Nootau only briefly caught the wave of his tail out of the corner of his eyes. This expression only made him happier. Well, good! Tail wagging meant good times. It was nice to see her mood lighten a bit. Not that she wasn’t friendly before, but she had seemed… a bit doomed when she had approached him. To have that heavy fog lifted from her, even if only slightly, made her small grin that much more radiant in the pale moonlight. It made sense that she seemed happier now, if Nootau reminded Isola of her son, Achilles. Thoughts of their happy children always made parents happy (or so Nootau had heard). Achilles sounded like a pretty a cool wolf too. Nootau would want to meet him. He was sure he’d get along with a personality-twin. Adventures every day with a partner that was up for the same challenges, right?! Nootau logged the name in his memory files. Saved for later!

Nootau trotted along beside her contently, happy to have the companion he had called for. Their paws scrunched down the snow and left a pair of pawprints. Nootau puffed his chest a bit. It was kind of like leaving his mark in the forest – like he was claiming it, sort of. “I’ve been here!” He thought. There was something very accomplished in those simple words. He closed his eyes with a pleased grin before he opened them again and perked his ears towards Isola when she asked her first question. Well, now there was a question he hadn’t expected. He wasn’t offended by it, just surprised that she had such a forward personality as to ask such a serious question of a stranger.

“Well, I lost my pack when the meteor hit,” Nootau responded, “I haven’t found them since the dust cleared. I tried looking from them for a while – you know, too make sure everyone was okay - but I couldn’t even find any bodies. So, I guess they left my old home and I went different direction then they did.” Nootau looked at his paws a moment. He really did hope everyone was okay. They had been his pack. When Nootau looked up, he continued, “So, that’s how I ended up alone and here. I’ve been doing pretty well for a pup, huh?” Nootau smiled.

“Never knew when I crossed a border to here. What’s the name of this place?” Nootau continued. He was totally unaware that he had managed to travel to far. He had kind of just lived… without much thought the last months. He had slepted, woken to a hungry stomach. Traveled to find food, hunted all day and then ate if he caught something. Then slept and continued on the next day. Eventually, he noticed the scenery changed, the smells were completely unfamiliar, and that he wasn’t such which way his old den was. He had a lot to learn about navigation, yet, so getting lost had proven pretty easy. So, his option then was to follow the scent of prey. That had leaded him here, to this, currently, nameless place full of a population of wolves and several packs. He had smelled the pack’s borders, but he didn’t dare cross into any of them. One never knew, but some packs didn’t take kindly to trespassers – especially males trespassers.