Ouroboros Spine i will breathe you in the smoke

For @Ptarmigan because we're awesome and need like 300239502395 threads together, right? I'm having too much fun playing out this grumpier side of Mordecai anyway. :P Don't feel obligated to match length, I'm ramblesaurus in circles.

For a change of pace, he had decided to scale one of the smaller ridges of the Spine. The temperatures had dipped to more brisk conditions, and the dampness of the earth in light of the rain had brought a chill to the terrain that he had been waiting for. The seasons were in change now, and Mordecai only hoped that it would not plummet straight into the depths of winter in the course of a few days. Along the higher ledges of the rocky trails, the trees gave way to a brief panorama. From there he could spy out the fringes of the lake privy to them, but not much more in the grand scheme of things. It wasn't like the mountain, where the vista carried out over to the plains. Beyond their territory lied more and more forests, with little break that he could find.

Still, it was a part of the territory that he had not explored. Where others within the Spine had set to work scouring every edge, every crevice available, he had taken it slowly. In turn, he savored the view that was there, lingering very much like the sentinel he had been at their borders. But even their borders were quiet in recent times, which the established wolf debated being a good or a bad thing. Perhaps they were far enough removed that it would be easy for them to care for themselves, but being too removed bothered him as well. Perhaps it called back to something Sitri had told him, about how silence often played prologue to much worse things.

Reclining on his haunches, Mordecai let the autumn gusts toussle his coat about. The cooler weather was refreshing, a distraction from the summer that had most definitely been uncomfortable. And not because of the weather. But in lieu of the wind in his ears along that sloping, rocky terrain, he also noted the silence that had come to settle over the Spine as well. Even as comfortable as he seemed, he found himself very uncomfortable all at once.

audioslave — man or animal