assimilating himself to sunspire is not a process that splitskull sought to rush. it took time to understand a culture that he knows is different from the one he spent majority of his life living within. their traditions are not so brutish. he's spent his time thus far learning the layout of the land, memorizing the paths and contributing to the caches and borders along the way. this point in time, however, he rests stretched out upon a long and wide rock, enjoying the warmth of the sun on his back. he forgets that he's not quite the young man he used to be and there are days that he is more aware of his age than others. it's a dull ache today in his mid-spine, a result of a particularly invigorating chase with a scrappy fox. he only seeks to spend an hour, maybe two beneath the sun's therapeutic warmth before he will be back on his feet and working towards earning his keep. splitksull was not a man used to being idle but with fall beginning and winters on it's way he knows he'll have to take time and be more careful of how hard he pushes himself.

there is a metallic scent upon the air, twined with a scent that holds steady and strong at the borders. he doesn't quite know who appears with a goose clutched betwixt his jaws but he assumes it's one of the male leaders. rannoch or terance. the bounty hunter pushes himself to his paws with a soft groan between gritted teeth and bows his head in acknowledgement. "hello."

"that's correct," the bounty hunter replies, attempting to subtly stretch beneath the pleasingly warm rays of the sun. it feels good and helps to ease some of the dull ache. the last thing splitskull wants is for the wolves of the sunspire to think that a few aches and pains — something all of the youngin's would experience someday when they got to become his age — would make him a dead weight. splitskull had no intentions of being dead weight to them. an introduction followed splitskull's confirmation. the young man before him was rannoch, then. "a pleasure to finally meet you." the grizzly man spoke with a secondary dip of his crown.

"thank you." the gesture comes as bit of a surprise. he's not used to it ...and admittedly, never was that ...gentlemanly towards his own subordinates. but alas, hextooth spires was a different beast altogether. as rannoch cleans off his portion, splitskull moves down from his reclining rock, paws touching solid earth once more and when the goose is offered to him he takes it with another gruff 'thank you' and begins to clean it off, plucking the feathers methodically to expose the flesh and meat beneath.

"what would you like to know?" splitskull invites in-between mouthfuls of feathers.