His paws were tainted, dripping with the last half hour of his work. He was laced from head to toe with silt, mud, and the general debris that comes from digging a hole deeper than the height he stood. Vibrant yellow eyes shifted outward, across the shadows of the of the thicket. The night was anything but still, with a cold wind raking back his coat, shoving aside the leaves and branches that gave barrier to the local fauna and bruising the area with a brutal summer downpour that had soaked to the skin within seconds. The ground was in turmoil around him, scarred in the wake of his efforts and smoothed by the touch of the pooling rain.

It was finished.

The last burial ground of his past life. He stood, eyes sliding meticulously over the area that surrounded him, and finally, surveying his work. A deep hole lay birthed and destroyed, dug under the anger of an approaching storm and filled as thunder rolled overhead, rain cleansing the wounded earth with water that pooled like tears, trickling and eventually streaming around the uneven surface. By the morning, it would be apparent that something had happened here, but the details would be washed away. It would be hidden by nature alone. More rain would come, the shrubs would creep blindly across the ground again, and the dead leaves would mar what was left of the tale beneath the ground. The earth had a way of dealing with the dead, it always had. Bones may linger, but this hadn't been the first hole, though he swore it would be the last.

He turned away then, moving silently through the noise and back through the thicket of secrets. His eyes were sharp on the area around him, moving with purpose and with care so that he would follow only one path; a path consumed by the rain. It was cold, almost a relief after his work, though his flesh shuddered lightly in response to his lengthy exposure. It was the wind that did the work of sapping his stamina alongside the hours of muscle use he had put in previously. But he had been ready for this, and his stamina wasn't little. Artuo would make this last trek through the thicket and he would not return.

He paused for an instant, finally reaching the border of the thicket, and looked back. The sky was black overhead, masking the deeds of the night in darkness until only a flash of lightening lit up the foliage at abrupt intervals. This was how it was to be now. The shapes contorted in the night, casting shadow and darkness over all, and as the stark yellow eyes radiated in the night, he knew that he must start again. And in the next instant, as darkness consumed the world, he turned away once more, his gaze forward and did not look back again.

----

It was early the next morning that Artuo awoke, his body cleansed from the pouring rain and a dastardly brush the creek, finding himself in surrounded by orchard of trees. The birds called to one another from their perches and small insects flew haphazardly through the air. It was a sunny morning, the warm rays penetrating his still damp fur and warming him in such a way the shivers of delight coursed up his spine. He rose halfway from his nest of leaves, rump still comfortably planted amongst them, and gazed about. There was nothing here that suggested trauma or danger. From the content noises of the wild creatures, jubilate in the their goings, to the plopping of overripe cherries to the ground. He thought that, here perhaps, was his new beginning. And with the sounds of contentment that surrounded him, he closed those ever watchful eyes and reveled in the sun.

He watched the course of light dapple across the back of his eyelids, moving with the sway of branches. It was a unique phenomena, reserved for those with their eye closed as light penetrated the thin membranes. A singularly pleasant experience for those of a visual nature and yet completely unrestrained to those who might experience it. Perhaps a sense of awareness in the small things was all one needed to appreciate it. He did so then, darkness ebbing into lightness and then back again. It was with a soft sigh that he opened his eyes once more to the surrounded world, the images created by ebbing darkness burned momentarily into his vision before the light took over once more and his eyes focused on the tangible objects around him.

The heat around him was moist and though a certain dampness permeated the air, the direct sun was already beginning to dry the world, evaporating the previous night's rain and leaving in it's wake a pleasantly dry morning. Of course the dampness that still clung to him contrasted it against his skin, but he didn't doubt that once he was fully in the sun that he would dry completely where the shade had allowed the dampness to stick. Even so, he pushed these thoughts aside momentarily. There was a scent tracing towards him on a breeze, flicking forward and then back again, much as the light and darkness had done before.

She was a small thing, unpresumptuous in her stance, though it reminded him of someone who would rather like to not be seen. It caught his attention immediately. And even as she stopped, yards away from him, he felt himself turning on his seat to face her by the draw of it. He'd never seen the wolf before, which was safe to even assume merely by the fact that he was quite new here himself, but there was something about the wolf that drew him to her. And in the back of his mind, he knew exactly what it was. Had she come across him in another time, her welfare would have been questionable upon her approach. He would have latched onto her as a tick does flesh, and not released until she had given him all she could. And then he would have taken the last of her.

But no. His mind veered away from the thoughts. He must break any such connection that he had with that. Instead he would once more attempt to face this thing. He felt something solid within himself rock and then settle, and he knew that it would be well for now. So newly decided, this would be an easy day for him. He had firm confirmation and he would not let it slid.

A small, warm smile lifted his lips. He kept his seat, assuming a non threatening stance. And even as the words slipped from his mouth, a deep baritone that easily carried the distance between them, he couldn't help but think how similarly it all started out.

"Hello." His yellow eyes moved to her, friendly. "What brings you about?

Oh my. She was certainly a timid creature, wasn't she? His gaze drifted across her, almost calculating in it's manner, though as her own gaze shifted towards him (however briefly) he made it a point to hold it for an instant before he averted them ever so slightly, and pointedly. It suggested that while he was confident of his own position he was not here to dominate her. He had his moments of throwing such posturing around, but it was never in the company of such wolves that stood before him as her. No, any great show of elevated posture seemed that it would send her skittering over her heels in the opposite direction. While that was certainly not something he would have wanted in the past, he thought that perhaps, now, instead of avoiding sending her running or snapping at her heels, he would attempt a fine line between the two. He remained as he was, relaxed, though interested in her appearance.

In another time, he would have enveloped her in his warmth. Slowly getting her to relax and take in the comfort that he offered. And as he thought about it now, he thought that there wasn't too much difference between manipulating someone into what they thought was a friendship and actually beginning to grow one. He difference, he supposed, was the intention behind the two. No one wanted a facade of friendship. But what was this beyond mere meet and greet; that, he thought, was what he should stick to now. Not manipulating anything into more than it actually was, in neither their mind or his own.

Her communication skills seemed incondite. His, however, were not so lacking. Mainly from years of practice in what moved others. Whether it be in anger, compassion, love or otherwise. And so he moved forward with the conversation, casual, diverting what he knew to be his own penetrating gaze to the world around him and away from her. "Yes... it's quite lovely here." His chin lifted as he surveyed the trees above him, watching the sway of the branches as a jay flew by, it's tittering crescendoing until it reached it's peek as it landed on another branch, further from the two wolves. The rays of light shifted amiably through the branches, specking the earth until it cleared for a moment between the two.

His gaze followed the dappled shade until it once more reached her.

"I've only been here for the night. This is my first time seeing it in the light. I must say, it's rather enchanting... perhaps you know more of the area than I?"

His brow rose in inquiry, leaving an invitation open, inviting.

He watched her shake her head upon his query, quickly enough that had her actions not already lined up with a squirrely nature, he might have thought that she was lying to him. At which point, of course, one of two things would have happened. Either he would have instantaneously put her on his shit list under suspicion of lying or he would be drawn to pull information out of her as a lie would have formed and presented itself as a challenge to him. For what was more of a challenge than getting a liar to be honest? Curiosity and mental stimulation had always been his best and worst attributes. Things he had been told and have noted about himself. It wasn’t so much detrimental in the fact that he needed mental stimulation. The negative to it was the type of mental stimulation he pursued. More often than not, it was damaging to someone, whether it was him or someone else.

He nodded politely as she spoke, his position having straightened slightly in such a way that suggested that he would prefer to hold a more defined stance. Not so much in readiness, but more so because he rather preferred not to look like a slouch in front of anyone. That could be reserved for his secluded moments, which he certainly had plenty of. ”Well that is certainly understandable, if you haven’t been around for long.” While he wasn’t familiar with any of the packs around, he had come across their territory markers and swayed away from them thus far. And she did have a faint smell of ‘others’ about her intermixed with her much more prominent scent.

He smiled, thoughtfully, as he peered over at her. ”Though with time, comes knowledge.”

He offered that statement in lieu of the rather deprecatory presentation of her own knowledge what seemed to be more than just the area, as he had specified. His gaze slide momentarily past her for an instant, almost wistfully focusing on the distant trees behind the cherry orchard at her next question before, soon enough, they focused once more back on her. ”No. I’m not from here.”

It meant more than just the silly implication of being from the lands around them. For him, it was a question of his life and what it had lead. He wasn’t used to the calmness that surrounded them. He was used to chaos, upheaval of emotions, and more firmly a pack that surrounded him in activity, no matter if it was hostile or otherwise. He was not from this… place. In life.

”Well,” his head tilted, ears perked forward. ”What of others? Are there as many about as I have caught on the wind? Or are we two lonely wolves in a pretty orchard?” He felt that she gave herself less credit for what she knew than she actually did. Information was valuable, no matter how little. He spoke in light tones, a small smile playing across his lips.

It wasn't everything he had hoped for, but he was content in knowing that it probably wouldn't be the last of the information he would receive. By her own words (however indirectly), she implied that there were definitely others about, even if no packs were specified. He thought that perhaps there was more than one, but time would tell in that venture. While he relished his quiet time now, he would soon begin looking for a place to set up. He just couldn't say where as of yet. That decision would be left for when more information about the others in the area revealed itself to him. Time and patience were his friends here, and though he knew it, just gleaning the little bit he could from any new acquaintances made him want to pounce onto the next question until he had the information he wanted. As it was, most wolves did not appreciate the twenty question game, and so once again the self control that he practiced was once more put into place.

He took in her response quickly, storing it away to ponder upon later, though his thoughts wrapped around it, turning it from the conversation into his own line of thought. The look on his face was of one paying polite attention to what was being said. It revealed very little in the way of his absorption or of wandering thoughts. Masks were something he had long ago learned to put on when the time called for it. An art in and of itself, he had no qualms with it now, as he felt most wolves had to use them at some point in their life, whether it was protecting a love one from questionable action or protecting one's own intentions.

"Well, certainly. But as I am surely new to this area-- as you are-- it is useful information to have." He smiled softly. "Besides, I catch the faint whiff of others on you, but no pack has just one smell. It is the combination of wolf on wolf that lets one know who belongs to an area and who does not." He pondered for a moment. "Well, that, and border markers."

His flashed her a quick grin, which softened at the sound of her giggle. He had indeed noticed her smile before, at something, but he hadn't quite placed it. "You should laugh more, …?" The tail end of the statement left open the query of what to call her. Names had not been exchanged yet, and while he wasn't one to particularly rush that avenue, he found that this was a good opportunity to find out just who he was speaking to. It would possibly come in handy at a later point in time, though he had no current thought as to just why it would.

It was her next question that set him brooding again. About just what to say in this line of conversation, but then, sticking as close to the truth as possible was always the best avenue. Wolves came and went as wanderers, surely. "Traveling, mostly. I'm looking into the different areas to see what more is out in the wide world beyond my old place."