Blacktail Deer Plateau it's only natural

Because Pura was so disconnected from his emotions, it made him hyper-aware of the physical changes his body was going through as he aged - after all, a lack of drama receptors leaves a lot of brain space for other activities.

That day, he was feeling.. agitated. Angry? No - just agitated, as if there was something he ought to be doing but had forgotten. Angry was a heady height of emotion that the freckled boy had never reached.

The blue-grey whelp paced a clearing near the mountain-lined border, stopping to every now and then to strike at the earth with one of his large front paws. It was unseasonably hot, and try as he might, Pura could not find shade cool enough.

He was growing rapidly now, and the freckles on his face and neck had spread to form a fine veil of dappled grey over his entire front. From a distance, he looked like a wolf fully grown, and it was only a lack of the bulk his frame would one day possess that marked him out as a pup. That, and behaviour. An older wolf might have concealed their frustrations from the rest of the pack to avoid questions (Pura especially, who hated questions).

Osprey enjoyed the warm days, sunbathing, whenever there was a chance to do that, because she knew that in a not too distant future the sun would hide behind the clouds again, the colors would fade away and everything would be wet, gray and gloomy. However, the heat was too much to bear and since her den didn't offer much comfort, she got out and sought another place to cool off.

Eventually she decided to head to the river and have a good swim. It had been a while since she had pretended to be a fish or a mere-wolf and the prospects of doing that again filled her with childlike glee. On her way she first caught scent and then sight of one of the youngsters. This was someone she had not yet seen - grey with darker freckles - but surely one of her relatives. Complicated details didn't matter.

Deciding that swimming together with somebody was more fun than alone, she approached the boy in a friendly manner and said: "Hey, little one - care to join me for a swim?"

A voice cut through the haze, bringing Pura's ears to attention.

"Hey, little one - care to join me for a swim?"

The wolf that offered reprieve from the heat was new to the pup's life, but not to the pack - and that made her easier to accept than the other newcomers. Peregrine seemed to trust her, and he put great stock in his opinions. He was Alpha, after all, presumably with good reason. The upper echelons of the pack's hierarchy were less prone to change, and its stability was a source of comfort for Pura, who disliked change greatly.

Her eyes were identical to Peregrine's, but Osprey herself was much paler - grey, like Pura, but a blend of darker shades than the pup. No freckles, either. He marched briskly to within a few feet of her, extending his neck to sniff the aura of scent that surrounded his pack-mate. A distinctly female scent. There was a marked difference. Pura inhaled deeply, documenting the nuances of this wolf's very particular smell. "Yes," he concluded, staring at her with his big, blank eyes - he wanted to swim. But first: "Why are we grey? My sister.. she isn't grey."

The kid did seem a little odd at first, but Osprey got over this impression quickly. There had been a big variety of personalities in her vast family, so she could say that she had experienced practically everything - from drama-queens to quiet hermit crabs and all of those, who cam inbetween. Besides she herself wasn't considered exactly "regular" among some folks.

"Excellent!" she retorted cheerfully, even though she had a slight feeling that the pup didn't actually have a clue, what he had agreed to do. His next question came out of the blue, but before shrugging and brushing this off, she lifted her gaze briefly to the sky and thought. "Well... some wolves come from the cloudwalkers, some belong to the clan of snow-wanderers. Our coat color reflects the environment we fit in the most."