Arrow Lake [J] The Beginning of the End

OOC: Sorry he's not giving you much to work with, but I don't know Kato very well yet and I'm still working out his personality. But it is a large part of his personality to be short-spoken and distrusting.

IC: He rolled his shoulder in a small attempt to relax his rigid muscles, but he honestly didn't give a damn whether she thought he was tense or not. Not only had he been a loner for the vast majority of his life, which, even on it's own, gave him a very good excuse to be distrusting of anyone and everyone, but the wolf he had trusted most in the world had turned on his family and slaughtered them. Call it what you like, but the truth was plain and simple; Onan had completely shattered Kato's confidence in his own species. If one moment someone could be so kind and so good and the next turn into a power-hungry, blood-thirsty monster, what was stopping this she-wolf before him from doing the same thing? What was stopping any of them from treading that path?

Yet, he longed for companionship. It was a part of himself he wished he could leave behind, but the feeling persisted. For some unknown reason he had felt drawn to this mountain, the Sunspire. It was a subconscious feeling to begin with, but Kato had known when he reached this valley that he didn't have any inclination of leaving.

Her questions were no surprise by now, as he had come to expect such things from her in the short period of time they had been speaking. "I am unsure. I wouldn't mind sticking around, I suppose," his voice was low, but not the same growling tone he had used previously. "It is a beautiful place," he added, almost as an afterthought. He quickly shrugged off her second (technically third) question, "How could one such as myself possibly be bothered?" his tone was light, but his eyes were sad as he spoke, "Me? Who can roam where he chooses when he chooses without a single thread tying him to anything at all? What could possibly be wrong in that picture?" He fought to keep his face straight and calm, when he was nearly breaking into a shattered pieces on the inside. Kato felt as though his heart wasn't even whole anymore, that a massive, essential part of it had been killed along with his family. And what was left was barely held together by sheer force of will. With a great inward effort, the lean wolf swallowed his feelings and met Ame's eye with a slightly bitter half-smile.