the ongoing speculation

As the snow fell, it seemed there was an increasingly busy sensation about the Spine. Mordecai took advantage of this with ease, tossing himself into the mix by keeping up in their usually quiet hold. On that particular day, he had been going over the caches as he came upon them, finding their numbers neat and tightly stowed away from other wandering predators. There were some out near the borders that had been ravaged, but he did not consider that a loss for them. Those were purposefully there for the sake of steering creatures clear of venturing deep into their home. But if they did, he had little concerns that the wolves of the Spine would dispatch and remove whatever instigator they found.

Moving along from another one, his attention on the caches lapsed as a solitary howl rose up from deeper in the territory. He caught the message loosely, recognizing Dijax's song, and then wondering what it was that they would converse about. He had not seen much of the Russian since his reluctance acceptance to stay with them, but he hoped for something good. Issuing a call of his own back through the wood, Mordecai set off in search of the other briskly.

The terrain spoke of history between them as he stumbled along the path beside the stream, weaving and bobbing through the dips and rises. Through the snow covered boughs, he slowly picked out the shape and structure of Dijax. His attention was only torn away once by something that smelled half-interesting, but Mordecai had to let go of the sight of the dead bird as he moved on. He would come back to it later, unless it ended up snatched up between now and then. A smile came easily to his face, just as the wave in his tail followed suit. He didn't query what it was that had summoned him, assuming that Dijax would be forthcoming past their initial greetings.