Blacktail Deer Plateau a drained bourbon bottle laying next to my head

I'm glad you had a good birthday! Also, this post is longer and awkward, ughhh. My body and brain do not want to cooperate with each other but I insist on posting anyway. :C

The news that Dante imparted was joyful indeed; it was always a good thing to know that the pack his friend was heading up was thriving. There were deeper curiosities than that, as to who the parents of said youngsters were, but Mordecai refrained from digging. A modicum of privacy was something he appreciated, though he did not doubt in his mind that Dante would have possibly filled him in had he pressed for more information. Maybe that was a habit left over from the time he had spent living in the Spine. Mordecai did not see it this way, let alone think of it.

It was the query joining it that left him wondering if maybe Dante had unasked curiosities as to why Mordecai was there. More than likely, he wanted to believe, as he was truly reclaimed by the wilderness. With no lingering smell of the Spine to back him up, he was as traveled as he had been when they had first met. Of course, the notion that maybe Dante had other things to do rather than converse came under consideration, but briefly. "Actually, a bit of both," Mordecai said, pausing to try and gather his words.

"I left the Spine some time ago. Didn't expect to find myself back in these parts again so soon. I thought I'd come around and see if wanderlust had claimed you as well." He let that sink in, suddenly avoiding the ideas that had been bubbling behind things since his meeting with Caiaphas. Whether staying or leaving was really applicable. Whether or not winter had released its frosty grip on them all. The verbal deviation was unexpected — even to himself — and it was none other than response to being put on the spot.

"I'd like to join you, at least through the remainder of the winter. If it's possible you have room for another." Ultimately, it seemed like the safety card when the weather ot their north had still been wintry in all regards. Though he had been further inland where the snows had piled high and vast, Mordecai did not believe fully that they had escaped the reach of the season yet. And going back to the Spine was not something he intended to, for everything that was there, and for the fact that he still saw it as hallowed ground. That pack was not where he wanted to end up and he grappled senselessly with the notion of settling permanently.