The land would have been beautiful were it not for the plague that had struck there. The rangy frame of the golden male seemed to traverse with care. His matching gaze sought to find any life that may have belonged there. The scent of wolves was on the wind but how could they survive in such desolation? Even he had turned thin in his travels, but surely those living in those wilds were skin and skeleton. He turned his head to the water and frowned. Even the ripples on the surface spoke of famine. Breathing deep, there was the faintest scent of salt from the distant sea and faded passing of other wolves. A startling lack of prey. 

Sawyer drew himself toward the waters edge and allowed the cold liquid to meet his paws and soak to his ankles. The breeze caught his pelt and breathed the promise of rain. The golden dog hoped that it would allow for the green to return to the surrounding wild. He wondered how many had died at the fault of that tragedy. The loss of the woods. 

In the ripples of the water, there appeared to be a bobbing figure. The golden male squinted his eyes to focus on the form that was slowly making its way across the lake. When the strange shape took form, he noted that appeared in the embodiment of another wolf. When the female emerged, she seemed to shake with a strange sort of excitement. She sought to close some of the distance between them. As she drew nearer, he could scent the water and algae that clung to her pelt. But he had very little time to adjust to the mer-wolf before she began spouting questions at him. 

She was a loner. He could have assumed as much. Her fur did not hold the aroma of a pack. It seemed she was just as new as he was to those lands. Sawyer flagged his tail for a few short beats and watched her with careful flaxen eyes. If all the wolves of that land were just as eager and friendly, he didn't forsee much trouble arising from the Teekons. 

"Well... uh... darlin' I'm pretty new to these parts m'self," he drawled. His voice carried a soft southern lilt to it. "I'm Sawyer. Don't know much about the green goin' missing. And you're the first I've seen," he tried his best to respond to her inquiries. Brows furrowed, he awaited the next mouthful that would surely fall from the strange woman's lips. And for a moment her eager nature made him miss his family. 

The woman seemed eager to have found someone so willing to converse. She moved towards him a few feet before she paused to make herself comfortable, curling her tail around towards the front of her body. She then began to clean the remaining sea foliage from her limbs. The golden boy watched with a curious glint in his gaze for a moment before she seemed to come to life with a remark on the lack of wolves in the area. The right half of his face curled upwards in a smirk and he chuckled faintly.
 
“I sure hope not. I got family out there somewhere,” he remarked with a nod of his head, thinking fondly of the other Crowfeathers who may have been lucky enough to find themselves in the Teekon Wilds. “I’m pretty damn sure we’d be seein’ plenty more carrion birds too,” he then thought aloud with a furrowing of his brows and a glance towards the sky that beamed down on them in clear blue.

The kindly little female seemed to be quite genuine about her remark regarding his family. To it, he lowered his head out of thanks, and his ears fell back a bit to his skull. It was not often that strangers showed kindness in such a nature, and though it could have simply been a comment made out of sheer politeness, it was still appreciated by the gold-clad wolf.
 
She did go on to inquire about the green returning to their lands. His light gaze sought their surroundings with a thoughtful frown and a curious expression on his handsome face. “Y’know, I do believe that we ought to be seein’ some buds comin’ out those trees pretty soon,” he answered her with a hopeful and encouraging nod. Mother nature had a way of healing herself in dire situations. Though it may have taken her a short time, she would make all well again.

“I do, darlin’,” the gold and ivory man confirmed for her with a sweet chuckle of his velvety voice. His pale gaze glanced around to their surroundings and he nodded his head slowly but surely. Flicking his tail upwards, Sawyer seemed to agree with the girl on the subject of summer. He would never forget being a younger boy and seeking shelter under the great stretching trees, hoping to keep out of the heat for a short period of time. The temperature had seemed to drop several degrees once the shade of the wood had been found. Sawyer breathed a fond sigh at the nostalgia that had filled his gut.
 
With a charming smile, he looked to his companion and his features seemed to rise. “Food ought to be comin’ back with the green. This great big stretch of land will look beautiful before you know it,” he spoke fondly of the Teekon Wilds, though he had only known them for a swift moment. Sawyer believed in the underdog; he liked to see triumph come from the impossible.