Blacktail Deer Plateau buried in the dark

It was Saena's time to visibly flinch. Tryphon's reaction, unexpectedly nervous as it was, in turn caused her to hesitate and flatten her red ears against her downy skull. She wobbled in place, with one paw half-extended in front of her, and tried to decide if she ought to anticipate a mild or aggressive reaction to having spooked him. Some wolves spoke first with their teeth, and she worried briefly that a man as hard as Tryphon looked might be the sort to do so.

But instead he uttered a sullen, no, and she slowly lowered her foot to the rough ground. The look the gold-masked man shot her way made her ears lift marginally, and Saena leaned forward a little at the shoulders as though to reveal herself better, but when he asked his question, she faltered. She had to mull over the answer for a few heartbeats before she could think of anything to say. Blacktail Deer Plateau was a distant memory, and she could say many things about the pack, but in the end, she settled for her last impression of it.

"Weak," she grated, and collected her limbs beneath her to sit neatly at the plateau's edge. She beckoned with a jerk of her snout, inviting Tryphon to join her. There was nothing better to do, at least not for her. "I was its heir once," she told him, "and would have led it, but it was governed by those who were too weak to uphold the natural order of the pack. In the end, I left, and in the end, so did they." She knew where the pack could be found, now, but rather savoured the idea that she could have saved what was originally here, somehow. "You seem like you've seen better days," she commented idly, but she had no idea of all the trials and tribulations he'd been through in his life, nor whether it would strike a nerve or not.