Great Bear Wilderness The sentinels

<3!

He had seen her leave with fury, and curiosity got the better of him. As rude as it may have been, Mordecai trailed after the Kesuk alpha at length, far enough behind that she only scarcely popped up in his view once or twice. Not that he had ever really seen Jinx leave her post but maybe twice, and both of those times had involved him. Things had certainly shook up one way or another within her merry band, and the desertions of others had not gone completely unnoticed. Mordecai did not know those who had departed from the territory, only recognized their fading scent marks here and there from where they had dwelled, and of course the meeting that had occurred early in his acceptance.

So with those minor shake-ups, he couldn't help but wonder what drew her out and away from the territory. He pondered if she was going to hunt down the deserters, a very task he had seen his father do from lowly thieves and freeloaders alike. Out there in the thick of the Wilds, he couldn't tell familiarity from unfamiliarity, aside from the Amazonian-built canine he trailed behind. Either way, he did not let her go unaccompanied, in part due to his budding loyalty to her.

When he found her, she had turned still for the moment. Caught up by the sense of adventure once again, the tawny Ostrega had to pull himself from the new surroundings to slow himself. Beyond her ivory coat he saw what he initially thought of rolling hills, until he realized how they too jutted from the ground in regal, stout stances. Mountains, but not like the ones that he had seen to their north. It was the lake that stood further down the slope as he came to join her that captured his attention. He whined uncertainly from behind, stopping himself short of standing aside her as she surveyed the grounds. What did she see? Why had she stopped? And more importantly, he kept his distance until he gauged just how she would react to him being there. Though his tail wagged behind him, he wondered if she had come there to be alone.