Rook was gone again, that much Borden knew. When the boy would return or if he would come back, the elder Lyall was not sure; but, since today seemed to be what he liked to call "a good day" (for the most part he had been able to recall all the important things on his personal timeline starting with who he was, where he was, and who he could call in if he needed help), he decided to wander through the tree line to find himself beneath the open skies. The morning had been clear and cloudless, dark blue at first before lightening with an array of pastel colors before becoming a bright hue of typical sky blue by the afternoon hours. Several times over he thought he had scented Rook's most recent trail among the yellowed grasses but he resisted the urge to try and follow. He had been given very strict orders to stay with Narimé and the wolves of Whisper Caverns; without both Rook and Bishop, Borden was on his own (unless Jaysyek was still in the area, which was something he couldn't know for certain. The last time they had met, he had thought her to be an illusion in the morning mist...).

Wandering along through the mead with a leisurely pace and his head angled downward, Borden made sure to mind his balance and keep on the lookout for the sandy places where the grass had been cleared away and an underground burrow had been made. A simple inspection of one such tunnel confirmed that it was plausible for both burrowing owls and stoats to be prevalent within the area. He was not interested in them though since Rook had made sure to fill his stomach before he left. With a hearty meal of half a rabbit as a sort of kickshaw and a part of something that had been in the ground for a few days to keep the hunger pangs away for about a week, Borden was also determined not to burn it all off on a calorie-expending hike.

A small bit of coarse crabgrass seemed like a good place to stop and savor the afternoon sun and, so, he stopped. A bit of careful maneuvering brought him down into a sphinx-like position with his eyes closed tight as he allowed the darkest parts of his pelt to soak up the warmth he had been missing from the depths of the caverns...