It had been hours since Nina had another car pass her by and the road kept getting worse the closer to her ‘cabin’ she got. Although by what she’d heard, ‘cabin’ might be an exaggeration. The first few days of her six month research period would probably go into restoring the old lodge into something she could actually live in, and have all the tools she needed for her work. The pickup truck was packed full so she wouldn’t need to go to town too often, and Nina had made sure that she knew how to survive for a while in case she wouldn’t be able to leave for few weeks, but of course she had made sure that she’d get help if needed. Everything was planned to the point of perfection, all she needed now was to act on it.<br/><br/>This would be the pinnacle of her research of werewolves, -this- would be something that would make her famous and it would make all the years before this, all the work, worth it. Her grip on the wheel tightened and turned her knuckles white. They would no longer laugh at her after this, and her friends would realize why she had been so distant.<br/><br/>Nina made the last sharp turn from what had once been the main road, and thirty minutes later, she arrived at the old hunting lodge. Once the engine went quiet and she stepped out of the car, Nina realized how silent it was. No human had stepped anywhere near here for decades, and the forest had swallowed the building whole. It looked bad, and she worried that it might not be in condition for her to fix, but it was too late to turn back now. Failure was -not- an option.<br/><br/>The next few weeks the forest was filled with noise as the scientist turned the lodge into something fit for living once more, she filled the holes in the ceiling, patched the walls and boarded the windows she could no longer fix. Cleaning the place took another week. But once everything was done, she had turned the kitchen into something she’d be able to cook in, filled the gas tank and even made the fireplace work without filling the cabin with smoke, it started to look almost home. There were some things still usable in the small house outside the main building, like old hides of deer and wild cats that could be placed on walls and old wooden floors. The carpets were still usable after a good wash at the stream short walk further into the woods, and whomever had lived in the lodge had left their old tableware in the cabinet.<br/><br/>There were even old books about the flora and fauna found in the woods surrounding the lodge, and despite her research beforehand, Nina made a mental note to read those and memorize them by heart.<br/><br/>In whole, she had to abandon the two bedrooms because of the collapsed ceiling, but made do with the living room where she dragged one of the beds and the most clean mattress, fixed up her computers and attached all her other equipment near the kitchen. Then, for the first two days, she slept.<br/><br/>Once things had calmed down, the cabin was ready and she had clean water and food in store, Nina packed her backpack to head into the woods. It still felt eerily quiet for a city gal like her, but it also filled her with serenity she had never felt before. The sense of urgency she had felt in the city in her everyday life was lifted and now she had all the time in the world to finish her studies.<br/><br/>Well, she had six months, but for now she could take her time.<br/><br/>Nina filled her lungs with the fresh spring air and headed downstream, following the water in hopes of finding some animals drinking or fishing. First she only found some hoof prints of deers and some smaller ones from perhaps foxes or other small felines, but then there were some that made her gasp out loud. These were definitely wolf prints, the shape and size were different. Nina had to remind herself that in the area there were possibly grey wolves too, but she hoped.<br/><br/>Oh, how she hoped.<br/><br/>Her pace became faster, more urgent, but she tried her best to also remember the path she came from. This could be her chance, but these seemed fresh prints, and so close to her cabin too. What kind of wolf would be so brave and curious to get so close? The thought filled her with something new - fear.