Blacktail Deer Plateau the paramount and pompous disregard the cipher

For @Dante, because we're awesome like that. Corpse reference comes from the coyote killed here; I couldn't resist having Mordecai find it, haha.

His venture to Silvertip Mountain and back had taken its time. It should have taken a toll on him as well, but Mordecai was hardly a greenhorn traveler. Though apart of the plateau, he had acted accordingly to how he usually had. Some exploration was to be needed, and he had come bearing information. But there was not a pressing need for him to track down whoever would listen and simply spill the beans — in fact, Mordecai had gotten distracted on that particular day.

A brief shower had crossed over from the coast and in its approach to the raised climes of the mountains and their plateaus and ridges, had tried to snow. It was a failing attempt, only dampening an already damp ground with a mixture of rain and sleet. This did not bother the Ostrega, who had been through worse. And it came just as quickly as it went, leaving the overcast skies of winter to blanket the afternoon.

What held his particular interest on this day was a lingering scent of a coyote, one that he had found dispatched and destroyed by others. Who the wolves had been, he couldn't readily ascertain, but they were distinctly of the Plateau. He hovered over the gnarled corpse, pawing at it to try and cover it more with the slick, wet leaves and other assorted ground cover. He covered it not out of respect or to make a poorly formed cache, but rather to keep the carrion from converging on their territory. He covered it, unknowing that it had been left as an effigy to any other small time predator that they would not take to them kindly.

puscifer — telling ghosts