Emma felt lost. She walked aimlessly through the woods, keeping within hearing distance of a nearby river, just East of where she strolled. Emma wasn't normally alone or away from other members of her pack but today was a special day, at least to her. Never knowing what her actual birthday was, Emma decided that the shortest day of the year would be her birthday. So each year, on the shortest day, she would take a solitary trek to the site where her pack found her.
As she exhaled softly, her breath swirled like smoke in the air. Emma didn't like being alone, it made her hair stand on end and made her very nervous, but she knew that if she was near the river she'd be safe. The nearby creek babbled as it ran swiftly across protruding rocks, crashing against the stones into a watery spray, flooding the river's fresh scent for nearly 200 yards around. Even in her human form, Emma could smell the clean water and it brought her mild comfort.
After about an hour of walking, Emma came across the ruins of four over-turned caravan wagons. Years of seclusion caused the caravan to decay and dissolve until all that remained were the frames of the wagons and the abandoned corpses of 7 humans and 6 horses. Picked clean by birds and small animals, all that was left of the corpses were torn and deteriorated clothing and the skeletons inside them. Emma had been coming to this place every year since she was 6, having been shown the location by her Luna. This was the place that nearly a decade earlier that Cosmic Warrior pack came across, accidentally finding the sole survivor of this caravan massacre, Emma, wrapped in a bear pelt and hidden inside a large empty wine cask. One of the wolves bumped into the cask, knocking it to the gound and broken it open. Emma lied there on the broken ceramic pieces, sleeping silently. The strong smell of alcohol from the cask covered Emma's scent enough that if she was not found as serendipitously as she was, she would have died.
Emma knelt down in light snow, sitting in the middle of the caravan graveyard. She was sad in the fact that she felt no connection to this place; while this was probably the resting place of her birth parents, she could not find emotions or memories to make her
care. This place was the one real connection she had to humanity, which made it feel even more empty. A single soft tear ran down Emma's left cheek, as she looked at the decaying remains of what kind of life she could have, or should have, had. Emma stood up slowly, dusting the snow off of her knees and coat. "Goodbye Dead People. I'll see you next year..."
Not wanting to be there any longer, she decided to run back to her pack. She began to sprint away from caravan graveyard in her human form. Dipping and ducking past trees and branches, her tiny human body able to almost slither through the woods. Refusing to look back she continued to sprint and sprint, running as fast as her human legs could carry her. Then with a strong leap, Emma sprung into her wolf form, continuing her gallop at great speed.
As she neared her pack, the fresh scent of blood caught her attention. Blood was a common smell, especially in the woods, but this was different. It was the scent of her Luna's blood! Like a rabbit with it's tail on fire, Emma bolted back to her pack, so quickly she ran that she almost left no tracks in the snow. Emma skidded to a stop at the infirmary door way, whining nervously as she stepped inside. Seeing that her Alpha was there eased her nerves slightly, but she still whined quietly as she sat at the edge of the bed.
