She'd awoken that morning with an odd amount of energy, bolted from the den like a startled hare and proceeded to whiz around the den site until she got the general feeling she might have become a tad annoying. With a quick murmur to Murdock that she was off to wear out her energy, the sheepdog had traveled in spurts farther than she'd intended. Still her energy as not worn out; rather, her good mood was bolstered by the progression of her healing and the novelty of her mateship with Murdock. 

She startled a small flock of doves, and chased them with wild leaps as they fluttered towards a tree at the water's edge. She twisted and writhed as she jumped, long leaps coming to a screeching halt as soon as she noticed the man that lay crumpled in the snow. Landing nimbly a short distance away from him, chest heaving with happy exertion, she chirped a "hello!" As her breath returned, she studied the male a little harder, noting his odd breaths. "are you all right, mister?" She asked this was a touch of concern, words choppy through her own gulping breaths, hardly feeling the cold through the warmth of her exertion.

He did seem to be all right, for no more than a moment later did he begin to speak. At first, her ears fell sideways in confusion before perking back up when she realized his mistake. She did not mean to find it funny, really, rather, it seemed rude to laugh. Still, he said dof with such confidence that it had her spend all her energy on suppressing a laugh, for surely that'd be rude. 

Instead, she pranced from paw to paw, doing an odd little dance before abruptly falling still and plopping onto her rear. "I'm a dog, yes." She said carefully, attempting to correct him without appearing rude (at least she hadn't laughed). "a sheepdog,"  She blinked at the seemingly joyful boy, tail beating the snow behind her still.  

She shifted her weight a moment before responding, not quite able to sit still, yet. "I'm Poppy - like the flower. From Easthollow." She chirped, eyeing the rolling boy playfully, but unsure if it was a good idea to go rolling around in the snow with a wolf she'd just met, even though it seemed a delightful outlet for her energy.

After delivering her short introduction, she watched curiously as he seemed to change, somehow; he seemed almost hopeful, and his tail beat the ground behind him. "yes," She supplied, finding it a bit easier to settle down now that she had the male to focus on. "it's back there - the territory with the big stone circle." She flicked her muzzle back the way she'd come, forelimb bouncing as it alone tried to work off her energy. "what's your name?" It seemed only fair that she receive a name in return, and she decided she rather liked this man - he seemed friendly.

 Casimir sounded like another fancy name; she noted dully. She had not met a wolf yet who carried the same kind of simple name she did, and she wondered if names were yet another difference between dogs and wolves. She did not dwell on this long, however, and his question had her consider a moment all the time she'd been and spent in Easthollow. "a few weeks - and there're lots. Valette's the alpha, and she's friendly but also a little scary, sometimes. And Nanook's the beta, " Here was a term she'd learned recently, from Murdock, one she'd come to learn meant the second leader. She was stopped only from going through a list of every pack member by the realization that it might bore him, and lapsed into happy silence.

The boy seemed thrilled by her talk of a pack, reminding her of herself when she'd first come to these lands. For a moment, she paused - for surely if he reminded her of herself in the past tense, then, somehow, she'd changed. The thought was mildly concerning a moment, but she took the pause to think f Murdock, her life in the pack and the wolves she surrounded herself with. She remembered too the chickenwire coop and the flat, flat plain, the dying sheep and the dust that settled thickly on her old life.

She smiled then, half at the thought and half at the boy's question, almost forgetting to answer. "yes," she began brightly, "no one's tried eating me, even though they probably could."  She had realized the ease with how the wolves might hunt her as they hunted their fox a while pack, but somehow, it did not concern her. She nodded at his next question, turning a tight circle as her energy rushed back, odd thoughts pushed aside. "follow me!" She offered this only a moment before twisting and darting back the way she'd come, frequently circling back to make sure the male followed her well enough.