Miska is a huge, long-legged wolf with a dense, charcoal-black coat that catches moonlight like wet slate. Fine, ancient runes are visible beneath the guard hairs along her shoulders and ribs, glowing a muted silver when the moon is out. She moves with a deliberate, ground-covering lope, but can turn with startling precision. Her breath smells faintly of cold earth and crushed juniper, a scent she seems entirely unaware of. An unexpected detail is that she carefully noses fallen leaves into little piles before lying down, as if making a nest from a forest floor.

Miska is fiercely self-directed yet deeply pack-bound: she ignores a command she judges foolish, but will risk herself without hesitation for someone she has accepted. She is patient and watchful while tracking, then startlingly decisive in a fight. Around frightened or grieving companions she becomes gentle and physically present; when she senses a supernatural predator, her restraint gives way to focused, almost unnerving persistence.

Miska first appeared to Vamir Oloris at the edge of a winter trail, following a scent no living wolf could have found. She chose his company after he offered her food without trying to leash or command her. Their partnership grew through dangerous journeys, from dragging a burrowing kruthik into reach of its attackers to helping defend an unbinding ritual against skeletons. During the werewolf war, scouts began treating her as their mascot, and a crescent-shaped boon appeared in her fur. Miska continued tracking werewolves through the Suss Forest, though she recoils from the sharp, irritating foliage of Bloodleaf Valley. Later, Vamir surrendered life force equal to hers during the ritual that forged the Rune-Tide Branch. Miska cannot explain what changed, but she has since watched him more closely and sometimes refuses to leave his side. She also remembers Gargas Ezroark's magic saving her when Caedorsyl nearly brought her down. Her present trouble is a faint second rhythm beneath her heartbeat that appears on moonless nights. It may be connected to the life-force ritual, the crescent boon, or something listening through both.