Stone Circle And with soft deceitful wiles

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.