The Heartwood built for sin

It's been a long time since I roleplayed a non-wolf species! :P

Dawn was beginning to break across the sky, the morning humid from the storm that had swept through the night, stirring Issitoq, being a light sleeper that the feline was, from slumber as it broke the sky and shook the earth. The Heartwood as the canines had called it, was as good a place as any for Issitoq to call home. The heartwood was full of towering oaks, dogwoods and maples, lush and green with plenty of prey and the best part was there wasn’t any bothersome pack of those mangy dogs that he had to compete with for the prey. The occasional loner now and then -- though Issitoq allowed these wanderers seek shelter and assuage their aching stomachs -- for he supposed that the outer species mutuality stood loud and clear no matter who’s turf it was. He was not a wolf (nor was he a hybrid of their’s) so their laws and pack borders meant nothing to him. Cougars were not social creatures like the canines were. They left when they were old enough to hunt for themselves and only really interacted with their own species to copulate and reproduce. As far as Issitoq was aware, this was how it was for every cougar. This was how his mother said their lives were led. Needing nothing more, Issitoq took her word to be law.

Issitoq stretched, almost lazily as he slipped out from the shade of his tree. It had been an intrigue, to explore the lands such as the wolves did -- pack claimed or otherwise -- but Issitoq was content in the Heartwood, having entered the lands through these woods. Odd, silver eyes surveyed the sun splayed greenery around here, muzzle lifting to sniff thoughtfully at the air, though no decision on what his days’ adventures would be, had been made.