After meeting with the one-eyed girl of crows, Ovaltine trekked north, keeping himself close to the mountain range. The path took him close to a large lake, and he managed to catch a few fish on the shore before he found himself at somebody else's doorstep. The packs here were so close to one another, it was a wonder they weren't constantly at war. Or perhaps they were, and he simply hadn't gotten in the middle of it just yet. He did wonder why they chose to be so close to one another. Perhaps it was a regional culture thing.
Nevertheless, he planted himself outside yet another pack, green eyes gazing on the spire that drove itself up from the earth. It was tall, and yet not as wide as the most southern mountain he had come across. That thing seemed to have gone on forever left to right, where this one rose from bottom to top, reaching up into the heavens themselves. A fly buzzed idly by Oval's face, and he batted it away with a paw, only for it to return to pester him. This game was long from being over.
Even she had been a fleeting presence on the mountain, but swept down from the slopes with a smooth stride and zeroed in on the stranger the moment she had scented him. Her intial path had been outward, perhaps for a hunt in the flatlands, but derailing for him seemed worthwhile enough. Visitors were rare, and met with the appropriate skepticism -- especially in these muggy days of the waning spring. When the aura already seemed so dissonant here, she felt herself almost waiting for something to be a catalyst.
She drew up her height and came directly to him. Sturdy yet graceful, mountainside confidence was something she had a surplus of (lifted tail and all); Amekaze readily took in his scents while circling around him once. She was plenty curious, especially when he smelled of nothing in particular and there was always enough to learn.
Then, settling at his head with her ears pressed forward, the question was surely one he'd anticipate: "Need something?"
I was hoping Ame might pop in here. ^__^
The wolf—decidedly feminine—descended from her domain. Her stance was that not just of a resident, but of a leader. Her question was a simple one, and one he was more than willing to answer. And so he responded as he always did.
"My name is Ovaltine Driftwood. Does this magnificent mountain have a name?" Of course, he did try to personalize that question a little bit each time. Some wolves required more flattery, others might appreciate the gesture. He hoped that she fell into one of those categories—or if he was really lucky: both.
A tickle upon his nose caused him to snap at the air, though he failed to catch the fly that seemed insistent on bugging him. (Pun intended!) At times, flies were a sign of the dead, but Ovaltine was far from it. At four years old, he was what some might call "prime." The only problem was that he was using these golden years to be a weirdo and go around bugging all the packs he came into contact with.
His name didn't mean anything in particular to her, and much else about him seemed to be in the ballpark of regular, too. Amekaze's ears switched at his phrasing, though, although she remained largely unperturbed. "It does," she answered with a nod. "The Sunspire," she gestured, then watched the fly circle his muzzle -- she hadn't thought he smelled particularly rotten from here. Then again, the muggy days were making it awfully buggy sometimes. "Are you just a traveler?" Or was he looking for something? Information? A pack? A someone? Or was there something wrong with him in some way? Ame usually wasn't really one to jump to that conclusion. She appreciated, and perhaps admired, a well-rounded nomad. Whether or not he was one remained to be seen. Despite a watchful eye, he had only given her so much.
Sunspire. It had a nice ring to it, that much was true. Ovaltine had always been fond of alliteration. Redtail Rise had been yet another double-letter tongue-pleaser. The black wolf didn't give him long to linger over the name, though, for she prompted him with another question. It was one he'd heard again and again, in varying forms, and not one he was ever shy to answer. "I am a traveler," he replied, "though I’m not sure why that has to mean I am ‘just’ a traveler." The last comment was punctuated with a wry grin. He meant no harm by it, of course.
"This area intrigues me. There seems to be an abundance of packs, all so close one another." It was a phenomenon he had not seen before, and his mind was eager to soak up more information. Perhaps this area was just really awesome for settling down... although that was not about to make him sway in that direction. He was content wandering from one place to the next.
He confirmed with ease, and had evidently picked up on her phrasing. She flicked an ear and considered how much she felt like explaining. By his mentioning of it, she would already take to her assumptions. "A traveler can have many purposes," she wrote off, and opted to let the subject shift.
Too many packs, if she was concerned -- for it seemed that the second that got rid of one neighbor, a new one appeared somewhere else. Granted, she understood that the mountain itself kept some away as it was, but she did concern herself with the nearby buffer zones. She hinted her distaste for with a soft grunt, and thought to remark that at least he had a nose to notice all the wolf packs for himself. She still didn't see why exactly that had brought him to her door. "There are many, but it was not always that way.." She had remembered the Wilds practically devoid of packs when she had first wandered upon it. Now it practically boomed with wolf-life. "Seasons have been mild and the lands fruitful," she shrugged, knowing it had to be temporary. Living had been easy, considering. "Do you come from far away? What else of here.. intrigues you?" she had to ask. Surely, the proximity of the packs was not the most noteworthy thing he'd found.
Ovaltine gave a nod of agreement. He had met other drifters, and while some were like him (mostly harmless), there were definitely others who had more... well, malicious intents. The enigmatic female went on to explain that things had not always been so fruitful. Considering she was not nearly an elder, Ovaltine had to assume it could be no more than a year or two since the lands had been less populous. Then again, looks could be deceiving, and perhaps she had a few years on him. Age could be finicky that way.
A smirk fell upon his lips when she asked what else intrigued him. Ovaltine had always been a bit of a ladies' man, and he did enjoy the occasional fling. There were, more than likely, a few mini-Driftwoods toddling around in the world abroad. His romances had been short, passionate, and fiery, but none had been meant to last. Ovaltine wasn't that sort of wolf.
"Far is a relative term," he replied, "and I could not even point the way to where I was born. I've been up and down, left and right so many times, backtracking would be impossible." Ovaltine paused for a few heartbeats, then continued. "As for what intrigues me, let’s just say I have a thirst for knowledge, and a little eye candy along the way never hurts."
The Teekon had bloomed, intensely and rapidly, over her many moons here. She could think of probably two or three packs she had run into during her earliest stays here. Many had appeared only to fizzle out while a few lasted, or moved onto new endeavors. Looking back, she had quietly observed much of it from her roost on the mountain. She wondered if she would see the end of the halcyon days, too, or if this nature would dispose of her before that time came.
She was far more interested in his answer as he revealed himself to be rather well-traveled. "I see," and she offered a fleeting smirk as he elaborated about eye-candy -- which could mean a great many things, of course. "Have you found much to quench your thirst?" she tilted her head. On either front or both, at here or there, she didn't care how he chose to answer because she was curious enough to humor any of it -- especially if she could glean something from it too. She imagined that traveling did yield him much in the way of information and adequate sightseeing, but she had come here for knowledge too, stayed for such, and here she was today. "Seeking knowledge brought me here as well," she added, so it was not all questions.
"I always do," Ovaltine replied, a grin on his face. Despite all the lovely ladies he'd been around, he always managed to find another one who was either just as lovely, or even more, than the last. Each one was a work of art, carefully crafted into something quite stunning. For all intents and purposes, Ovaltine was a sucker for them, and they would likely be his downfall one day. When she revealed that her own thirst for knowledge had brought her here, Ovaltine tilted his head to one side, amused.
"Not interested in eye candy?" he asked, raising a brow. Perhaps she was one of those who shunned all contact with males. Ovaltine had met a few of those, though he had never quite understood them. Some ladies were just immune to his self-assessed excellent flirting skills. Their loss, of course.
Perhaps he was lucky to always find what he wanted to see. Or, he knew just where to look. Amekaze noted his grin and chuffed softly when he turned the question onto her. "Not necessarily," she shrugged. She could appreciate fine examples of wolf whens he saw them, but they usually were not the only reason to inspire her. Briefly she thought about when she had stalled near Ahklut's pack, halfway interested in knowing him better because he was not hard on the eyes, or Xi'nuata, a feminine strength that she had admired from afar. Even far more recently, Jace was certainly not a foul looking beast despite his scars, and neither was the sterling wolf from the Plateau or the agouti Caravaggio and his fleeting stay on the mountain. Maybe she simply did not approach it the same way.
"I do usually do not find myself inspired to travel for it, though. Perhaps my luck is different than yours," she reasoned. Pursuing them had not worked out for her any, either, but she had never felt motivated to put much effort towards it anyway. She was plenty entertained just letting them occasionally come to her, not that very many tended to test their luck.
Ah, so she was not completely immune to a well-crafted specimen. Few wolves were, but who was Ovaltine to judge? However, it seemed that she had not gone in search of it. Nor did it seem she had found much of it when she had been traveling for other purposes. That part caused a hint of a frown to flicker on his muzzle, and he was disappointed to hear that she had not found such things. She had mentioned luck, and this was enough of a hook to draw Ovaltine in. Luck was something he'd had much of, though he assumed it would one day run out.
"Luck?" he inquired, not held back by being the only one asking the questions. "Perhaps I have used all of mine up. And perhaps you've been stowing your own away for a better day." Ovaltine paused, letting the words drift between them for a moment longer. "Is luck the only thing required to find one's self in front of eye candy?" he asked. If that was the case, he had most certainly used up his fair share. And she had most certainly been hoarding her own supply.
She offered him a curious tilt of her head, and listened readily. "I can hope so," she breathed, indifferent. She'd take her luck later if it truly paid off. But, on the whole, it was not that she was unlucky.. just not feeling at the top of life's high these days. It worked, she was occupied and she survived rather comfortably. There could always be more or less at any time.
"It is more than just luck," she answered afterward with an undertone of sheer certainty. She believed it a great many things all at once, and thus why it did not come often to her. She was picky, she had a standard, and would not be fooled by face value alone or fanciful approaches. Keen and interested in the deepest of depths, she'd need to really like what she saw to consider it. "What else do you need?" she asked, steering it back his way with a smirk.
"Nothing, I suppose," he replied, not wishing to take up any more of her time. Perhaps, though, he would come back this way. He wondered if perhaps he would swing by on his way out of this region. Perhaps it was a region worth wandering for a time... or perhaps it was better if he went on his way, like he so often did. Ovaltine did like the routine that he'd grown accustomed to. In any case, he did not intend to overstay his welcome (if he was welcome at all).
"I'll be on my way," said Ovaltine, swishing his tail to and fro once before taking his leave. She had certainly captured his attention, and her face was one that would not disappear from the forefront of his mind as quickly as so many seemed to do.
She canted her head at him, but did not comment on his answer -- it suited her, despite striking her as a little peculiar. Surely, he had to have dropped by for some purpose, but it was no matter how. Since there was nothing more he needed, she was ready to see this to a close. While he was certainly a curious presence, she evidently was not in the mood for all that much in the way of conversation, so let it go. Ame chuffed him a soft farewell, then watched him go a while before turning back towards the slopes herself.
She didn't dwell on whether or not she would see him again, and instead sought out a nearby game trail, hoping to inspire some earnest hunger while she tracked.