King Elk Forest burn it up

aw, but maybe @Nova/@Uka?

Flashes of colour on the black and white backdrop. Images, faces, memories. Swiftcurrent Creek....mum....blood...Scimitar...Bazi. Relonikiv crying, cold darkness, stone heart..
Trajan wakes up with a start, mismatched eyes burning bright in the darkness. His muscles are tense and coiled beneath his fur and as the Roman stands up and shakes himself, trying to get the stiffness out, he feels a fear enter his heart. It had happened long ago, too long, but here he was, still getting nightmares about it. Perhaps, the soldier reasoned, it was because he had returned to the land where it all happened, where it began.
The gods are playing with me, he thinks grimly and stalks forward. It would be impossible to sleep now, he might as well go on a little border patrol to clear his mind.

Why he wasn't miles away enjoying his age with a carcass on the left and the ocean on his right, Uka had no clue. It's just, there was something that wouldn't let him leave. Let him tell it, he was staying because it was the logical thing to do; he could have left whenever he wanted! But deep down, even he knew that it was deeper than that. There was something here calling for him, and Uka was too afraid to answer. 

So, instead of spending his time within the borders, Uka moseyed on around the border whistling as he went. Every once in a while, he would stop to mark, but it felt too unnatural for him to keep it up for long; his place had always been in the heart of the pack, never on the outskirts. Up ahead stalked someone else, which Uka was a bit surprised to see. Ahoy, stranger! he called out as he began to trot onwards. Had this been any other time, he might have just turned around and walked the other way, but he was feeling particularly friendly.

Trajan is normally particularly attentive and usually, he notices another's presence before they call for him. Today, however, he isn't in his best shape and so when someone calls out, he finds himself strangely startled. Quickly, he calms his heart and slows his breathing, silently chastising himself for his lack of attention to his surroundings. Nevertheless, the soldier turns around, mismatched eyes settling easily on the stranger. Distantly, Trajan wonders if this man is part of Mato's pack but that thought never finds a place in the centre of the Roman's thoughts as other things have caught his attention.
The dude was pretty. And maybe it was because Trajan wanted to distract himself from his nightmare and his horrible, incessant thoughts, but the soldier's lips curve upwards almost instantly into a lopsided smile and a gleam enters his mismatched gaze as he regards the stranger. "Hello," he says mildly, his tongue slipping out to lick at his lips in an almost absentminded manner. "You must be new around these parts - I'm sure I would've noticed someone as pretty as you, otherwise."
Because a Trajan in need of a distraction is a Trajan without shame. Well, not a lot of it, at least.

And already, Uka liked where this was going. He slowed himself from a trot to an intrigued stroll, having found his interest peaking in this other brute's presence. This wasn't going to be like the vaguely-flirty-passive-aggressive conversation he'd had with Delight, and Uka was all for it. You've caught me, he joked, finding himself moving only slightly closer. The distance between them was still fair, though much less than what it would have been under other circumstances. 

Uka, having been the larger of his peers for most of his life, was finding it difficult to adjust to his dwarfing, but something in him quite liked the change. You're right, though, he added, Had you seen me, you wouldn't have forgotten. That was one thing about him; Uka was one of a kind. He became imprinted on the minds of everyone he met, and on the hearts of those he entranced.

A crooked smile dances lazily on Trajan's lips at the man's words and he tilts his head, observing the other wolf through mismatched eyes as he approaches, leaving a good amount of distance between them. "Cocky, aren't you?" the words slip easily off Trajan's tongue and he raises an eyebrow, a smirk crawling up his face. He finds that he likes the other wolf and wonders what the other was doing here.
"So, what are you doing here, stranger?" Trajan asks, rolling his shoulders to relieve tension. He shoots the other man a curious look, distantly wondering if he had pledged himself to Mato's pack or not.

Uka mimicked the coy expression of his playmate, though stays perfectly still as he allows the approach. I have reason to be. If vanity had been punished with as much force on earth as was in heaven, he would have been long gone. When he thought about things like that, it almost made him happy that he'd lost his faith. For a moment, he remembered his mother's warnings of the world and sins of the flesh, but Uka knew that denying himself the most essential pleasures would be more painful than the hands of ancient gods.

A pack, I think. It's, uh, it's a bit complicated. Technically he had joined, but like, in an I-just-need-a-place-to-crash sort of way. The chances of him staying for longer than necessary were slim, if any at all. You?

The stranger's imitation of himself draws yet another lopsided smirk onto Trajan's lips and he finds the other wolf's answer equally entertaining. Vanity, to a certain extent, amuses him. Past that certain extent, it was annoying. Granted, Trajan had met very few wolves who had actually passed that certain extent - most were actually on the other end of the spectrum, worrying too much and wallowing in self-pity - but when he did, there was always this urge to beat some sense into the other creature. Distantly, he hopes that this stranger would not pass that certain extent.
"Is that so?" Trajan cants his head, the smirk dancing on his lips. "And what's that reason?" It is nice to meet someone like him when this pack was ruled by someone like Mato whose closest friend, it appeared, was Seabreeze - a girl who was, in Trajan's opinion, the girl version of the leader. This stranger was like a breath of fresh air. 
"A pack, as well," Trajan shrugs. "Well, it's not an official pack yet." He has his misgivings about Mato, but he does not voice them out loud. There are ears and eyes everywhere, after all, and he would rather not be kicked out for treachery.

'Spose you'll have to wait and find out, isn't that right sailor? There were many words that one might use to describe Uka — arrogant, stubborn, selfish — but somehow, a braggart wasn't one of them. At least, not during a first meeting. Uka had never been one to kiss and tell so easily, especially when he didn't even know the name of the wolf those ears belonged to. So, what do they call you, then?

Uka thought about all of the names he could give if the question were to be reiterated back to him. There was the mst obvious route, which meant giving his English name that everyone seemed to know him by. Or he could use his work name of Mzinzi, but thinking about being called something as charged as that was a bit, well, iffy. There was his middle name of Jasmine, but that was too feminine and Uka was not having it. With a quiet sigh, he decided that Eucalyptus would just have to do, whether he liked it or not.

The stranger's answer brings an amused smile onto Trajan's chiseled features and he lifts a shoulder in a shrug. It is a good answer, if the soldier is being honestt, and he finds himself liking the stranger just a bit more than he, perhaps, should. "We'll see," the Roman says with a cant of his head and an enigmatic smile. When asked for his name, Trajan debated with himself for a second before giving himself a mental shrug. Why bother giving fake names? He is not his father; he has no fears of names..right?
"Traianus," the soldier smiles, "but most wolves just call me Trajan." It was easier on the tongue...even his father switched between using both when speaking to his son. He also used other nicknames but Trajan would rather not mention them. "What name do you go by?" he asks after a moment, shifting his weight between his paws in an absentminded manner. Trajan figures that the two of them might be packmates, and it would not do to not know one another's name, would it?

Uka was glad that Trajan didn't expect him to use Traianus in everyday conversation, 'cause boy was it a mouthful. I mean, not that he was used to otherwise, and Eucalyptus wasn't the most basic name either, but he needed something to complain about. So far, everything else about his packmate seemed to be in tip-top shape. Eucalyptus, but you can call me Uka. It was a simple derivative, plus it made him sound a lot more masculine (in his mind, at least). 

I can't say I've seen much of you. Why is that?

Eucalyptus was just as much a mouthful as Traianus was, in the soldier's opinion, so he was more than happy to call the other male by his shorter moniker. It was easier on the tongue and, well, Uka kinda suited him more than Eucalyptus but who was he to judge? "I'm always wandering around the borders patrolling," Trajan answers mildly with a cant of his head and a softly amused smile. "So, really, I could ask you the same thing." 
That is true. Trajan spends most of his time patrolling and border marking nowadays that he barely even speaks with other wolves - one could say he was isolating himself. That was, in some ways, true but Trajan isn't doing it on purpose. Sometimes, socialising annoys him because there's too much stupidity in one area and other times, he just finds it easier to talk with himself. Of course, if he ever meets an interesting wolf, he is more than happy to spend a lot of his time with said someone. 
Still, it had been some time since Trajan had last fallen for another wolf.