Big Salmon Lake on my mind

Eljay was so inverted into his own world that he didn't even notice someone else approach at first, just like with Gannet. When she started to speak he stared at her, bewildered and wide-eyed, fearful and the emotion still vividly shimmering in his eyes. She started to speak about the beauty of things and he had a hard time tracking what exactly she was saying because she was talking so fast and especially so much.

She noticed that he was sad pretty quickly, which wasn't surprising, and Eljay found himself frozen still. He had had difficult times meeting strangers in Redhawk Caldera as a youth, but he'd never met any outside of the pack in the two years he was on this earth. Not except Sebastian, who had seemed out-of-pack but turned out to be an ex-member who'd later rejoined, so it didn't really count.

It took Eljay a while to collect himself, and even then he looked disheveled and uncomfortable as he finally said something. "I... The brambles were — it was hard to find my way," he said sheepishly while looking back where he'd come from. "Are... What pack are you from?" In Eljay's mind, it wasn't a matter of whether someone was from a pack, but which one they were from. He hadn't quite pieced together that he was a loner now, either.