Blacktail Deer Plateau If plan A doesn't work, the alphabet has 25 more letters

It still hurt his head a bit to run, and he was not quite aware enough of his surroundings yet to do so, but the leader had now progressed to trotting through the territory instead of picking a slow path through the trees. At the sound of Dawn's howl, he swung away from his current path toward the pond to cut through the woods to where Dawn and the stranger stood.

"Hello," he called cheerfully, striding confidently toward the pair. He gave an awkward turn of his head to grin at Dawn, silently bragging about his progress, before turning a genial smile on the stranger. "Joiner, huh? That's two in one day," he remarked, correctly guessing the stranger's purpose at their borders. She could have been passing on a message or something like that, but there was something about her stance that made Grayday guess otherwise.

"I'm Grayday. You probably already gave Dawn your whole spiel, but why don't you tell me a bit about yourself?" said the male, tail wagging in a friendly manner.