Stone Circle a crown only falls

The leaves were yellowing fast and it rained more often than not. Autumn was here, and the winter's ghoul was waiting in the wings. Soon, it would be cold - and any prey that remained would start to become thin and chewy.

Disa didn't like winter. Its only redeeming feature was that it pressed pause on the drive to breed, and made almost sensible creatures of men for a few months.

Disa made her way back to the stone circle under grey skies and through drizzle so fine it hung in the air like mist. When she did not immediately spot @Sven, she tipped her head back and called for him.

Sven was surprised and headed towards the sound. The wolf that had put him on edge but wished him well.

Hello.

He titled his head. Grey eyes meeting hers. You came back? Can I help ya woth something?

Silence lay heavy on him. He still carried himself a man of deep quiet and contemplation. Of a wild sort of loneliness. Lonliness that could dig deep.

He was here. Disa was both glad and a little disappointed - she had given the most encouraging speech she could muster, and it had been to no avail.

No matter. She had come with a proposition.

"I need companions," she said in place of hello, steel meeting silver. The words were out before she had so much as come to a halt. "For winter. And you need..." To move on, and live. "You need something new. You can come back again when the world warms up. Please," Disa added before Sven had even processed her words as language. The muscles of her face reluctantly moved out of their natural frowning state. "I can't stay in the desert, and neither of us can spend a winter alone."

Her speech had been heard. But he was a realist and he could leave eventually, but not right now as fall was turning to winter.

Companions? I thought you had a pack?

Hadn't she said so.

I have caches built. But being alone is not ideal. What do you need?

"I thought you had a pack?" Sven said, and proceeded to offer her something from his hard-earned caches. Disa didn’t know why she had expected him to jump at the chance to leave his ancestral home and start a merry band of winterkin with a stranger.

Disa dropped into a sit, ears sitting askew on her small head.

"I do. They are not ideal." Though, unbeknownst to Disa, a change was happening in Verapaz. "You won't leave?" she asked, looking around Sven's vast and empty manor.

Sven was not one who left things undone. Nor did he want to leave his home. But he also knew it was foolish to leave during winter and fall.


Not in the middle of fall and beginning of winter. That could be a suicide. And I won't have other deaths on my conscience for such things.

A small smile.

Disa nodded slowly. The same conditions that kept him here were the ones that spurred her to find an alternative - winter was coming, and she could not spend it with Verapaz as it was.

"Don't die." She gave the land a sweeping gaze, coming to a stop on the face of its sole occupant. He would be thin by spring. It irked her that he would not seek a group while there was still time. "Good luck," she offered, blinked once,and shot past him without saying goodbye.

Wrapping this up!

Sven knew he could service a winter here. Knew others could too. What he didn't know was other places and other wolves. So he was reluctant to leave. He'd stay here where he knew he could survive until spring at least.

A nod. Thank you. I'll try not to die.

Then he watched her leave again. And he was content in his decision.