He's managing to carve out some sort of existence hidden in the mountain range with good days and occasional bad ones. He has to keep it simple, otherwise he feels himself folding into his confusion and loneliness while he decides to wait for a better hint before moving on. Or, at least spring's ease. He has to step back and try to pull himself together before going off to pursue something without even a real cause or direction. It's at least the first trace of familiarity that he's known when he clings near the Sunspire, so that's hard to walk away from right now.

But in his efforts to learn a little more, he embarks up the range through the Vale first. Eventually, when he runs into the very edges of a pack claim along a ridge, he's suddenly put on a brand new edge. The scents of the strong pack that he had not expected to be there eventually just sends him fleeing onto the Plateau.

Inari slinks along now that he's found a path guiding deeper into a seemingly uninhabited territory and every step in does seem to help calm him down. Paranoia isn't far behind him, though, and its this irrational fear of something looming behind him that almost makes him miss what's in front suddenly: another wolf.

His heart sinks and he can feel his throat getting tight already. He suspects he's been seen already so he pauses delicately. He nervously fans his ears and looks anxiously at all the spaces immediately surrounding the black and white wolf, never exactly at him.

He doesn't like the initial reaction the dark wolf sends his way so Inari has to stay tense and uncomfortable-looking. After reading the dominance on his stance now that he's coming closer, the silver loner has no idea what he's supposed to think now.. besides regret for having not turned back for the Spire the second he smelled another pack. Inari grimaces when he knows his answer is going to fall short by a long shot.

"I did not know this Plateau had a pack," he ventures and sinks his posture down more. In his hurry to just get to somewhere else, he hadn't given the old, fading scents any consideration. "I.. only passed one by a ridge on the way here, though.." he decides to mention and punctuates it with a shaky sigh. He's still very uneasy about this all and doesn't want any trouble, but these thoughts are fresh enough in his head that he can recite this much.

Inari folds back his ears and tucks his tail further at the very first note of the other's growl. It's expected, almost, but that doesn't make it any easier to cope with. His blood runs thick with tension and uneasiness while his eyes dart to the side in his attempt to watch the stranger while he circles. The silvered nomad stacks stock-still otherwise.

The question chills him to his very bones and the next one does not help any either. He wished so badly he had the answer for them. It was a question he asked himself, too. "I only just got here, but I have been staying by the big mountain," comes with a shaky gesture of his muzzle towards the Sunspire, as much as he's loathe to move at all and reveal his business all at once. "I was trying to see what was nearby." Compliance may save him some trouble, or so he hopes. 

"No.. I am no.. spy. I do not know anyone.." he mutters and nervously licks his lips.

He tries and fails in part to hide the horrified expression the stranger's next words prompted. Inari feels his head rush at the small handful of things he's suddenly given -- the name? Blackfeather Woods? him, a spy? At the thought that this wolf wants him to provide information mortifies him halfway to his early grave. "But.. why? I have no information." He believes firmly that he has nothing, especially when he barely feels like he exists in this body at all. There is little he can do for anyone like this, which he thinks he has already proven by not knowing about the Plateau pack. That was only the start of the great many things he does not know about..

He suddenly remembers to breath. "Inari.." he sighs. It isn't even enough because he knows its only a fragment and he can't find the rest.

He did not mean to sign up for this and holds his breath with the teeth flash before him. This was bad.. just when he's convinced it can't get much worse, it does. He's even given a deadline and Inari cringes at the time-frame. How is he going to remember that..? "Is the information Blackfeather wants supposed to be about this Plateau place or.. everything?" he tilts his head, although does keep it lowered in clear recognition of the other wolf's dominant poses. Cicero had only said "whatever he knows" and Inari doesn't know how else to stress it that he's going to be absolutely no good at this. He does not know what is expected of him, or even anything else about Blackfeather or this wolf right here in front of him. This was well out of his immediate capabilities and he already knows to fear the consequences if he stays here.

He'd rather disappear, but some clarification does help. In a way that almost makes him sick to his stomach, he likes the idea of an actual goal with a beginning point (right now) and an end (in two months at Blackfeather). The place in the middle that he was meant to fill in with the information gathering was what really fills him with intense doubt. As horrible and awful as it seems, it still may be the most structured idea he's looked at in months.

There's more teeth and he hates it, but Cicero takes his leave afterward. Inari slumps where he stood and feels awfully tired suddenly. He's already dreading the part where Cicero finds him, or he finds Cicero.. and there's that lure to just vanish again. But, he wants to stay on the mountain still..

After a while he picks himself up and mutters something about Blackfeather, Cicero, and two months on repeat, trying his best to engrave these topics in his muddled mind while he goes slinking back towards the Spire -- and is extra mindful of the Ridge's borderlands this time, too.