Shar-Kali waited approximately twenty-four hours before setting about locating the pack's leader. She had introduced herself to both Lasher and Blue Willow, charming the former and soothing his agitated wife. Others had passed within her sight, but there would be plenty of time for subordinates later. Right now, she needed Dante.
Shar-Kali wove quietly through the trees, following the freshest scent available to her. Her choice to postpone until evening had been deliberate - it was quite a powerful thing to converse with the slow summer sunset as your backdrop, when the day's burdens were done. The ghostly elder's nose twitched, and her ears scooped forward. Was that him there, heading for the sheer drop of the plateau's southern border?
It was indeed him, for the spot was one of his most frequent and favorite haunts. The view off the edge of the plateau offered a spectacular vantage and, in evening, having the sky laid out so clearly was almost unearthly. It painted the rivers and trees below, and the sight was a welcome one even when he had no worries that needed soothed.
He was not so distracted that he could not hear an approacher, and when he turned to see who it was, he was expecting a familiar face. Just not one he had not seen in weeks. Her casual approach tipped him off that her presence in the lands was not unwelcome, but he had not yet seen Lasher to speak with him since her acceptance.
"Shar-kali." Her name was fortunately unusual enough that he was able to recall it. There was no edge to it, but he did tense slightly. "What brings you here?"
"Not the fishing prowess of the Alpha," Shar-Kali responded warmly, gliding out of the shadows. The long black hairs rose in a ridge on his spine when he tensed, but settled quickly. The silver-eyed vixen moved closer, gazing serenely at Dante's face. "Lasher approved me," she shared. "He thinks very highly of you."
"If I were to rely on that as a draw, doubtless I would lead a lonely life." He joked good-naturedly in return, his failure of a fishing career hardly a sore spot. Her tips had helped, but there was only so much you could do for one hopeless as he. Sometimes it was necessary to accept mediocrity.
"As I do him." Lasher was a man he admired greatly, both for the depths of his feeling and the easy grace that he handled himself. There were not many in this world who could boast so much, yet Lasher hardly seemed aware of it. "I thought you were rather brazen for a trespasser."
"Oh, I'm sure you have other talents," Shar-Kali mused, offering the Alpha a good-natured wink. His comment on her brazenness earned laughter. "I think I am a brazen anything these days! Who has time to dance around? Not me." The elder wolf gave her dainty head a little shake. "So, tell me about this Plateau. Who is your longest-serving pack mate?" No time to dance around at all.
He enjoyed her teasing affably enough, though he was not inspired to return it. Honestly he wasn't sure what to make of her, enough to cause him to tread a bit more carefully. She gave the impression of power, one used to being in a position that allowed respect, but for some reason content to bend to his rule. Why? At her age, he would expect her to be established somewhere, yet here she was.
He was curious about the turn of fate that had brought her here, but would never presume to ask. Instead she gave him an easy out, a question to respond to whose answer came relatively easily. "Blue Willow is by far the truest resident here, as this was her home long before I came. Lasher arrived around the same time as I, though I don't know who was first anymore." He smiled. The earthen Beta was one of the first wolves Dante had befriended here. "Osprey too has lived here a long while. It is only us four from the days before I claimed leadership." He felt a bit of regret at that. Some of the familiar faces he missed greatly... Finn had been a good friend to him, and some of the others had held promise. Still, they remained a good group, and the newer members were ones he would not trade.
By the time their conversation finished, Dante was no closer to having a read on the woman than when they first started. He could not say why, but he did trust her, ineffable as her motives might be. If nothing else she was definitely far from boring and he looked forward to trying to puzzle her out.