Vȧlsignad Höst

Your paws have carried you up ever-increasingly hostile terrain, mountains growing rougher with each leap and bound across the steep rocks. The air grows thinner, leaving you panting to adjust to the drop in oxygen. The temperature prickles at you, skin shivering with the cold. As you traverse the steep inclines your nose directs you closer to the scent of other wolves. Hidden amongst rising sharp rock and a muffling wash of ice-cold water is a refuge from the intensity of the wild. With its high sides, thick brush and towering sparse pines, the clearing offers protection for the wolves that call it home. Lichen tumbles down from the top of the outcrops, the few deciduous trees that rest at the tops cascade autumn leaves down into the clearing, giving Välsignad Höst its name. Brush and jutting rocks hide plenty of places for pack members to rest. The opening of the clearing is spacious enough to allow pups to play freely, and wolves to socialize. A large rock towards the back towers above with a den hidden behind it, housing the Alpha. As you take in your surroundings the Alpha emerges, staring you down.

Are you friend? Or are you foe?

(Välsignad höst's den is based off of Eggleston Glen in upstate NY.)