Move one paw than another. One more step. For hours hound had tracked the humans by their horrid sent and the glint of their sun pups.

He sat in the bitter snow watching as the shadowed men circled the large pit they called fire, for all he was conserved it was another of the horrible sun pun pups that the shadows tended too. The hound hated fire it burned his gray muzzle and had helped the shadows kill his pack.

"Bide time my fellow." A whisper of a woman stood in the shadows with him. The woman's shadowy skin was darker then a moon and starless night. The only sight of color on her was the glint of a cloudy ruby on her finger and a strand of them that almost choked her to death.

The old hound looked up with a silent snarl before slinking farther back into the pitch-black mountainous forest. He didn't see why he had to linger, why he had to prolong his vengeance. His gray snout fount its way to his paws as he circled and with creaking bones lay down in the nipping snow.

The slip of a shadow woman lingered watching the wretched humans and their horrible fire. After some time she flitted through the dense trees and with a smug look she slowly lowered her self to her knees then sat down. The gray muzzled hound didn't understand why this woman was so different from the other sun harboring shadows, she looked the same, well to some extent. Her sent was close enough to theirs, except it was often wrapped in a musty cave smell or the sent of death blood. Though the most unsettling thing about her wasn't her odd behavior, looks, or sent. It was the way she reminded him of his once great master.

The shadow woman sat perfectly still in the bitter cold snow, her eyes glassy and her breath barely puffs of smoke. She seemed to be in some far off place or more likely then not she was dreaming of his old master.

With the stupid youth unaware of the world he got up, his old bones creaking in protest. His muscles slid under his shaggy coat as he started trotting. A howl escaped him moments before he leapt into the fear stained air of the humans clearing.

The cowering shadows fled in a frenzy as their precious sun pups were nocked down and the light died. One foolish human came at the haggard hound with an axe. Before the human got a chance the elderly hound bound to him like his youthful days. The hound pounced on the mans exposed back and nocked him to the ground. Before the man hit the ground the hound's maw was clamped around his throat. The sun harborer was dead before he hit the ground.

His gray muzzle speckled with drops of crimson sought to wound another. And he did. The hound chased his pray. He dropped them to the ground. Hound tasted their fear laced blood. He tracked the humans as they had his old pack. He killed them mercilessly, sometimes even leaving them to choke on their own blood or letting them slowly bleed to death in the vast forest.

Each pitiful human wasted to nothing in pain and fear. They fell hearing the screaming of their loved ones. And the hound loved it. He left none of them live. He prowled around men, ran the frightened she-humans in circles. His only quake was with the shadows pups. Some of them cowered in hastily climbed trees, others hid in a hallow and whimpered with silver lined eyes.

In his age he remembered how the human men had been merciful to his pups. But death was still death. His own pups couldn't even open their eyes the night their short-lived lives had ended. The old hound mad the human pups death short. None of them saw or heard him. None of them could make a sound as they fell dead beneath his paws.

Once his hunting was finished he circled back to were the shadow woman was sitting. Amazingly she hadn't moved once. The rubies at her neck looked like a collar of blood beads. Her ink colored eyes were still glassy and fixed on the distance. With her still busy the gray muzzled hound took slow steps back to were the shadows had cared for the sun pups. He entered the clearing and steadily but surely sniffed at the humans fear stained belongings. Most of it was boring shadow human things. Every now and then he found some meat bundled up.

Tords the end of the ring he found were two of the humans hand hastily dropped their bags. The silvery nose sniffed and poked at the sun harboring shadows belongings. The first bag smelled funny, its tall woven wood stricter was padded with the humans beloved cloth. He leapt up and toppled the bag. There was a sharp wail as bundles of cloth spilled from the bags depth. Hound trotted to the mound of cloth. In surprise, astonishment, and humiliation he saw he had missed one of the humans pups. Its pail face contorted as it gurgled at him with absolutely no fear.