Herbalists' Cache Over grass and over stone

This was a longer trip.  It was maybe farther than he'd been before -- he wasn't great at judging distances but it seemed pretty likely.  Being away from the ones that he felt wanted to enslave him made him feel a bit better.  Like with the distance, maybe he was safe.  But still, he'd have to go back eventually, wouldn't he?  Sure, he'd told @Brilliance he was going on a trip that would maybe be a little longer than most of his advnetures, but that meant he was going to return.  He couldn't leave her like that.

Because of winter, the forest he walked through wasn't particularly exciting-looking.  Everything was covered in snow, and what useful plants there might have been (not that Mali would have known) were long buried.  It was just a forest.  It existed, and he wandered through it, sniffing around in case there was something edible buried around.  Maybe he could extend the trip another day or something -- he didn't expect to find anything super substantial.  But he still wanted to see what was beyond, what maybe existed beyond where his leash was tied.  Something better had to be out there, he just had to find it.

note: takes place before the aries thread in keen's personal timeline. tag for reference!

She usually tries not to stray too far from @Derg on their outings, partially from fear of getting lost again and partially because she enjoys his company. But that doesn't mean she doesn't like to wander a bit — which is what she's doing right now, though she keeps within calling distance of her companion. She'd been lured from his side by a strange scent, fresher than most she encounters on their trips, and now she follows the trail intently. It's been awhile since she's met a stranger; she'd promised herself that she would get better at it, though, and that requires practice, right?
She takes in a slow breath as the scent grows stronger, attempting to calm her rapidly-fraying nerves as the other wolf comes into sight; a pale boy, younger than she'd expected — somewhere around her age, actually. The knowledge settles her a little, and she halts with several yards still separating them, forcing her tail into a friendly swish. Her first attempt at a greeting falters, face flushing with heat, and she almost considers fleeing — but she has to figure this out. She can't be afraid of strangers forever. H-hello! She calls after a beat, trying to seem friendly. Her voice sounds too uncertain for her liking, but she tries to focus on the victory of managing to speak at all — maybe it'll get easier from here.

And then someone else appeared on the scene.  Someone he didn't know.  Her being unfamiliar was probably a good thing.  It meant that she wasn't part of that consortium of witches and demons (or whatever he considered them now... Tyrants?) that ruled Elysium.  On the other hand, he didn't live in a cave but he did exist in a pretty hermit-like state, but self-imposed and seemingly enforced by the pack.  It hadn't done him any favors.

It made  him awkward and kind of blunt.  It meant he missed her embarrassment entirely and just said, in a kind of normal-but-maybe-a-little-positive kind of way, Oh, uh.  Hi.  Who're you?  If you wanted a socially stunted dork, Mali fit that bill pretty well.  He wasn't expecting to see some random girl out here -- honestly he was kind of expecting Mahler to just appear out of nowhere again because that and that other grump-o-matic were the only people he'd met outside the pack.  To a certain point he kind of expected everyone out there was some big grey-black dude with an attitude.