Olive continued to ignore Kentamin while he paced about the fire and finally dressed himself and retreated into his own thoughts. She stayed under the coat (his coat, as it happened, but she didn't dwell on this) naked and shivering a little, but stubbornly unmoving. When she eventually heard his breathing slow into the recognizable rhythm of sleep, Olive finally followed suit and carefully dressed herself, inspecting once again her damaged leg. It had gotten a bit banged up between her attempts to stand on it and her encounter with the templar and was showing signs of swelling again. Sighing at the great cost she'd already incurred because of the bloody ankle, she carefully and quietly scooted herself to the opening of the cave to collect fresh snow to pack on the injured appendage.
Then, as she was scooping the cold, frozen snow from the banks outside of the cave, she realized she wasn't alone. In the darkness outside, a pair of golden eyes were watching her intently. Olive's stomach leapt into her throat, but she didn't make a sound. The white-furred wolf was not bristling with aggression, but regarded her with curiosity and intention. In that moment, Olive wished desperately that she had the same power to speak with the wild things Silas had. But she did not, so she only returned the wolf's gaze. Though the moment felt frozen in time, the encounter could not have lasted for more than a few moments before, as silently as it had come, the white wolf loped away into the darkness. Olive watched the dark shadows for the forest where it had disappeared for several moments before letting out a long breath and packing the snow around her ankle.
She must have fallen asleep watching for the creature to return, because Olive awoke cold, stiff, and in pain near the entrance of the cave. Though by now it might be well into the morning, this far north the gray light of dawn was only just beginning to cast itself across the sky and it was still dark and lightly snowing outside. Olive blinked, still feeling thick with sleep, and wondered if it was the dim light or the shark crick in her neck that had woke her when she heard something echoing across the mountains. But it was distant and she couldn't quite make it out.
She pulled herself up stiffly into a sitting position, stretching the pain out of her neck when she heard it clearly:
"...Olive!... Olive!..."
Suddenly she was completely awake. It wasn't something it was someone. Someone looking for her! She said a silent blessing for the wolf then, without thinking, she leapt to her feet.
...and just as quickly, her injured ankle giving out from under her, came crashing down in a loud thud-splat on the cave floor.
