Dragoncrest Cliffs tower of grey

When the weather warmed and the scents of estrus were no longer such an urgent matter in his life, he'd gradually returned to a far more normal routine with all the patrol the wintery conditions would allow.

Leading up to this, he had shamelessly taken advantage of the bad weather to be with Portia far more than before. A part of him would certainly miss it, from the privacy to everything they could do with it; he was so disgustingly in love with her, he'd learned. His head and heart hurt so badly that all he wanted to do was lounge around cozily with her for the rest of his days. But now, it was time to look forward and keep all things moving forward -- especially if he had just potentially fathered two litters within days of each other. Perhaps not his most tactical of maneuvers if it panned out, but nature had called beckoned with need, and he'd been more than willing to oblige and answer. He wouldn't know for sure for a while longer, anyway, although it was easy to have his suspicions because he had a damn good idea how it worked, then played out; he'd been there before.

But very subtly, the daylight hours grew longer and the chill receded even more. He'd been vigorous back on the patrol again and in his travels, all of the fallen prey let him scavenge often -- their caches were well-stocked and his belly full. He smelled more of the redwood forests, musky, and dashed with the undertone of seasalt. Dio thought it suited him. In part, it was the cliffs finally feeling like a home, not only a foreign place they'd sought refuge in.

Here on the backend of an outing just beyond their claim to refresh markings, he carried back with him a frozen deer corpse -- almost intact, not quite, he was keen to share a decent treasure and get someplace even warmer a while. With the cavern in sight, he tried to sense any nearby pack wolves.