For a moment, there was no sound in the forest. No sound provided by any living creature, at least. Only the rusting of the leaves in the faint eastern wind.

Then, out of nowhere, there was the sound of footsteps in the cold snow, a growl, and a scream, after which it was silent again.

One-eye carried the rabbit he'd caught in his mouth, blood dripping from his lips. He licked it enjoyably.

A half year had passed ever since One-eye had killed Norder, and, with that, accidentally orphaned Lynn. It hadn't exactly been a pleasant six months for him-- One-eye had gone into a deep depression.

Before he had killed her father, he'd lived his entire life holding onto one oath: Killing Lone Ones without family in order to protect his own from the Clan that had taken him prisoner and had forced him into becoming an assassin.

And, although he'd had nothing throughout the years, being feared by most for his ferociousness and ridiculed by the rest for his hump and deformed front paw, he'd had the thought that everything he was doing wasn't in vain: He was protecting his own family.

However, his entire world came crashing down when he realized that he killed a pup's father a half-year ago. He'd broken his precious oath, the only thing he'd clung onto for almost his entire, lonesome life. Everything was gone.

This realization had made his personality change dramatically for a while, yet still he'd taken the pup with him because he felt it was his responsibility. However, she being present didn't exactly help him: She was the daily reminder of what he had done.

This, together with his hysteria, had driven him into a deep depression. He hardly looked after the pup apart from feeding her, and talked as little to her as possible. When he did, he often screamed at her in frustration, and often sat alone outside the den, mumbling to himself. He continuously had nightmares and mostly just tried to distract himself by walking aimlessly and endlessly through the small territory he had. Still, this didn't really help his glumness; it just helped him pay a little less attention to it.

One-eye sighed and dropped the rabbit. The snow around the carcass instantly became crimson from the blood leaking out of its body.

The old wolf shook some snow out of his ruffled, pale winter coat. He panted and looked through the trees. He was near the edge of the forest, and, beyond those trees, he saw the meadows. In summer, these would usually be either empty or filled with a farmer's cattle, but now, in winter, the fences got removed, the drag lifts that were never utilized in summer became active, and people were either skiing or snowboarding massively on the snow-covered fields.

One-eye wasn't really used to this, as he'd lived the entirety of his life in a deep forest, where there was no option to practice winter-sports due to the amount of trees and plants, but the small territory he currently had included the meadows.

The old wolf watched the people sliding by on their skis for a bit. Some made laughing noises, others were just quiet. Their skis all made slashing sounds through the snow.

Fucking people, One-eye thought, as he slowly walked past the edge of the forest. He didn't want to make any rapid movements, which could risk the humans seeing him.

A few steps later, he grabbed the rabbit again and moved away from the noises of people having fun.

***

As always, Lynn waited under the strange, umbrella-like branches that covered her "den". They'd lost their leaves, but the thin branches still kept most snow from falling down, so they still gave some form of protection.

The young she-wolf yawned. Now that she was a little older than six months, she'd lost her pup coat, which had been replaced by her brown winter coat. Her pale blue eyes had gained their permanent color: Dark reddish-brown. The nicks in her ears had healed a bit, but they would always be scars.

Lynn sighed. She was bored, as always. Each and every day went the same: She woke up, after which she would find One-eye somewhere near the den, mumbling some kind of nonsense to himself while leaning against a tree. Then, he'd usually give her a short and genuine "Hi" as a greeting, and maybe even some other words, and would go hunting, only to return at dusk, at times even without even having caught something. Then they'd have some form of a conversation, though it never really felt like an actual talk, more like a stale one, after which Lynn would go to sleep and One-eye would follow soon.

This life bored her. By now, she already should've been taught the basics of hunting, fighting, tracking, killing, and so much more, but by the looks of it, One-eye had never even considered doing so. And, even though she could leave the den to explore, Lynn never did.

Despite her boredom and the feeling that she just had to leave one day, she couldn't. The last thing Norder, her real father, had ordered her that one morning, was to stay in the den. She hadn't done that, and what had happened to him? He'd died. She was too afraid that, for whatever reason, maybe the same thing would happen to One-eye. Even though he didn't treat her well, she had still grown attached to him. He was the only wolf she knew, after all, and he still did look after her, albeit in a bit of an unorthodox way.

She yawned. It was late, almost dusk. He should be back soon, she thought, mentally preparing herself for another session of either being ignored or shouted at.

She heard the faint sounds of the final few winter-sporters on the ski slopes. Soon enough they'd leave, and the drag lifts would close, which would give her some silence...until the Pisten Bullies would come to flatten the slopes for the next day, which made even more noise than those stupid drag lifts and people during the daytime.

Will stuff ever get truly quiet during this endless winter? Lynn asked herself. It was really hard, getting your rest, when there was almost constantly some noise going on.

One-eye suddenly appeared in front of her, a bunny dangling from his mouth. He looked at her with his default expression, which seemed to be a mix between anger and disappointment.

"Hullo," he mumbled as he dropped the rabbit without even giving the young she-wolf a slight glance.He sighed and sat down in front of the den.

Lynn immediately ran out. "You're back!" she said with her usual joy.