Kintla Flatlands now I'm chained

He'd roved up and down the length of the flatlands, not quite daring to step foot into the valley. Her scent still blew to him on the window, sometimes. In the early days, while he was still recovering, Catamaran had wondered if it was only a fever dream. Some days, he still wasn't sure.

He was in the southeast, today. Or he thought he was. The fever was broken and his wounds and closed, but he was still weary in his head and in his bones. His pawsteps dragged as he looked for that big lake, or one of the rivers, or even that meadow of berries to stop and fill his parched mouth with something sweet and tart.

Catamaran wanted rain to fall. When he'd tired of searching, he sat in the tall grass and simply looked up at the sky, waiting.

There was a stranger ahead, and this man truly did put 'strange' in the word. Leonore felt she had reason to be weary; was he ill? Would he infect, or worse, attack her?

The reasonable thing to do would be turning tail and slipping away, and yet she found herself frozen in place. It was impossible not to watch him as he dragged himself across flatlands, the thought that a vulture may come to peck at him crossing Leonore's mind.

Eyeing lands to the west, she wondered if it may be best to go looking for familiar faces.

A chill breeze carried a stranger's scent to him. Catamaran turned his head to gaze obliquely at the small, pale figure. For a moment, he was convinced it was Kucing, the sweeter of his sisters, come to bring him home. The thought burned him like acid, though, and he blinked through the pain of it and found himself more aware on the other side.

He looked at her more carefully, now. It was not (of course it was not) Kucing at all, but a younger female of an even slighter build.

Catamaran rose and began to slink toward her, his gait smooth enough now that he had a destination before him.

"Peace be," he said, his voice low, but carrying in the cool morning air.

What was with all the wolves using that strange greeting? She had met two in a row now!

You look like crap. She failed to hold her tongue, and found herself a bit embarassed.. but she didn't take it back, given it seemed like the truth to her. No way she could be mistaken as anyone particularly sweet now.

Leonore hadn't seen wolves like him too often, having grown used to the sleek feminine builds of her family in recent times. Men were always far stranger looking. This one was lanky and big, not a crime, but not a common sight to her.

Catamaran had only very rarely met women who felt the need to pay him any amount of respect. He did not expect it from this stranger, and did not take it personally, either. He only felt safe approaching because she was quite a bit smaller than him — he was sure he could fend her off even in his condition. Even if...

"I feel like crap," he replied, speaking candidly, for once. Weariness had loosed his tongue.

To a certain point.

The bounty hunter did not stop as he drew nearer, but he did slow his pace. He came alongside her, at a healthy distance, his nose lifted into the breeze. She had him at a disadvantage, however, and he half-circled to try and get a better sniff.

"You look healthy enough," he noted. He'd know — he was taking a good, long look at her, after all.

So, he likely was ill. Leonore had guessed correctly.

She stiffened as he circled, ears shooting straight back once he began to stare for too long. That's because I am. I have family keeping me fed. These days it was certainly a lie, but Leonore had learned long ago that it wasn't good practice to let larger, older strangers know when you were alone. Thanks Vermouth.

Where's your friends? Or are you alone? She was more prodding than she was genuinely asking a question.

That made sense to Catamaran, too. Females got to stay with their family. Males had to leave when they got to a certain age. She didn't smell like she had a family taking care of her, but he felt no need to call her on her bluff. He knew he oughtn't be menacing the first wolf he came across, anyway.

"I'm alone," he replied, thinking that this should be obvious. Perhaps she meant it as a dig. "Where's your family?" he asked her. Her lack of their scent on her did not meant they weren't around. Somewhere. "Are they looking for joiners?"

He stretched, showing off the sinew beneath his coat.

"I'm a little banged up, but that'll heal quick," he reported, uncomfortable with advertising the state he was in, but resigned to the fact that it was rather obvious even without him telling her.

When he began to ask questions, Leonore couldn't be sure if he was calling her bluff. They're on the coast, north. You would have to ask them yourself. Should he actually listen to her and find her auntie, Leonore felt sure that he would come out of it far more beat than he was now.

She had no intention of going northwards herself. Leonore still couldn't bare to face Sobeille after how she took off.

Well.. I'm leaving. She decided, it would be best to go before her nervous energy attracted something worse than another wolf. She wanted to go looking for Katmai, anyways. Good luck looking less crappy.

Staring for a moment longer, she waited to make sure he didn't seem like he would give chase before bounding off westward.

A frown pulled at the corner of his mouth. Catamaran knew of a few coastal packs — one of which was no longer present, fortunately or unfortunately. The other... well, he had reason to avoid that area, considering he might have a few little bastards running around.

He cut a sharp glance toward the stranger, assessing her once more. They looked somewhat alike, he thought, struck suddenly by the idea. His expression changed, and he appeared suddenly warier; suddenly more interested.

But she was already leaving.

"... Be well," he said to her retreating figure, feeling, strangely, as if he'd seen a ghost.