Stone Circle apple of my eye

Being in a pack was more difficult than she had expected, and not simply the physical exertion weighed her down. The fact that some would consider her food, that Valette had told Murdock not to get attached, and many things besides had a heavy mantle of stress rest on her. She patrolled the borders as she knew the wolves did, though the activity was dull and weary. She hunted often, and had learned as the snow-crusted over, grew deep and cold, that she could fly across it's surface, light as wind and growing better still at traversing the land in winter time. She caught an adequate amount of food to sustain herself, bed with Murdock when the chill of the evening had her race back towards their den, and lived her smaller life in, and yet separate, from the pack. But today had her gather the courage to scan the territory, not for prey, but for the face of another.

The sterling girl hopped through the snow, trying her might to see how deep she could make herself sink into the snowbanks. A light laughter puffed from her lungs even as the cold seeped against her. Getting wet was a sacrifice worth making, and she knew one of the adults would warm her up if she dragged herself back shivering and soaked. She had to make the best of winter while it was here; the snow, or so she'd been told, wouldn't last forever.

She hopped, and with the leap, caught the glance of a patched and mousy woman looking a little bit... lost. Clary popped her head up out of the hole she'd sunk into and stared at the stranger with bright and curious eyes. A bizarre sort of wolf - oh, of course! She had heard about this "Poppy" from somewhere along the grapevine - though Clary had done best to reserve her judgments for when she met the woman herself. Seeing the chance and grabbing it with all four of her paws, the sterling girl scrambled to right herself and bounced over to the newcomer with a tall and wagging tail, and warmth in her eyes. "You're Poppy, aren't you? My name's Clary!" She bent low, with her head down and rump in the air, and gazed up at the slight woman, eyes bright and innocent while she appraised her. "Wow!" She whispered in a hushed and excited voice, "You really actually don't look like a wolf - but, like, you kind of do. Where do you come from?"

It was not long before she saw her 'other' and made sure so stand a little taller and face the approaching newcomer, lest she be mistaken for food. She relaxed when she realized the one bouncing towards her was discovered to be another pup, and likely unable of catching her if she ran. But, contrary to the one of the border, this girl was warm and friendly, greeting the sheepdog by name and gleeful in manner and speech. A smile split the dog's muzzle, and her tail began to wag as she mirrored the girl with a little dip. Her childish naivety, in reality not far from her own attitude, warmed her to the girl quickly.

She nodded at the girl's question, grin twisting her muzzle at the girl's astonishment.  "that's a pretty name,"  She said sincerely, believing the sweet name to fit the girl well. "I come from the prairie - it's a place where the land's so flat you can see for miles." It was dry, dusty, and often too plagued by drought, but she neglected to add that just yet. 

She liked this girl, Clary decided, and her weird looks only added to her curiosity and charm. Not to mention, her praise only soared this beautiful meeting even further, and Clary couldn't help but beam knowing her name sounded pretty to someone else's ears. "Thanks! I didn't pick it, but I think it's pretty, too!"

Her eyes livened at Poppy's description of a place she'd never been, and a wonder-filled grin stretched wide across her face. "That sounds amazing!" Clary glanced behind her, to where the meadow lay, and squinted - but even that had an end. If not forest, then distant mountains. Only once she had been able to see for miles, when she and Steph had wandered up the Southern cliffs - but those were anything but flat. Clary turned back to Poppy and tipped her head. "I don't think we have anything like that around here. Just lots of forests and mountains, but I probably don't have to tell you that." She grinned, and her tail thumped the ground, "So how far'd you have to travel to get here, then? It must've taken you years!" Which she couldn't understand, because to her Poppy might have looked strange, but still very pretty, and very young.

The girl's absolute wonder and youthfulness made the woman almost giddy, unable to quite wipe away the small smile on her muzzle as the girl talked, feathery tail beating behind her. "It was!"  She could have launched into half a dozen stories about the prairie right then, about the dust and sand that would suddenly descend on them, the fields that stretched for ages, the stalks you could lose yourself in if you weren't careful. But the conversation moved to travel, and the woman's smile stretched wider as she grinned. "not quite that long. it was a few weeks before I left the prairie behind, and a few months until I got here. it was exciting, but lonely, too."  She admitted, remembering the sheer wonder of her journey, but also the fear, the cold nights, the many firsts. Still, better not to dwell on what was behind her.

Not quite that long? She practically needed to scrape her jaw off the ground. "A few months! I bet I wasn't even born then!" Clary had come to realize that time had existed before she or her siblings had, but this was the first she had really thought about what that actually implied. She hadn't known day or night, but Poppy had been looking and longing and dreaming (or so Clary figured) about the open world before her, just like Clary found herself able to do now. And a new thought dawned - a wonder at what little lives were coming, who couldn't see the world now. Where were they now? Surely somewhere they existed, but the idea made her dizzy, and she passed that curiosity for another day when she would be alone and not so invested in her company.

"You must really miss your family! Do have any brothers and sisters? I don't think I could ever leave mine." She paused and briefly glanced to the sky before she returned her attention to Poppy. "Well... not forever. I'd miss them too much."

Clary seemed amazed at the length of time it had taken the sheepdog to get here, and after a moment of thought, she supposed it would be strange to consider things occurring that spanned the length of one's life. She was pulled from the thought by mention of her family, to which she canted her muzzle a moment in thought. "I do - I had to leave them when I wasn't much older than you, and then I came here."  She glanced up as the girl did, expecting her to have caught of something, but seeing little besides a vast expanse of sky. "I have a sister, and two brothers. What about you? I've met Steph - you're sisters, right?"  Her muzzle canted curiously, wondering if there where more pups she hadn't met yet, besides the girl she'd assumed to be Clary's sister. They seemed vastly different in more ways than one, but they seemed to be the same age.