking only a few staggering steps forward. The canopy of clouds lit everything evenly, and the old structures seemed to glow with a ghostly light. Beppe would investigate in a moment, but for now he had to take in the big picture, press the image into his mind as if to make the first impression outlast anything else he would ever see.