Ouroboros Spine Life is strange.

The mountain home felt more claustrophobic to him lately (which was strange since so many of the wolves had slipped away, eager to escape the tension in the air); maybe Revui was finally picking up on the strain between his parents, or maybe it was the heightened hormonal state of the women that drove him away on his own flight. He descended the mountain and by late afternoon he was in the foothills, heading north. He could smell an earthiness to the air — the naturalist in him knew that meant rain was on the way, so he looked to the heavens with a grim-set expression just as the first drops scattered on the wind.

The sky darkened as it took on more clouds, forming a blanket of overcast blue-greys that wept intermittently. He could hear the rain catching on the leaves around him. The hills had some tree-cover that kept Revui from feeling the rain, but the tiny spittle of water wasn't much to begin with. It was surprisingly cold. He found more shelter futher north as the forest overtook the landscape — prolific, coniferous, ripe with the scent of evergreen.

The further the boy went the less he thought about the tension back home, the yearning of his body when intoxicated by the heavy scent of the women, all the confusion that a teenage body might hold — he found comfort in his studying of the landscape and before long, found himself surrounded by unfamiliar undulations of stonework. He was intrigued by this space, and all thoughts of home vanished as he began to prowl through the fallen forest.

He liked the smell of pine needles in the rain. It reminded him of home, one of the few things that he actually liked to remember. He had no idea what made the smell so unique, but when the rain wasn't too bad and he was near a coniferous forest, he took a rest under a big tree and relaxed.

He was enjoying himself when he heard the traipsing of another creature. His ears perked up, and after looking around for a moment he settled on the shape of a wolf loping nearby. Mal chuffed softly to gain the male's attention.

Something stirred in the dark beneath a fallen series of logs; the roots of some long-dead trees kept them suspended at odd angles and allowed for creatures to take shelter, but Revui had not thought of this as he perused the hillside. The movement surprised him. He paused and raised his head, lowered his head, narrowed his eyes - like a cat trying to judge distance, when he was trying to determine if the shape moving around was a threat or not. He was keenly aware of his own size and strength; there would always be an inherent arrogance to Revui when it came to his body, so he did not think he was in danger — but he tensed, wondering just what would come out from the distant blackness of the wood. Something to eat? Something to chase? Something to fight?

The shifting stopped as he took notice of it (or perhaps the creature took notice of him) and he heard an invitation being chuffed his way. If it was something dangerous then he'd fallen for whatever trap had been laid, but still Revui was not afraid. He stalked closer and halted with his head angled so that he could look at the shelter built of the ruined forest (think: the scene in Jurassic Park when the tyrannosaurus looks at the kids in the car), and he grunts his own gutteral greeting.

The stone-furred wolf's attention was grabbed by Mal's soft greeting. He smiled and shifted his body into a sitting position. Hello, he said softly. The rain wasn't strong enough to raise his voice over the tumult, so he maintained a normal speaking voice. He wagged his tail gently, expressing his calmness.