Whitewater Gorge An Unexpected Party

There were wolves around, but he still hadn't met his closest neighbors.  Not that he really cared much that they existed -- they were on the far side of the smelly hellhole that was the spring.  It might as well be a wall.  Perhaps unfortunately for the wolf that discovered him, Mal was Mal, and he indeed was a moody beast, even though his reaction to her calling out was a little bit hard to read.

The weird thing was that she had enough of a similar pattern to him and his siblings that he had to squint suspiciously.  As if somehow that would provide an answer -- nah.  After the ghost that was actually Queenie, he wasn't sure what to think.  Some other trick?  But other than some speckling, she didn't look a thing like his family, something else was off about her that he didn't know enough to nail down.

Still.  It was enough to make him a little bit curious (even if in the back of his mind he was more wary about her than someone who looked like a "normal" wolf).  He sniffed, trying to decide if she actually was something of this world rather than whatever monsters probably haunted his dreams at this point.  That was probably why Mal wasn't quite as brash in his following question, Hey.  Who are you?