Clandestine Brook another day in paradise

Cas' eyes lit up excitedly when he gave in and lay down before her. She had tried caring about posturing and if her head was above someone else's and all that, but to a wolf who had been kept in captivity for the majority of her life, it just didn't come naturally to her. So, when he got lower than her, his head beneath hers, her first reaction was to just roll onto her side in the moss and tip her head to look up at him from where she lay on the ground.

She didn't often think about what she wanted to chat about. Thinking and chatting didn't go in the same box. Chatting was something to do to fill up the silence, and to get to know someone else. Thinking was something you did in the silence, where there were no words. Occasionally, the two might intertwine with one another, in more meaningful conversations.

"What are you doing in such a creepy forest all by yourself?" she asked, after some moments of deliberation. She was still laid out on her side, and whereas Salvatore was only seemingly relaxed, Castel was completely relaxed. There wasn't really a reason not to be, in her mind. She understood well that this was a stranger, and that she was in potential danger, but she made sure to keep herself just out of grabbing range. Not to mention the fact that, behind her eye contact and smile, she really was assessing his mood and body language. He didn't seem as though he was going to attack her. "Now, I live here, but I'm not above admitting that this place is super creepy. I prefer fields myself, but this was where the wolves I loved wanted to settle down." She grinned. "Home is where the heart is."

Salvatore was entertained by the she-wolf's vibrant vocabulary. "Creepy", he mused. The loner made a second attempt to see through the branches and spot the heavens overhead: all he saw were branches upon branches morphing into one branch until they became one colour that looked like an inky sky. Perhaps that was the one thing he didn't like about this forest: starless-ness. Come nighttime, it would be colourless and eyes would most likely become useless, forcing him to rely on only his ears, nose, whiskers, and gut. "I wander," he said simply. "I follow whatever I'm hunting. The only way I can hunt down a deer by myself is if I tire it out: that can take days at a time, usually. Along the way, it'll either manage to hurt itself or prove to be more sick than it looks. I end up wherever it drops dead and then move on." His mind ambled to the rabbit he was hunting. "I rarely hunt a full-grown deer, though, obviously." He looked back down at the brown wolf and saw her sprawled out on her side before him. Salvatore hated being on his side: he couldn't get up as quickly as he could on his stomach if he needed to escape quickly. For a moment, he envied her comfortableness -- something that probably came with being in a pack. "Why do you think this place is creepy?" he asked.

Her comfortableness had come long before she ever joined a pack. While Castel had not been what others would call a naturally extroverted, brave wolf, per say... she was now more vocal and relaxed around others than she could've ever dreamed to have been when she was younger. It could be called naivety, or stupidity, or ignorance - the ability to lay before a massive wolf who could kill her in one single bite - but it was a blessing to Cas. Without the wild streak she held in her blood, she would still be trapped within a tiny chain-link fence; her entire world would be gray and dull and void.

She was glad that the man had decided to talk, her tail beating against the ground from behind her where she lay. "I used to wander a lot, too," she mused, glancing up at him. "I liked it, for a while. But then I met some great friends, and I loved being with all of them much more than I liked being by myself. Not that it has to be like that for everyone; I don't want you to think I'm suggesting you join a pack." She smirked and shut her eyes. "Though it might not be a bad idea. Just if you wanted to entertain the thought." Subtlety was not her strong suit.

Why did she think the forest was creepy? Cas laughed softly. "It's just really dark and enclosed. I like wide, open spaces. I don't like feeling stuck anywhere." But, with Quaking Vale (and Niles in particular) she could deal with the enclosed darkness of the forest. "It has its charm, though. It's just a little different." One blue eye creaked open to look up at him. "Would you like me to walk you somewhere less dense before nightfall? It's hard to navigate, if you aren't used to it."

There is a rabbit's nest nearby. +1 Health