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What the hack was that? I've never miscalculated a jump so bad. My right arm hurts a bit and I look around. Snow...? No... it's frost... the nearby plants are coated in a small layer of icy crystals... How the...?!

?Do you smell that??, Fenrir is asking me.

I look up. ?Smell what??, I'm asking back and inhale the surrounding air.

Spruce, oak, moss, dirt, my fled pray, the strange ice layer and.

.. and... what is that... It smells like mint and crocuses.

.. This odour is really intoxicating and at the same time as a drug I couldn't get enough from. .. A smell I couldn't resist...

?You know what that means, right??, Fenrir says with calm excitement. But, it can't be... I'm already 43... I...

Suddenly I hear a twig falling from a high build spruce in the near. I look up and look for the source of the noises. As I'm wandering the spruce up with my eyes, I detect a human Hand at one side of the tree. The rest of the body is hidden behind the tree trunk.

Fenrir is causing me to let out a dark growl.

But the sudden sound seems to scare my future mate and with one long jump my mate is reaching a different tree.

My mate is wearing something like a cardigan with a hood, so that I couldn't see their face.

But what is astonishing me more is how they jump from tree to tree without any effort. How is this even possible?

?DUDE?! Shouldn't you run after them?!?, Fenrir is barking at me, and he is absolutely right. As fast as I can, I shift back, and we run after our mate. They can't leave us already. We waited way too long for them!

We try to follow them, as good as we could, but because they are jumping through the trees, it's really hard to follow them. The only thing I can always recognize is their smell.

Then they seem to have stopped. I shift back to my human Form and recognize I'm standing on a clear area with no trees. ?Are you here? Please answer me... I mean no harm! Please...?, I try to call for them.

Nothing... But then suddenly I see a person jumping out from behind a tree.

I recognize their clothing, but I couldn't look at them for long.

A harsh and icy wind is coming up and smashing me against a tree.

What... I feel how me body is freezing with the tree and when the wind stops I see my mate standing ten metres away from me.

His hands pointing in my direction. I try to get to them, but I couldn't move.

I look directly in... his face... my mate is male... and he looks... young... like really young... I see his shocked ice blue eyes and I lose myself in them... ?So beautiful...?, I'm whispering. But with that he awakes from his frozen status, turns around and run away...

Wait... NO!!! ?NO! Please come back!?, I'm whining and feel like my heart shatter. But he doesn't turn back... And I can't move. I look down at the ice, which is forcing me to stay connected with the tree.

?NOOO!!!?, I started to howl and all the birds of the woods flee from their hidden spaces. I've just met him... and now... I've lost him already.