Bearclaw Valley give me all the peace and joy in the world

There was always the exciting yet unnerving moment when you met a new wolf and were to find out if they were friendly and receptive to how you greeted them... For someone like Laurel, who wore a mask a lot of the time and practically always when meeting new wolves, such moments were especially unnerving. Especially so shortly after Indra's mauling. But he looked at her with a friendly smile that was, well, really friendly and made her feel relieved and like her act was working again; a confirmation that she definitely needed after stupid dumb ole' Xan's reaction to her.

He introduced himself as Birk from a pack called Easthollow, or she guessed that was his pack name anyway. Laurel'd never been one last names so it wasn't her go-to assumption. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Birk," Laurel said with a bashful though gleeful expression. Birk went on to ask about 'her' pack, even though she didn't really know shit about the reasons why it was so close to this other pack. "I'm not sure why Xan chose this pack to be so close to yours. I was wondering about it myself." She'd ask him if he knew any more, but he pretty much already just disclosed that he didn't. So either Xan was just a right idiot, or there was another reason why they were close together. Hadn't he called himself the 'heir' to this place..? Maybe he'd returned here because he'd grown up here, or whatever. Laurel thought it silly, since she wanted to avoid her old home more than anything else, personally.