freedom, order, and safety for all of us

500th post! Open for any one! Totally cool if your character wishes to use this towards a trade too.

He hadn't been to the isle since his return. The realization dawned upon him as he lazed beneath a tree and stared out towards the lake. He'd finished his second patrol of the day and with the sun blazing at a true high noon, the fog across the lake had cleared to reveal the spires of the trees that guarded its shores. He looked across the waters and wondered if the herd he'd chased a number of times before still lingered there or if he'd taunted them enough that they'd moved on. Mule deer were expert swimmers. As their young were growing and now old enough to brave the lake waters, he wouldn't put it past them to move on.

Iqniq considered the effort it would take to get there. To swim or to wait until the sun began it's slow decline across the sky. He breathed heavily, the air escaping his nostrils in a puff as he resigned himself to this adventure. He picked his frame up off the earth and lumbered over to the rocky shore. With a few quick paces, he was in the water and swimming the distance to the island at the lake's center.

He drew out of the lake onto the shore and crossed to stand beneath the shade of a tree. He shook himself, ridding his pelt of the additional water weight as he prompted it to dry more completely. He took a few steps back into the sun and lifted his muzzle as the sun's rays swept over his fur. He lingered there for a while longer, basking in the glow, before he remembered his purpose and turned inwards.

Moving between the shade of the trees, he turned towards the places he remembered these deer occupying. First? The place on the southern end of the island where they often rested beneath the shade of the trees. He lifted his nose to the air, testing it, before he turned it back towards the ground and searched for scents and signs of their continued residence.