A visitor before dawn

Fisi and Filtiarn were sleeping like logs tonight. The wind was blowing cold all around them and the night had brought snow instead of the rain that they all had been expecting. Many animals had passed through the Hollow, and a few had even stopped by to sniff the two sleeping individuals; moving on when they had figured out no one here was going to hurt them. The Hollow itself, which normally only had odd sounds filtering into it but not a lot of dangerous things wandering around because of the thorns, had started to take on a strange atmosphere lately. Predatory creatures could be seen sneaking about in the dark and Filtiarn secretly wished at times that his Herd was bigger than two members. Even though a Hyena and a Wolf would out class just about any small group of animals that wandered in, save for a bear or large cat, they would be no match for just one of the odd monsters that lurked in the shadows here now. Fisi lifted his head a few times to search the surrounding snow, which was becoming deeper with every blast of wind. Nothing seemed to be moving near them or even living for that matter; even the trees appeared dead in this land, though they could kill you in this state just as well as a normal tree.

Filtiarn opened his eyes to watch the Hyena but didn’t raise his head up. It was just not necessary at this moment for him to let snow build in the bare spot under his chin by lifting his head. This was a thought that never occurred to Fisi, who now looked puzzled at the sudden appearance of snow in his bed. “As if you expected anything less?” the wolf said with a chuckle. He had a smile dancing on his lips, but his eyes were daring the other animal to take the line as a simple joke. Fisi shrugged and brushed his nose over where the snow had gathered in his bed, pushing it away into the piles around them. When he had managed to get enough out of the area, he plopped his head down on top of the traces of snow and sighed. Filtiarn yawned until his tongue rolled out as he scanned the woods around his ‘base camp’. Fisi had asked questions about the smell that lingered near the dens, the smell of Fox which was unusually strong in their camp ground. It was a short story of the Fennic Fox whom Fisi had met only briefly the night before. She had stayed with them only for the night, moving on before dawn cracked like a whip. Fisi was a bit put off about the whole situation having been done so quietly that he didn’t know the Fox had stayed most of the night in their dens, but he saw the light after much talking of his past experiences with the female gender.

Satisfied that the trees were not hiding any true horrors this eve, the wolf tucked his nose under his forepaws and closed his eyes once more to sleep.