Firefly Glen Hide away from the moments that make us

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It was an evening unlike any other he'd ever seen. For the last few hours of the afternoon, it had rained heavy, wet droplets, but then as the sun neared the horizon, the clouds peeled away just enough to let the evening light through- and it was absolutely scarlet. Squeezed into the shrinking gap between the sky and the horizon, the light that pierced through refracted on the mist rising from the wet grounds, now that the rain had stopped, and made the last glimmer of daylight shimmer, with a rosy hue cast over the entirety of the glen. He wasn't sure what it meant- or if it meant anything at all- but he it failed to have any profound effect on him, no matter how beautiful it was.

He patrolled the borders in solemn silence, paws making soft squelching noises in the mud as he moved along, sniffing for strange scents and leaving behind markings of his own. After the rainfall that afternoon, it would be important to re-establish their borders, and he needed the distraction.

After a long day of activity, Dhalia charted a course towards the border with the express purpose of finding a better vantage to watch the setting sun. Brilliant hues seemed to race with her; she knew how fleeting the sight would be, and finding the view was half the thrill. She was all soaked and stringy fur, having spent the better part of the day exploring as she always did, with not a care to the inclement weather or to the mud that only increased where solid ground once met her feet.

She broke the treeline at a gallop, and that was where she found her company: a familiar, yet unacquainted face, she would find, if she ever slowed enough to see. The slight hill made it near impossible to find any ground to stop -- especially on this slippery ground -- and she whipped on past him with a laugh and a light-hearted trill of, "lookit that sunset!!" before her company was gone - gone, at least, until she could slow herself down, and turn around to collect herself back to him.

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He continued to lumber on, aware of the way the landscape wascoated in crimson light, but barely spending any time to give it notice. If anything, it made it harder for him to differentiate shapes in the tall grass, as the shadows became a purplish hue, and any boulder or gap in the grasses of the glen could have easily been mistaken for a body. He heard the steady beat of pawsteps loping in his direction, making splattering noises in the mud but even above the scent of the wet earth he could tell that this was one of his packmates, and one of the ones he knew very little. Thus, he afforded no time in watching her approach, and simply flicked an ear in her direction as she loped past him, flinching as she sent a bit of mud splattering in his direction.

He lifted a foreleg to wipe the splatter of mud off his cheek probably a bit too dramatically as she turned around to approach him, now that she'd been able to slow down without slipping. The grim, hardset clench to his jaw slackened slightly when he caught sight of her, and he wondered then why he'd not noticed her before. She was sharp-featured, and something about the wildness in her gaze made him forget about his self-pity, if only for a moment. She directed his attention toward the sunset, but he was well beyond finding any solace in looking at the horizon as the sun slowly sank toward it. “The sunset? Nah. Look at our Glen,” He said, gesturing away from the sunset, and across the sprawling fields. In the distance, the rolling foothills looked a rosy plum hue and Moonspear itself a dark, royal purple. Everything looked different when cast beneath the final glow of the day's last glimmer of light, but he was less than enamoured. With a sigh, he continued to move forward, patrolling along the borders like a well-trained guard dog.

He was right, of course. She knew he would be. For hadn't she just come from running through that light that set their Glen ablaze? There was wonder, in the majesty of it all - and she wondered, how there could be anyone who wasn't awestruck and made alive by these fleeting hours of dusk.

But she had caught the look on her packmate's face before he had turned away, and though she knew she had come here to watch the final rays fade to the midnight sky, there would be other sunsets, spectacular in different ways than this, and she would finish her marvelling then.

"It really is something," she said, to conclude their thought, before she leapt forward in a graceful rebound toward her packmate. Her ears caught his sigh, but she said nothing of it, and she let her voice carry in an unassuming rhythm. "Hey, you out for a solo patrol tonight? Or would you mind some company?" and she would meet him with a smile, whether he turned to look at her, whether he said yes or no, whether he smiled back or not.

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EDIT: Heya darling! I've just added a little conclusion to this, since it's out of date and it seems Dhalia has slipped inactive. If at any point you bring her back and would like it revived OR would like another, new thread- I would be happy to make that happen <3

She took a moment to observe what he'd pointed out, and he tried not to wallow too much in his worry for Fennec following her apparent disappearance as he knew it would have an impact on how his new packmate saw him. His frown was still fairly deep when she asked if she could join him, but he wasn't exactly willing to turn her away either. He figured she'd ask a bunch of questions and try and figure him out- but this was part of being in a pack, so he nodded. “Join me if you'd like,” He said simply, though there wasn't a lot of enthusiasm to his voice. He should have been much more pleased that such a pretty girl was asking him if she could join him- but he found it difficult to be distracted from his woe.

He began to move along the borders, and fo a little while he didn't really say much but went straight back to doing what he'd been doing before- sniffing for scent markers, and reinforcing them wherever they had faded. He took note of the non-wolf scents that he caught, noting that jackrabbits frequently crossed the borders in and out of their claimed territory- but they were generally creatures that went wherever they wanted anyway, and never spent too much time in one particular spot over another. The more jackrabbits that decided to stay in the glen, the better. They'd help supply the wolves for the winter.

“I'm Bronco, by the way,” He said, though there was tiredness in his voice. “Bronco Blackthorn.” He said, though he was fairly certain that it didn't really matter. What did, nowadays? Not much. He indicated with a brief gesture of his head that they could carry along the border together, if she wished to join him, though he would be fairly reserved and distracted...Hardly his usual self but- he'd have to admit...Having a bit of company did feel nice.