Hard scents

Irkt shook his coat, the wind didn't smell clean. This air thick scented. No light scents, just thick scents. Wrinkling his nose he tensed, standing nearly submitted to the layered smell, as if his pack mate approached, tail set between his legs and his ears flat back.

Even in the light of long cold he could see all. His ears twitching even as they sat flat, ever alert. He was not just unsettled by the smell. Looking down at the flat hard trail he saw several sources of the thick smell moving. Always backwards and forwards, some in small groups. Inside the soft changers of the range sat. Some of the thick smell had only one soft changer in it, some several. Many still moved with sky lights on them.

The light shifted as more sky poured over the shoulder of the high land, tingeing the air with milk grey light. Far away a sharp flyer called, squabbles of black thieves answered from the many trees gathered behind. A blow of air tufted his coat. No faint scents, no missed tastes or earth's caught in his nose.

He stood and watched, ever patient, eyes darting, head still, then a quick move to quarter the land fold below. His stomach shouted, he had not fed for three days. The land around the hard trail was empty, no flesh moved he could kill. The large horns had drifted many darks ago to the big land folds. No small tail flashers picked at the land cover.

Far below one of the thick smells barked twice, the sound echoing off the hard walls of the land. The sound a desperate call to Irkt. He had been close to one once, but the scent was too hard, his nose hurt for the rest of the dark until the dim light had led him to a run of cold where he had drunk. The thick smell had lessened and he had waited there until end of the dark, until he could pick the light scents again.

Hard scents

Below a thick smell coughed and hard land inside it crashed together, he saw it falter, was it weak, what would feed on it? Many long darks Irkt had seen before the flat hard had arrived. Many loud smells with soft changers inside moved the land and cut the soft greens to make the flat trail. The air shifted again, the air running stronger, more light growing from over the high land, pushing the dimness further back from Irkt's eyes.

Behind him he heard, his pack still waited, the deliberate noise to tell him they were also hungry. All six would need fed soon, or he may be challenged. He swept his head again, no light scents, then down away from the hard trail it flashed and again. He had seen them. Tail flashers and enough. He turned away and moved to his pack, leading them along the side of the high walls of the land. It would be enough.