allegro

So sorry for the wait on this!

He left the safety of Drageda's claim without any concrete goal in mind and wandered down through the forest to their south, mulling over clumps of frosted moss and shriveled leaves as he went. Nothing here seemed useful, not that he knew what to look for anyway, so he quickly abandoned each piece of detritus he examined. There was nothing here that couldn't be found in Dragoncrest's forest, he concluded, and made to be on his way.

Only there was a creamy flash of something in the trees that made him crouch down and creep forward on quiet paws. It thwacked against trunks as its owner, a lithe black wolf-dog with a paler hind that was hidden from him in the shadows, attempted to drag it away. Ephraim's own ears perked with every thunk of antler on bark, and he stole ahead like a little cat with his long tail swishing behind him. Usually he would shyly announce himself, but his focus was on the tines rather than Koi as he broke cover and streaked around a tree to seize a piece of the shed antler in his jaws with a tug.