Kintla Flatlands the sun has blinded me

Open for anyone, set to the south of BDP, just over the river. Please don't feel obligated to match the length, my inability to sleep begets rambling narrative.

He had set out from the plateau before the sun had just dared to rise above the horizon. Never quite this early of a riser, Mordecai could not shake the urge to meander. This time, he made the conscious decision to stay close to the plateau, should the need that he be needed arose. For the most part, the pack was not plagued with the things that had once plagued him when he had been at the head of the Spine. There, within and outside of the confines of the plateau, he did not worry over the possible of any sort of position being usurped beneath him. He did not worry of the other nearby packs encroaching on their hunting grounds.

The Plateau, it seemed, rested in relative ease and silence. It brought him a sense of comfort, but it was also fleeting. There was a certain uncomfortable tinge left within him, now realizing that his own travels had brought him back around to the very place he had left behind. That urge to venture out and back south had sprung itself upon him, caused him to leave the company of whatever travelling companions he had with him; he hadn't really considered why until then. The thought had come as he passed over a relatively rocky patch of terrain that speckled the river. He had paused in less than shallow, swift waters to gather a drink from the icy stream. And it was there he remained for the time being, only retreating from the waters when the cold became too much for his body to withstand.

With the sunlight beaming down, he felt the early warmth and soaked it, giving his wet body a good shake. The water evicted from its furry host, he had pressed on in thought, mindlessly bringing his muzzle downward to the ground to mentally thumb over the various tracks that were there. Even here, along the riverbank, the evidence of a mild winter revealed that the herds were alive and well. Perhaps not as robust as they should have been, but robust all the same for the disruption in what he could only assume were their migratory patterns. He followed them quietly, slowly receding from the thoughts that nagged at him. These thoughts were not of the pack he had left, or the companions he had left, or even of the one he had joined in recent times. No, these thoughts, as they left him, were of a different sort altogether. In all his time of travel, Mordecai had never quite returned to the same place on a map before. And he wondered if subconsciously, his thoughts were turning to the idea of settling down, once and for all.

dorena — the sun has blinded me