Voleta tucked her black robe around herself, over her dress, and pulled up the hood.  It was a damp morning, with the mist and the vague outline of the sun above.<br/><br/>She was preparing to depart when the howling began.  It was coming from the east, if she surmised correctly, back the way she had come from.  Immediately the horse pricked its ears and began to move restlessly.  Voleta took the reins firmly and laid a comforting hand on its nose.  The black dog tensed, its hackles raising.  It looked at her.  Voleta slashed her hand, as if to say, 'Stay.'  Voleta rarely spoke when it was not required.  The dog stood still, waiting.<br/><br/>Quickly Voleta mounted the horse.  She looked about for the asp yet could not see it.  Giving a motion with her hand, she send the dog out in front of her to where the howling came from.<br/><br/>Voleta followed, narrowing her eyes and sliding her Dagger from it's sheath.  They came closer to the sound.<br/><br/>Then the dog froze and Voleta dismounted, tying the mare onto a tree so she could not flee in panic.  She padded quietly forward to where the dog was perhaps fifty feet in front of her and knelt by it.<br/><br/>Just barely visible through the mist perhaps seventy feet farther on was a white wolf baring it's teeth at something.  Voleta knew almost immediately it had to be her asp.  She could feel its anger.  The black dog did not even growl, but Voleta could almost smell its pent up violence.<br/><br/>Then there was movement and Voleta stayed very still, watching a horse and rider come up to stop just beyond the wolf.<br/><br/>It was a woman. Voleta recognized instantly that she was a Priestess of Nike.  She turned her Dagger over so that the obsidian blade nestled in the palm of her hand, and she began to whisper to it.<br/><br/><br/><br/>