Blacktail Deer Plateau be my eyes

@Dante - if you have time!

Whilst the others wandered between the realms of grief and denial, it was change that plagued Pura. They were a pack of zombies, shuffling aimlessly from one day to the next, and few among them - pups or adults - could let go of Junior's absence. Pura was ready to move on from the event, but had picked up on social cues that suggested it would not be appropriate to voice the desire. "Junior dead. Come play." Grammatically, it was fine - even wordy, for Pura. But out loud, it would go down like a tonne of bricks.

The remaining girls were lost to him. He did not share in their intense grief, and their erratic behaviour - his sister regularly talked to herself - made them strange, even off-putting. Pura Virtúte kept to himself. Today, he sat at the very edge of the rendezvous site, as far away from the rest of the pack as possible. Eyes were on him, of course - ever since Junior's disappearance, he had not been permitted to go anywhere without an escort. This rule was driving him to distraction, and he was presently digging in the wet, worm-infested earth to keep himself occupied.

Sure thing! <3

Dante had been watching carefully, reading his packmates and trying to deal with the situation as best he could. He knew silent observing might not be the best way of comforting, but currently, he felt that family needed family. He wasn't quite there yet.

However, he had realized when a little time passed that Pura wasn't quite on the same page as the rest of them. The boy's withdrawal made Dante wonder if perhaps he was dealing a bit more like Dante himself would if it were his sister who had disappeared. Move on, deal with the pain when the wound was a little older. Dante had a hard time reading the pup for sure, though. He hadn't seen much of him, and what little he did, Pura hardly spoke at all.

Deciding that Pura looked like he could use some distraction right now, Dante decided to approach. The pup seemed to be digging with a single-minded purpose that struck him as a little off. "Hey Pura. How ya doing?"

The earth was silky soft and cool again his paw pads. Pura revelled in the sensation, digging with slow, repetitive swipes whilst his manikin face stared straight ahead.

"Hey Pura. How ya doing?"

Pura's digging slowed and eventually stopped, like a large machine losing power. He carefully arranged his face into one of the sad little smiles he had seen Auntie Blue wear, and turned to look at the approaching wolf.

Dante had strange, white eyes that made his face look a little expressionless at times. Pura found that comforting, knowing that his own face did not twist and morph as much as everyone else's. He had learned to identify extreme emotions - anger, sadness, happiness. Peregrine's expression upon finding the pup with his own mother's bones in his mouth had been less cleared, but the subsequent (and mild) telling-off he received for doing it cleared up any confusion.

"P-play?" the grey boy stuttered, easily mimicking a hopeful look - brows lifted, eyes wide. It was an expression that pups used regularly, and often resulted in success.

Dante's heart went out to the pup at his hopeful request. "Sure, bud. What do you wanna play?" He looked about. He knew the pups weren't allowed to leave without escort, but he felt as though getting away from the camp might be good for Pura for a bit. Get a little distance from the rest of the pack, some one on one. "You know, we could go on a quick patrol too. You could show me what Auntie Blue has shown you about healing." He recalled Peregrine saying that the pup had a penchant for the art.

He wasn't sure if Pura wanted to leave, but Dante knew that he himself had needed to a couple of times these past few days. It must be even worse for the little ones. They couldn't even wander out of sight, let alone have time to process.

It worked - better than Pura could have hoped. Suddenly he was being given options; play, patrol, or heal. "Patrol," he replied without hesitation, stepping away from his half-dug hole to stare expectantly at Dante. Every since Junior's disappearance, there were strict rules to follow when it came to leaving the rendezvous site - and some distant part of Pura's mind wanted more than ever to be good. Perhaps if he was good enough, Peregrine would stop avoiding eye contact.

Dante nodded, unsurprised at Pura's immediate response. The pup was one of few words, another thing that made Dante feel akin to him. He too often kept quiet rather than filling the air with idle chatter. Now he led the way as such, simply enjoying the day and just being away. He also wanted to see how Pura's was handling the situation. He had to think of a way to do so without raising te pup's defense. He sensed that Pura's wasn't the sharing sort.

He looked sideways at the pup, considering. His sisters were obvious in their reactions, however strange or extreme. He was a harder puzzle to crack. "I thought that we could head west first. Unless you wanted to try another direction." Was all he said currently. He wasn't sure why he chose the direction, but it was a start nonetheless.

"I thought that we could head west first. Unless you wanted to try another direction."

It took Pura a moment to realize that Dante wanted his input. The freckled youth was content to follow and do as he was told, taking pleasure in completing his assigned task to the best of his ability - preferably alone. It would make him a good warden in years to come, but a poor hunter. It threw him whenever anyone asked for input - Blue Willow often did, and apparently Dante, too. Where did he want to go? East, or west? Or north?

Pura stopped to think, staring blankly into space. "Mountain," he finally declared. That was east - potentially north-east, depending on where in the forest they were. The boy raised his damp nose to the air and sniffed, trying to catch a whiff of the cold nothing that represented 'stone' to him. "N-not.. not see mountain..af..afore," he clarified, volunteering the sentence freely and without prompt - a milestone in the whelp's short life.

It took the pup a moment to respond, but Dante waited patiently, in no real hurry. He was aware, as most of the pack, of the youth's speech impediment and resulting reluctance to speak. He found it unfortunate that Pura believed his pack would judge him for such a thing enough to be self conscious about it, but hardly wanted to bring that up for fear it would bring even more attention to it in his mind and force him to be even more withdrawn.

Pura's freely given sentence caused Dante to smile warmly at him. He hoped that meant that Pura was at least a bit comfortable around him, though with the boy it was hard to tell. His face revealed very little of what was going on behind those silvery blue eyes. "Mountains it is then."

As he led the way, Dante looked sideways at Pura. He wasn't going to force the boy into conversation, but he did want to get his mind off of the pack troubles and Junior for a while. "You know, growing up, my sister had an interest in healing also. She loved the mountains... there were always lots of good plants there. I don't know much about them, but I bet Aunt Blue would take you up there sometime if you asked." He shrugged. "I honestly wish I was like you. Sadly though I can barely tell a pine tree from an oak, let alone remembering all those different plants." He chuckled.

"Mountains it is, then."

Pura nodded his approval, and off then went.

Dante talked nearly as much as Blue Willow did, with one significant difference - he did not ask any questions. The freckled boy tensed when the outpouring of words began, bracing himself against the inevitable - but the silvered male only finished with a little laugh and walked on. Pura Virtúte watched him carefully for several long seconds, and when no questions were forthcoming, he began to assemble the chunks of information into something coherent.

Sister. Pura had a sister, too, but she had no interest in healing as far as anyone could tell. Was he interested in healing? In the tasks that Blue Willow performed? Pura stared blankly ahead of him, mulling the question over. No, the pup eventually decided. He liked to smell things, and he was observant of the natural world - but he was not a healer. His attempt to heal Peregrine's leg had been sweet at the time, but even he had realized soon enough that the carefully administered pulp (from a plant that Blue did use, albeit not for those reasons) had been used on the wrong leg.

"I.." he started, but got stuck. After clearing his throat loudly, Pura continued. "I.. f-find plants... N-n-n-ot healing. I f-find and see." He turned his head to look at Dante as they walked. "T..t..rack," the child added. Did that make sense? He wanted to tell Dante that he was a tracker - even a naturalist, one day.

Dante noticed the boy watching him but ignored it, glad that he was getting a read on him. He was perfectly content just sharing company. In fact, he quite enjoyed the quiet. Believe it or not, Dante hadn't been much of a talker when he was young either. He still wasn't in some cases. For some reason, though, the Plateau had opened him up some. He guessed it was the feeling that when he spoke here, his packmates actually listened.

He had assumed, but it seemed he was wrong, for when Pura broke the silence, it was to correct the Gamma. Dante nodded as he listened, suddenly thoughtful. "You know, tracking plants is fun, but if you want to try a paw at tracking prey, I'd love to go hunting with you sometime." The pup was old enough to chase rabbits, surely, and Dante enjoyed sharing pointers. If Pura was interested, he showed promise. A Naturalist trade may be in his future if finding plants was something he enjoyed, but no one ever said he couldn't be Gameskeeper as well. If he wanted, of course.

"That's a commendable skill, though, tracking. Finding the herbs is just as important as using them; maybe even moreso." He smiled at Pura. Personally he liked the thrill of the hunt, tracking something that actually moved, but that didn't mean Pura did. The fact that they were all different was what made them a unit, a cohesive pack that thrived.

So sorry for the wait!!! ><

Dante allowed him the space to untangle his tongue and get the words right. Pura took long, calming breaths through his nose. The offer to hunt together cheered him, and the pup responded with a vigorous nod. "O-only you and me?" He hoped so - hunting in a pack required you to be in sync with the rest of the pack, unless you were chosen for a solo mission.

The idea of a hunt seemed to delight the boy and Dante was glad that he had thought to suggest it. "If you would like, then yes, just you and I." He smiled. Pura's company was more than enough, even with the patches of silence, and it would make the experience easier if Dante could simply focus on improving the pup's skills alone. They wouldn't be going after large game anyway. "Anytime you like, just find me and we can go." He'd let Pura choose the time, it mattered little to Dante when such a thing took place. He was glad the quiet pup seemed to enjoy his company on some level.

figure we can let this fade pretty soon ^^ since it's backdated quite a bit! I love their dynamic though <3

Ofc - I will conclude now!

"If you would like, then yes, just you and I."

Pura smiled too - an awkward sight, but it came from a place of relative warmth. The girls were by their very nature much more flamboyant than Pura was - strange, considering such promising beginnings, but it meant that the only boy cherished moments alone with the adults, where he was the focus of attention and could stumble through the English language at his own pace.

With the promise that they would spend more time alone soon embedded firmly in memory, Pura lapsed back into comfortable silence and turned his eyes forward. They had a lot of exploring to do.