Stone Circle And with soft deceitful wiles

Those tagged are not required to join, they're only being looked for. Additionally: this character is recruitable for any Easters interested.

The gray morning seemed to come later than usual this day; frostbitten and pooling; without its usual eagerness to affix the world with its infant light. Kavos, who had ranged through the night, barely took notice of the dawning. Dead-eyed and mechanical, the yearling padded east of the Sunspires without any variation to his direction. He moved in a straight line, almost militant in his march, and even with a look that was more than cursory it would appear he was on track to reach somewhere specific.

But there was no destination for the ghostly ferreter. He was a beast who simply moved until there was something to chase instead, and in this season -- when it is entirely possible that being still for too long would warrant a deathly freezing -- he was intuitively motivated to keep his muscles churning. Even as the availability for food waned, Kavos found himself invigorated; traveling for many more miles a day than he often wanted, but unable to find the usual weariness in his sanded, stretching limbs that would draw him to stop.

He did stop abruptly sometime that early morning, although it wasn't fatigue that brought the ferine haunter's progress to a grinding halt. He had come close to a pack's making on the flatland, and mired deep in their tresses, carried faintly on the breeze, were the commingled scents of @Banner and @Stark. Not one inclined for reminiscing, Kavos was forced now to try and recall where he knew these smells from, and why it mattered to him that he place them in his thoughts. The hunter lingered in place for a long while, dumbfounded as he looked onto the plains of Easthollow from his windswept perch on the hill just outside their borders.

WELL. i had a reply almost done and them promptly lost it.  SO.

<3

Early morning was not on the top of her list of most favorite times.  In fact, of all the times she could freely choose to enjoy - marking them down to fifteen-minute increments during the night, of course - early morning always found itself dead last.  Or even off the damn list all together.  Banner heaved a quiet sigh as she loped along the borders.  Despite her lack of fondness for the hour, she felt restless again and decided to fall right into her habit of border patrol.  The seemingly mundane activity brought her a sense of comfort.  It was something she could do, some way she'd always feel usefel to Valette, the woman she owed so much to.

Earning a higher rank upped her sense of duty.  She'd grown closer to her Alpha in the time she'd spent here, which in retrospect was strange.  Banner had quite a hard time relating to others, her dear brother being the obvious exception.  However, despite the differences between herself and Valette, they had quite a bit in common.  It became easier as the days and weeks went on to really open up and enjoy the sense of family Easthollow offered.  That was why she felt so strongly about making at least one circuit of the borders every day without fail.  The discord in the North was of little interest to her.  In fact, she hadn't stepped outside the pack's borders since she'd arrived.  A frown crossed her dark features for just a moment as she thought about it: back in her days at Marauder's Keep, she'd given Stark quite a bit of push-back about an isolationist attitude when it came to pack relations.  But here she was over a year later as the embodiment of that very ideal.

She huffed and pushed those thoughts out of her mind.  Focus.  All she needed was to focus.

Just after forcing a focus-centric mantra in her head, her stocky legs brought her to an abrupt halt.  A wolf was in the distance, on a hill.  She lifted her dark brown maw upward and took a second to sniff the air.  A little far away, but she'd be damned if that scent wasn't oddly familiar.  Bringing her nose back down, her eyes narrowed as she honed in on the wolf, paws slowly bringing her closer step by step.  White-ish coat.  Probably tall.  Seemed large, too.  Male?  It wasn't until she'd taken two dozen steps forward that her bright green eyes spotted on a black shroud of fur on the stranger's back.

Suddenly, it all clicked.  Banner froze, her eyes going wide.  Kavos.  It came out in a breathy rush, his name ghosting past her lips in a surprised exclaimation.

Despite how frigid the air was and how she wanted to stay close to the den site and Cyron specifically. However she was no longer going to be the mother who sits idly in the den, she needed to get in shape and earn her place in the pack so that if her babies ever needed her she could be there.

So she was out patrolling again her fur puffed up against the cold, coming from the opposite direction of Banner and around the hill. She didn't see the strange wolf nor Banner until she was a few feet away from the strange male, on her side of the borders. She caught the gasped word..or name? Uttered from the female's lips and assumed they knew one another, but Kavos (she chose to assume it was a name uttered) was still too close to their borders for her liking. Yet despite the territorial and protective feeling she got she simply stared him down "Where are you headed Sir?" She asked perking he one good ear forward. Unable to use her tail to signal the territorial feeling she felt she instead rubbed her sides against a tree while staring at him, the message clear: this is my home.

Head low and eyes keen on a figure approaching, Kavos remained incontestably still. He didn't share in the same kind of recognition she had for him. For her it was instant, while his dwindled back to an idea long forgotten -- a concept of family he no longer considered relevant to his survival. The sight of her nibbled away at him though, tickling and stirring, trying to tease from him an emotion he didn't know he had. The wolf swallowed, his expression creasing more and more in thoughtful uncertainty the longer he dared to hold her with his gaze.

At his distance it was impossible to determine what it was she'd uttered on her breath, but his ears pricked with the attempt anyway. It was in this moment that he noticed the dark she-wolf come between them, marking a sort of halfway point between himself and the packwolf troubling his memories. Kavos was briefly distracted, eyeing this latest arrival with his typical impassivity. She was alight in some places, as if dusted with snow, and in the visual distraction of her binary color-tones, he heard her question him.

Where are you headed Sir?

Sir? This wasn't a word Kavos knew, and though he didn't understand entirely what she wanted of him, her posturing was clear enough to the uncultured vagrant. He kept his tail loose at his ankles, diverting his eyes respectfully -- or rather, returning them curiously to the green-eyed flash from the past -- behind her. "Looking," he answered finally, peering steadily at Banner and remaining terribly unaware that this was not enough of an explanation for someone who did not know him. Even as a child he hadn't been much of a talker; it was a wonder he wasn't completely mute by this time.

The presence of another wolf registered in the back of her mind, those thoughts a whisper nearly drowned out by the buzzing in her head over Kavos.  If Banner's peripheral vision served her right, that wolf was Illecebra.  They hadn't spoken one on one yet, but they'd seen eachother around.  Easthollow was only so big, after all.

However, the Gamma paid her packmate little heed.  It was not a purposeful snub, but one brought about by a great and emotional distraction.  Banner's short legs moved through the snow slowly as she approached Kavos, wide eyes still trained on his shaggy-coated bulk.  He was much larger than she remembered, though just as serious-looking.  Kavos had been a quiet child.  She swallowed hard, one ear flicking as she caught the brief words exchanged between Illecebra and and the wolf she knew when he was a much younger.  The ear movement proved to be pointless - she hadn't really taken in any of their words at all.

When Banner drew close enough to the pair so that she and Illecebra were both the same distance from Kavos, she came to a stop.  Clearing her throat, the look on her dark brown features morphed into one of sorrow despite how desperately she tried to hide it.  Kavos.  She just barely managed to get his name out again, her voice sounding half-strangled and desperate.

I'm gonna have Cebra awkwardly skidaddle from this and give y'all some space!

The male gave a simple response though he did keep his posture submissive enough to be respectful. He said he was looking. Looking for what exactly? She was confused and became distracted as Banner ignored her but moved closer to the boy, choking out his name in a way that made it incredibly obvious that she knew him and there was some sort of history there.

Clearing her throat she backed away and dipped her head to Banner "I'll just..head off and leave you two alone. If you need help call for it" she said gently, removing her eyes from the sorrow filled face of her packmate. She couldn't lie and say she wasnt extremely curious about what would go down here, but she knew that if something private and apparently emotional was happening between her and someone else she wouldn't want an audience. With that being said she wasted no more time and took off to finish her patrol and Maybe sniff out a hunt.