The years had not been kind to the Frenchman, but like all things he could change very little about the world or his experience of it.
Failed loves. Failed families. Homes that were, then were not. Through it all he had lived and lost, and now roamed through the winter wilderness, following what beauty he could witness.
The sunrise painted the sky in plum blush. A bird sang a song he did not recognize and he followed the sound until the mountains rose tall around him, shrouded with mist, and then silence.
He wondered where to go next.
She prepared a small den for
@John in Dawnleaf, pausing only to rush into the nearby bushes to be sick every so often. Druid didn’t know what was usual for a pregnancy but she suspected this wasn’t normal, otherwise why would she-wolves allow themselves to be put into this predicament time and time again? Her swollen abdominal muscles ached from the constant fits.
But she managed to finish her work. Next, she struck out on a patrol, starting along the southern stretches of the bypass and working her way westward. It was still quite early in the morning, the sunrise warm on her svelte shoulders. Despite everything, her stomach knotted with hunger. Druid thought she might break her fast at the midway point, Silencepine, before resuming her rounds.
She dug up some fish stashed at the base of a particularly scraggly pine when her two-toned eyes glanced outward, through the western arches. Druid froze when she spotted a pallid figure standing like some mythical spirit of the forest, his blue eyes striking even from a distance.
It was not often he came across others these days, so when his attention caught upon the subtle movement of someone in the far distance, Oiseaux almost spooked. They were dark like wet stone, and he honestly couldn't tell if it was a person or a statue made to look like a person - a shape upon the hillside made of stone, perhaps.
He crept closer to get a look at this work of wonder, and only then did the man recognize that this was someone alive. He had a ways to go - and so to test the waters, he crooned a friendly greeting sound which carried through the mist between them.
Maybe this would be worth the risk after all.
Keeping her eyes on the distant figure, Druid brushed the soil back over the fish. She then pivoted and strode toward him. He crept nearer too, so they met in the middle, just beyond the pass. Druid rolled to a stop a dozen yards away, ears pricking at the low croon.
You are near to Rivenwood,
she broke the silence, rolling a whitened shoulder at the territory to her rear. What brings you here?