Blacktail Deer Plateau The Gathering of the Clouds

Timeline = ???????? but assuming nothing explodes then it'll go in this chunk of time. XD

Honestly he hadn't been thinking most of the way over -- he'd been thinking about what to do with the way things had gone.  Perhaps he needed some perspective, though he wasn't going to go and climb all the way up the mountains to do so -- the plateau would probably be enough, so he started up the trail he'd taken once before, but it felt like so long ago now... And really, had anything changed?  Mal was still free of any fortune, or really much positive beyond figuring himself out... And even that was questionable.

It was there on the uneven terrain that he started paying more attention... Wait, were there wolves here now?  He blinked a few times blearily, not 100% sure he was smelling it right.  Like at the very least there were quite a few camped out, but it seemed new enough that he wasn't sure if it was an actual pack or just a group resting for a while before going on a longer journey.  Maybe he should just turn around...  Mal shuffled in place a bit, trying to figure out what to do.  Like every other time, he wasn't too keen on actually talking to a pack (packs were often jerks, duh), so scramming sounded better.  He turned a shoulder to the plateau, trying to find a path where they hadn't gone along the lower slopes that didn't seem to be claimed, but it wasn't looking too positive.  Just a glance, then he could head back.