Gray Wolf muzzled Kazan gently with her blind face.

The uneasy whine in her throat was a warning to him.

Then she sniffed the air, and listened--sniffed and listened.
Suddenly every muscle in their bodies grew rigid.

Something living had passed near them, something that they could not see or hear, and scarcely scent.

It came again, as mysterious as a shadow, and then out of the air there floated down as silently as a huge snowflake a great white owl.