Silvertip Mountain Daybreak

They appeared a friendly lot, and met her with a rich welcome. She sensed a strange tension between their number, but their kind voices eased the rush of her heart, as Krypton's had the night of her acceptance. Nanook stood a little taller and took another step from behind the rock, yet she kept a cordial distance from them and showed no initiative to further breach it.

She tipped her head to Anita and Reiko as she had to Ezekiel, before turning to the man to address his question directly. "It's good here. Thank you," Nanook said with a short nod. She hadn't been with them long, but those she had met had shown her nothing but kindness. Even Krypton, without knowing a dot or line about her, had graced her with a welcome Nanook would not take for granted.

Remembering her promise to Krypton was what stopped her from shrinking away from the questions Reiko posed. A slight frown creased her mouth when she considered her family, where she had come from and the life she now led. The days of her puphood seemed so long ago. "No. I was born in a valley." There had been mountains and forests and rivers and caves. She didn't know how any of these things would have changed the way she looked, but then she thought of her parents and how different they had looked, and glanced to the sky before saying, "but my papa was from the North." That she remembered, and wondered if mama had been born there, too. Her coat had been even starker than her father's. It would only make sense.

Life took its toll; she had never been a beefy wolf, and the famine only served to accentuate the fact. But she had scrapped by, and had emerged on the other side frail but determined to live like never before. These wolves seemed no different. Reiko's bones protruded as Nanook's did, and her words seemed to go beyond sympathy. An experienced understanding, a connection Nanook felt but couldn't explain. She shifted her gaze. "Yes. Sometimes." She wished to say more, but what was appropriate to ask? She had little experience in making friends, and fished her thoughts until she settled on, "Were you loners, too?" She looked to none of them, but rather let her question dangle in a vague query to them all.