The Heartwood else shall eden have no springtime

Not for the first nor the last time, Peregrine's hunting duties took him well beyond the caldera's borders. He wandered The Heartwood presently, tracking a herd of deer that had passed by the outskirts of the pack's territory and proceeded northwest. The master Gamekeeper was almost certain he would catch up to them somewhere in these trees, though he forgot his hunting entirely when he came across a scent that threw him back in time.

Wetting his lips with his tongue, Peregrine paused and deliberated whether to go looking for Lasher. It was his recent encounter with Osprey that prompted him to pursue his old flame rather than turn around and go home. He and his sister had managed to catch up without bringing pack politics into it; couldn't he and his former lover do the same? And the swarthy Alpha also felt confident that he wouldn't have trouble with any lingering feelings either. Somewhere over the past months, he had gotten over his lover and could think of Lasher with fondness rather than longing.

Curiosity drove him to hunt down the new father also. "Taltos," he said quietly when he came upon the ocher male rooting around on the forest floor. "What're you doing all the way out here?" He approached, a tentative smile on his face and a wiggle in the tip of his tail. He didn't know how he would be received after all this time and distance. Just because he was in a good place with everything did not necessarily mean Lasher had reached that place too.