Sleepy Fox Hollow herzschmerz

curse his damned sentimentality. mahler busied himself with traveling between takiyok's den and the thicket wherein aurëwen reared her own young, bringing each pieces of fatted meat and ensuring that they continued to heal. the four fat, fine pups sired by stigmata brought him a great deal of fondness for their newborn limbs; the duo of fierce little warriors born to the scarred man intrigued him with their precocity.
wearily, his patients content and not in need of him for the moment, mahler set off at a brisk clip. away from the vale, and pointedly so, whether or not he would admit this. but almost as soon as he had gone, thoughts of her swam to his tired mind, and he found it difficult to bat them away.
she was gone, had been gone, and stigmata would eventually make his decision on their alliance. that was all mahler needed to trouble himself over, and as he descended into a peaceful hollow that brimmed with vulpine scent, the gargoyle's heavy jaws split into a yawn. he had come to hunt, and he would hunt, he promised himself, settling to look over the little meadow with a slow blink.
quite by accident, mahler's body heeded his nights of exhaustion, and soon he had half-curled against a nearby tree and fallen rather quickly asleep, muscles slackening gratefully for the reprieve.

He had wandered the mountain range without much of a plan, unsure for the first time in his life what to do with his time. He thought that, soon, he would try and find Heloise, and he had almost convinced himself that it was only because he wanted to make sure she had not succumb to the less than friendly side of the wilds and not because she had entered his thoughts more often than was probably appropriate. But today, his wanderings brought him to a valley in the southern part of the mountains. While the mountains still held a fair amount of snow, the valley he now padded through was green with spring regrowth. 

He stopped when he caught the scent of a herd of deer, moving again when he had figured out the direction from which the aroma was coming. East stopped close enough to watch the creatures graze but far enough away that they wouldn't sense his presence. Finally lying down, he decided he would watch them for a while, under no illusion that he could take down one of the lovely smelling creatures on his own. As his gaze moved slowly across the herd, it suddenly stopped on the sleeping form of stranger not far from where he had settled in the grass. A lift of his head and a sniff of the air would find the man's scent underneath the more prevalent scent of prey. He was hungry and had previously been distracted by the scent of food, but now there was no missing the stranger's smell; he smelled of the pack East had scented and given a wide berth on his way through the mountains; it was neither his plan nor his nature to cause trouble. The warrior watched the man sleep for a while longer, wondering what could have caused him to sleep in such an unprotected place. Luckily, East had no intention of waking or harming him and instead resumed his studying of the quietly grazing deer, gaze occasionally drifting to the man to see if had woken yet. At least while he was here, no one sneak up on the sleeping wolf.

thanks for joining <3

the man's senses jerked him awake abruptly; he had no concept of how much time had passed, only that he had foolishly fallen asleep in the open and now was no longer alone. a large yawn split his heavy jaws, and he blinked several times to gather his bearings as he straightened to his full height. 
the watchman was coffee-cream and poised, and mahler followed the line of his gaze toward the prey just out of reach. giving a soft grunt of greeting, he passed his tongue over his dark lips and approached with a rolling, gentle stride that promised only friendliness. after all, what if this man had not merely watched, but attacked? mahler knew there was something in that for which to be grateful, and settled on his haunches some feet away to watch the trajectory of the herd as well.

Of course <3

Eventually, the sleeping stranger woke. East wasn't sure if it was his presence that had brought him from his slumber or not, but it was evident in the way he strolled over that he didn't seem to mind the warrior's presence. The man wordlessly took a seat near him, gaze trained on the herd that East had been watching for some time now. For a while, he didn't say anything, content to just watch and see what would happen. But ultimately, his curiosity got the best of him, as it often did, and he found himself wanting to ask questions of the previously snoozing stranger. He shifted his focus to the dark man. You are from the pack in the mountains, he said as more of a statement than a question. Surely there are safer places to sleep there? he continued, eyebrow raising some. Not that he had minded spending his free time here today, but what if someone else had stumbled upon the other man--someone with malicious intent? As a lone wolf who now found himself limiting his sleep time to only a couple hours here or there in order to remain aware, he wondered why one would choose to sleep unprotected when they had the safety of a pack. His eyes returned to the grazing deer while he waited for his company to answer, curiosity growing with each minute.

while he welcomed the gentle chastisement inherent in the other's inquiry, mahler found himself moving swiftly toward self-beration. any manner of ill fate could have befallen him while he slept; he was a fool, to have almost endangered diaspora with his sheer carelessness. "you are right," he chuffed, lavender stare upon the distant herd. "i am our healer and midvife. ve have been ... prolific."
there was little connection to be made between the two, outside of mahler's own apparent exhaustion. hoping that the stranger would align what he had said with why he had been sleeping alone, the gargoyle shifted. "you are alone?" came his own question, posed at the edge of his next breath.

So it seemed he had been a busy man, so busy that he had succumbed to his exhaustion out here in the open. East felt bad for bringing it up but was glad he had been the one to stumble upon the tired man. He dipped his head in response, understanding in his expression, and he said no more about it.

He nodded in response to his observation. I am, he replied. For some time now. He left out why he had left and where he had come from, unwilling to delve into his past. He tried to avoid even thinking about Drageda if he could, although that was an impossible task. Still, it was not really a topic to discuss with someone he barely knew. I'm Eastwood, he offered instead.

the loner confirmed, but offered no other details. it mattered not to mahler, who saw little reason to engage in empty small talk. he also did not offer the comforts of diaspora, for it seemed to himself that the man was aware from where he had come, and could thus seek out the ranging pack if he so chose.
"i am mahler," the gargoyle answered, gaze drifting to the herd in the distance. "i vonder if i have seen them before," he mused, thinking of the various groups that roamed the sunspire. "have they been here long?" perhaps a pack hunt was soon in order.