Sunbeam Lair lone digger

The hatchling woke with the day, with the thin beams of sunrise that slanted into the lair. She rose, stretched, and shimmied from the den, careful of its inhabitants. She stretched again, a long yawn, and was off. Day, and duty, called. 

In this she had become a solitary creature. Not an individual of particular hostility, but just a quiet beast. She had yet to properly grow into her body, too large for her meek soul. And the world was too loud, too visually chaotic for her to want to invite company to only further overwhelm. Her tendency towards solitude was only for self-preservation.

She did her work quietly, nosing rocks into place and digging shallow trenches. Shiori was driven above all by curiosity, and she had recently become interested in fluid dynamics. Nothing fascinated her more than building up small dams in a stream. It had become a game as she sought to block the water flow as best as she could, fitting smaller and smaller rocks into gaps. And so she was currently occupied, searching in the shallows of the frigid stream for the perfect sized rock.

Mild temperatures definitely had him wanting to wander again, but he stayed close for now -- just a little while longer to preserve his strength so that he could range real distances without issue soon. Inari wanted to cross the mountains again and delve further west, perhaps. He had a vague idea of south of here plus due north of the Sunspire, and needed to expand further than just the immediate reaches of this range if the weather was going to be good.

When he was within the Lair, he kept to himself and existed on their fringes. Socializing was usually not among his priorities, but he was not outright opposed to it. Many of the other Ryujin wolves seemed mild enough.. not that he knew any of them well, or sought to change that openly. Instead, he focused on restful sleep, good meals, and the luxuries he could not always afford when he roved.

So he did not know immediately which of the chieftess' whelps this one was when he came upon the girl at the stream. Inari kept his head down, tail slack, and expression submissive as he neared. "Hail," he greeted gently with a curious look that hesitance could not hold back.