Moonspear you say you love the way the storms blow

terance took to the cliffs once again for a nice patrol. it was evening, and the sun was setting far off in the distance. the sky was ablaze, burning with pinks and reds-- interrupted only by a few stray clouds. he had stopped for a few moments to admire it, eyes squinting against the suns brightness, before continuing on along the rocks, ignoring the few sunspots that now blocked his vision.

the patrol was quiet, as it tended to be, his fur flat and his tail low at his hocks. no reason to be alarmed or worried, as none of the nearby scents were in any way threatening. so terance merely strolled along the borders, his ears pricked and tongue lolling.

At long last Rouge was back within Moonspear, resting after spending rougly a month out of it's borders. It made her feel both uneasy and secure at the same time. It was a place where she could sleep without worry. Their borders a message to all not to cross and for the most part, that message would be obeyed. But she still felt like an outsider among the pack, another thing she didn't mind. But it did mean that she would still rest lighlty, aware of her surrounding even at rest.

At the sound of another approaching she lifter her head suddenly and looked around. If she ever was in the pack she was often right by the border, just within the tree line. It made her feel as though she could slip away, even though she felt bad doing so not having a mission to use as an excuse for her absence.

But now that she had her own plans of her mind, seperate from only this pack, she felt as though she might be keeping a secret even though she hadn't done anything, yet. Keeping the secret wasn't the problem, it was the reactions she could possibly get if it were to be found out. So she kept quiet and was still skiddish when she woke. Seeing another pack member that she didn't know, patrolling the border she simply looked ahead, trying to avoid interacting if she didn't have to.

a wolf showed up behind him sometime along the patrol. though terance had never spoken directly to her, he recognized her scent and therefore showed no signs of caution. for a while, terance let the wolf patrol in peace-- there was no real reason to speak with her, and he was kind of enjoying this lonely stroll along the borders.

but, his osprey genes got the best of him, and eventually he stopped and turned to look behind him.

"hey," he called out to her, waiting to see her among the cliffs and boulders, "i'm terance."

She watched him patroling the border from a distance. Looking around and walking slowly. It seemed as though he glanced at her and was going to go on his merry way, so Rouge rested her head back down. But then he called out to her. Her ears lifted and she opened her eyes to look at him. He gave her a simple greeting and gave his name. "Hello Terance." she replied back, not giving a name or anything else.

he padded a little closer, noting now that she might've been asleep... whoops. she didn't seem too bothered by his introduction, offering him a soft response. that being said, there wasn't much to go off of after that. he stared, kind of expectantly-- it was kind of like, the thing to do when someone introduced themselves. you know, the polite thing to do.

terance decided that maybe she just wasn't raised the same was as him, but would remember it.

"we haven't met," he offered again, ears flicking forward as this time he expected some sort of response from her.

She looked up at him and thought as she normally did, that this was going to be annoying. But why was Rouge being so rude, she knew as this point that she was. She had been in this pack so long, avoiding interactions almost dreading the idea of them, seeing as how many of the revolved around what is was she did so much of outside of the pack.

But she could tell that he was only trying to be nice. And so she thought she would try to stop being such a groutch. At least for him, while he was being really polite about it. "I don't beleive we have. I spend a majority of my time outside of the borders. I don't spend much time within the territory." she explained giving a reason as to why they most likey hadn't crossed paths.

"I'm one of the scouts for the pack. What about you? What do you do?" she said trying to not sound so groutchy.

well that's odd, terance wanted to say, but knew better than to be so outrightly rude-- even if she didn't. why bother joining a pack if you didn't stay within the territory? sure, he did his own share of 'scouting' (though it was more accurately named wandering as he had no sense of direction or care of destination), but he always came back. and on top of that, he spent ample amount of time within the borders at least exchanging greetings with pack members and doing the bare minimum of patrolling. he couldn't wrap his head around that logic.

she didn't seem very pleasant, either, terance wasn't sure he liked her much. and she still hadn't shared her name.

"scouting is rad," he replied with a flick of his ears, "alya scouts, have you met her?" he knew alya the least of the sisters-- ayla had a tendency to... well terance didn't actually know what ayla had a tendency to do. she always seemed super friendly up front and then it always seemed like she got bored of talking to him-- he'd never brought that up to hydra before though. whatever, that was besides the point.

"i'm a mercenary," terance then informed her, tail holding still as he gauged her response, "and a naturalist."

She hadn't expected to hear the phrase 'rad' spoke. Not just from him but from anyone, she thought the phrase was extinct. But he was rather younge when she looked over him again, maybe it was comming back, but Rouge thought otherwise. "No I haven't. Is she another member then?" she asked.

When he spoke of his own skills the thought it was an interesting combination. Not that he was a naturalist, but that he was also a mercenary. The two trades seemed to be opposites of one another, one rather tough and the other more relaxed. "An interesting combination. Little bit of both worlds there."

terance nodded-- not sure if he was surprised or not that she didn't know who alya was... was it really common knowledge? he didn't know that there was more than one head to the shadow for a while, but they were much older and involved in the pack. alya was the gamma, too, last time he'd heard. "yeah, one of charon and amekaze's daughters," he replied, tail flicking, "hydra, alya, and lyra are the triplets, and then they also have korei." only saying it out loud did terance realize the difference in even the names of the royal family-- damn they basically set this girl up to be the white sheep of the family.

whatever, thoughts for another day.

terance also wasn't sure if he felt offended by her next statement. no one ever said your interests had to be complementary... it wasn't like he could stargaze during the daytime, and he was plenty built for fighting (thanks dante). somewhat defensive, he stiffened a bit, shifting. "well a lot of the pack actually has those two trades," he shared with her, feeling it was justified to pick such different trades. "i guess they don't help each other out much but, i like them both."

So many kids, Rouge thought. And the way he spoke of them made Rouge believe that they were all within the pack somewhere. Wasn't it a thing that at a certurn age children went off to their own perspective packs, or was that just a rumor she had heard. Never having been rased with any sence of when to or when not to move out Rouge was in the dark here. The more and more she spent time within the territory the more and more she realized just how strange it was to her.

He became a bit defense which he didn't need to be. "Relax dear. I wasn't insulting your trades. I merely thought it was interesting that you are able to access both sides of the spectrum. Rather then being ridged and to one side. It was a compliment." she assured him as he had missed it the first time.

"oh..." terance murmured, ears swiveling down. he liked to think he was a perfect mixture of both of his beloved parents. he had all of dante's brawn and street smarts, while still maintaining his mothers earthy naivety. he liked it, and it made him feel closer to his parents, maybe that's why he assumed it was insulting-- he was just sort of protective over them. "sorry," he added with a light dip of his nose.

"nothin' wrong with staying to one end though," he added, no longer defensive, merely thoughtful, "i mean it's great to be well-rounded, but if you've devoted your whole life to one thing you gotta be good at it." which was true, at least he assumed. though, he would never claim to be bad at either of his trades, and he liked to think he devoted equal time to both.

She believed what he was saying, that someone who spend their time focused on one thing was usaully good at it. That's how she would consider himself. But she still thought it stange that he didn't full accept the compliment. After she compliments him about having two trades, he goes on to talk about how having one was also good. Though it was a true statement, she didn't think he was giving himself enough credit. Like he was too busy making sure he wasn't offending others that he didn't take the time to apprciate himself. "You don't have to please everyone you know. You can take the time to appriciate a compliment."

terance could handle a compliment-- and though he did care about pleasing others, he'd go ahead and punch himself the day he cared what a bitch thought. and he was humble, he thought, but he loved it when people fed that secret ego of his. it was just this conversation-- he felt so backwards. he was just jumbled up, that wasn't his fault... was it? ugh, he couldn't tell. he shook his head, dipping his muzzle slightly. "right, yeah, thank you," he managed, shooting her a semi-grateful smile, still sort of lost. deciding he needed to back the fuck on out of this conversation while it was sort of saved, he sniffed.

"well i'll leave you to rest, it was nice meeting you," he said, then his brow furrowed-- he'd never gotten her name. whatever, he wasn't sure he cared. besides, she hadn't said it this whole time he doubted she'd say it now. whether or not she did, terance would bob his head in farewell and skrt on out of there-- back to patrolling, he supposed.

She nodded her head to him as he left and she rested her head down on her paws, but watched as he left. She thought for the most part things had gone well. Well better then she had expected. She would have simply ignored him, but she was trying to be socible. After all she had paid him a compliment and spoken about others within the pack.

To be honest, it was really hard for Rouge to be even that sociable within a pack setting and it didn't seem to be appriciated. No matter what she tried others always assumed that she had bad intentions. She wasn't sure if that opinion would ever be changed, she hoped it would, but she didn't think it would be. It was another reason she didn't feel she should be here. She thought about heading out on another scouting expodition for the next day.