Sex: Male@Nova and/or @Camio maybe...?
Coldness and clarity greeted Lucien as he picked his way up the broad shoulder of the mountain. Each breath that burst from his lungs was bright in the noon-day air. Though in the valleys and forests below, the first signs of spring were already beginning to appear - sloppy wet snow, treacherously thin ice upon the streams that were already growing with melt-water - the higher he climbed, the more it seemed that winter's grip on the land was still as strong as a vice. And yet, the sky above him today was bright and clear, the only objects it contained not dismal grey clouds, but freewheeling birds and the perfectly round discs of the sun and moon.
The pale chestnut hued wolf didn't mean to climb all the way up today, nor to leave the western side or the range behind in favor of the unexplored East. A short jaunt into the foothills had been his original aim. But as the morning wore on he'd found himself climbing higher and higher yet into the rising highlands, his paws navigating ever more rugged terrain as he pressed on. Today's weather was a welcome change from the eerie fog-shrouded forests he'd wandered through below in days prior, the dismal freezing mist that had caused him to loose his way. It had been the mountain's foothills that he'd followed into these lands in the first place from the North, and there was something about his first sighting of this small region that had inspired him to linger here and wander these lands rather than continuing further South. Perhaps if he could recapture that moment, he might discover a reason to belong here, or at least get a hint about where he should try investigating next.
Coming the treeline on a small, windswept ridge, Luc sought out the shelter of a rock overhang which had kept a small area relatively free of snow and ice. Below, the valley spread out before him like a treasure map once more, the landscape defined by swathes of dark forest and the shining, silver ribbons of streams that wove throughout. From up here, the smaller details were indiscernible. Where the deer might bed down, where the rabbits hid their warren, where the borders of the packs lay and what might lie in the hearts of those wolves - he could see none of those things from here, and while the view might have been breathtaking, it did little to ease the young man's dilemma. If anything, it had been a waste of precious energy reserves for the loner. And yet he remained, a stubborn huff escaping his muzzle as a cloud of steam on the chilled air, a vow that at the very least, he'd stubbornly enjoy the beauty that he had traveled here to witness.
