Stone Circle With his gun, with his head held high

In many ways, Easthollow reminded Kaito of Chandor. The forests, the rivers, the field that roamed for miles and miles. They even had a mountain! Or, at least, were even bordered by one. Arlette had yet to show him that, but he wondered if they had a place like Raptor's Roost, where they could brave the slopes and come away with treasures collected from the nests of eagles and hawks. He'd always admired the feathers his mother wore -- one of which had been his father's.

As it was, the trees resounded with a different sort of birdsong - gentle, yet full - and he found the chorus beautiful, just as he found all the land Arlette showed him beautiful, in all its simplicity. The trees that seemed stamped into this forest, one after another, a maze he only hoped he'd one day learn to solve. The easy trickle of the water over the smoothed out river rocks. The soft sound of Arlette's voice, when she spoke to him of moss, and healing -- to which he risked a lift of his gaze from the root-strewn ground, and smiled, bright and excited by the topic she proposed, "Oh, yeah! You can definitely use moss for that! Or, I've even heard of some wolves who strip the trees of their bark and use that to scoop the water up to carry to their sick."

He returned his eyes to the ground, for they had reached the river, and he followed after his guide with a new sort of smile on his face, paying close attention to where he put his feet, though his mind roamed elsewhere. "Or -- oof! -- you can also -- use moss -- to cool down -- a fever," he huffed with each bound (which were filled with exaggerated energy, a by-product of his heightened sense of self-awareness). He furrowed his brow and stuck out his tongue, like he always did without knowing whenever he focused real hard on something he thought was very important to get right, but both these faded when he reached the other side and caught the tail end of her giggle, to which he smiled at Arlette as his stomach did flip flops inside. "Did you know that?" he asked, as she led him further on.

It didn't help, that she seemed a little torn for words herself now. He was just about to take a look closer at the spot she'd led him to when she mentioned that was her bed, and though he laughed at her stumble about her sleeping quarters (as he himself stumbled a little bit away), he couldn't help the slick of his ears, or the nervous grin that plastered across his face. "Yeah -- well, heh, at least now -- " but whatever he had been saying was lost to a new voice, deep and unfamiliar, that peeled from the shadows, and Kaito turned around.

His eyes fell on massive legs, and when he tipped back, a massive chest. Huge, and grey. And only when he tipped his head waaaay back, only then could he see the face of the other, who wasted no time to reveal that this was Arlette's father, oh shoot, her father. And he did not look happy.

Kaito's face flexed into an instinctive look of confusion and intimidation, and he looked to Arlette with a flash of concern before he realized Greyback could see every expression that so easily played across his face. The boy flexed in lips into a nervous smile, but inside he was screaming. How could this be Arlette's father? "Um, hello, Mister Greyback, sir. I -- uh, my name's Kaito," and he shuffled a paw against the ground, "Um, I was just about to say that, um -- that with Arlette's information, I can make sure that I take a den, you know," and he glanced aside, and cast his gaze to search outward around the clearing, "uh, well away from hers. As is, um, as is proper." And he nodded with that final word, certain the only den he'd be taking at this rate would be a grave in the ground.