Blacktail Deer Plateau buried in the dark

When was the last time she was here? Saena didn't remember. She could hardly recognize the overgrown paths that wound through the forest, and the den with its dark spot on the floor felt like somewhere forbidden when she poked her head into it. The gap in the stone at the back of the den was left alone. She remembered falling back there with Junior once, but she was too large to fit behind it now, so there was nothing worth investigating. She drew away from it after spending only a minute longer at it. She could recall that the den was a significant place, but other details surrounding it were unavailable to her, so she moved on.

She eventually emerged from the forest near to where the plateau rose highest, an outcropping that jutted out to shadow the river below. It was from here that she spotted the climbing Tryphon, and without much hesitation, for Saena was feeling strangely alone in her birthplace, she began to pick her way along the lip of the plateau toward him. She kept her body language as neutral as possible, even going so far as to be slightly deferential with a wolfish grin and ears that pulled back along her skull; she'd learned recently of the more dynamic nature of dominance that came with putting her emotional arrogance aside and embracing the wild and her instincts, and now knew the value of adapting to the situation. She was an ambitious creature, there was no doubt of that, but that didn't mean she needed to stand above others at all times. It bred contempt, she understood now, and mistrust.

Showing some healthy respect in the form of situational deference was no doubt a better way to win a wolf's trust than trying to dominate them when no dominance was called for, she figured. "Were you part of the pack that used to be here, too?" she called out. She'd never seen a wolf who looked quite like Tryphon, a hard muscled creature with a strangely disarming golden mask, but she'd been away from the Blacktail pack long before they moved to Donnelaith. She could only wonder if he'd previously run with the wolves she'd once called family.