Stone Circle in the streets you run free

After the hare, she'd felt full, and consequently soon fallen asleep after her encounter with Cebra. However, her drowsiness did not last long, and after pulling herself from the den shared with Murdock, she briefly considered setting off the find him. The idea was abandoned in lieu of exploring the northern part of the territory; a task she'd yet to achieve, and poking around the stone circle. She'd never drawn too close, fearing the proximity of strangers, but that nervousness had faded with her last encounters. Feeling more energized then she had in a while, she set off towards the circle, skimming across the crust of the snow with tail wagging behind her and her paws carrying her at a lope.

Murdock was also wandering around the standing stones, hoping Steph might be around somewhere. He'd been hoping to see her since returning, but she'd not called for him or sought him out, and none of Murdock's wanderings had turned her up, either. They days since returning had been dark ones - he did not feel the same way about Easthollow as he had when he'd stood on its borders just a week or so prior.

"Hey, Puppy," he said to the girl, catching her scent before he spotted her chocolote-and-snow pelt. She blended in rather well, looking like a pile of muddy rocks when she wasn't moving. He approached her without much thought, running his nose over her back and wagging his tail in idle greeting. "You been makin' friends?" he asked, catching the scent of a few others on her pelt. Rabbit, too. Seemed like she was doing alright with feeding herself.

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The approach of another had her whirl, Illecebra's words not quite having put her at ease. She relaxed when she recognized the imposing figure of Murdock, who approached casually. Her tail wagged at her hocks, both out of gladness to see her companion,  and also out of relief, knowing this was not a strange wolf who might make a meal out of her.  

He ran his nose over her back, asking a question before she should wonder if she should greet him in turn. Probably not. "I met a girl named Clary - she was sweet. And a woman named Illecebra. She was missing an ear, but she was friendly."  She added the latter after a short pause, having associated missing body parts with cruelty. Surely, the feral dogs she'd come across had all manner of injuries of varying severity, and the worst looking were often the meanest. It was a good thing she was fast.

Murdock nodded idly, turning to look out over the territory while Poppy spoke. He was glad to know that Clary had been sweet to her, and relieved to find that his over-zealous scent-marking had worked on an adult wolf as well. Then again, he hadn't been too worried about Illecebra trying to eat her. He hadn't been too worried about anyone trying to eat her until Valette made her threat.

"No one's been botherin' you?" he asked, glancing over his shoulder at her. She looked sprightly and cheerful, and not like she'd been fearing for her life a lot, lately. He wanted to go through a lot of other questions, too - Are you eating? Are you warm enough? Is the snow getting up between your toes too much? But he refrained. Poppy had survived long enough on her own, and he didn't want to crowd her with his worries when she seemed to enjoy plaing wolf so much.

He looked out idly at the territory, the stones in the distance casting long shadows over the snow. She picked at a clump of snow caught in her forelimb, wishing yet again that she had the thick, short pelt of Murdock. Ears flicked towards him as he spoke again, abandoning picking at her forelimb. 

She shook her head, ears flicking back as she contemplated. The first few days here had been spent a nervous wreck, and gradually had she begun to wander far from Murdock's den. "is it really true, that someone might think I'm prey?" She'd worried, and fretted, and feared, but it hadn't truly sunk in that somewhere out there existed a wolf (wolves?) that thought her a meal. Her brow furrowed, chestnut gaze falling on him.

His mouth quirked at her question. He faced her once more and sat down in the snow, tail wagging idly. "We're all meat to someone," he said candidly. There were wolves that ate other wolves, too. He'd eaten wolf from time to time. Sometimes it was the best way to survive. "Most wolves don't live alone, you know. We're not built to survive like that. But there's a drive in all of us to go out and find different lands, so that we can whelp with someone whose not our sister," Murdock explained. "Usually you find a pack within a a couple months. But some wolves travel for years on their own, and they get thin. They get hungry. They get desperate. Those are the wolves that attack and eat their brethren.

"But you're with me, and you're surrounded by pack wolves. None of them are hungry enough to eat you unless it's out of spite. You smell like me, and if you hang out with the others, you'll smell like them, too. It'll be pretty obvious that you're one of us." So to speak, anyway.

She supposed he was right, but at the same time, didn't think wolves had to worry much about being eaten. Why, they'd simply eat the other first. The thought came a few moments before Murdock's lesson turned dark, and she blinked. A chill swept down her spine, and she understood then that her mother's tales may not have been all fluff. No, it had not been the pack wolf her tales had warned off, but the lone - the one Murdock claimed would eat its kin.

She was silent a moment, contemplating the absolute horror of the act, knowing Murdock to be wise and truthful and not doubting his words a moment. Her voice came small as she asked, "are any wolves here very spiteful?"  Eating someone out of spite seemed a stretch, but after receiving the knowledge that wolves (rarely, but still) ate one another, it didn't seem completely unrealistic. Still she was relieved by his latter words, some of the horror in her gaze fading.

Murdock had to think for a moment. He didn't know the wolves here all that well, but none of them seemed that strange or off to him. Even Ezekiel seemed to mean well, even if he was absolute trash 100% of the time. "No, I don't think so," he said at last, giving Poppy a reassuring look.

He stood and began to weave through the rocks, looking for his favorite. He didn't know that his younger brother had once taken a long nap upon the very rock he now climbed. If he had, it would not have changed his next action. "Bet your legs are too short to get up here," he teased, hanging his paws off the side of the rock and looking down at his friend.

There were probably no spiteful wolves, and while it didn't exactly put all her worries to rest, it quelled her immediate fear of being eaten. Murdock's reassurance lasted a moment longer before he began to move, leaving Poppy staring after him a moment before moving to follow him, high-stepping trot choppy as she sought to close the distance between the two of them. 

Murdock leapt smoothly atop a boulder, making his challenge as the sheepdog gazed up at him. "pfft," she said, grin on her face, feigned smugness in her gaze as she sized up the rock. She leapt once, twice, and both times scabbling wildly got her nowhere. Gaze narrowing, more determined now to succeed, the collie backed up before charging towards the rock, throwing herself atop the stone with a frenzy that had her scrabble at the sides before she made the top, narrowly avoiding stepping on Murdock. "ha!" she cheered, grinning at Murdock as her tongue lolled.

Murdock watched intently, ready to grab at her scruff and pull her up if she made it high enough. In the end, though, that wasn't necessary. After a bit of a trot, she launched herself higher than Murdock had thought possible. He certainly couldn't move like that. Not anymore, at least

"Damn, Legs," he praised, shifting over to make room for the dog. "I didn't think you had it in you. You might be more wolf than I am." Hopefully, she would take that as the compliment it was. "I think I'm gonna take a nap right here. Wanna join me?" he asked with a yawn, laying his head down on his paws. He wouldn't mind if Poppy had other things to do - their nightly cuddling was enough to keep him happy. It was nice to have a companion to come home to at the end of the day. Especially one as soft and friendly as Poppy.

 
A grin wrote its way across her muzzle at Murdock's words, tail wagging high above her as she recovered her breath, heart hammering and a slight pulling of her muscles reminding her that she'd probably regret doing that eventually. She agreed to his proposal with a few, breathy words and made herself comfortable beside him. She was far too pleased with her success and her new perch, to settled down immediately, but as she shook wore off she soon found herself fast asleep beside the male, happy glow in her heart.