Slowly his mouth moves through the shapes of the sound of his name. I concentrated very hard on the movements of his lips, trying my damndest to put them together into a name. I thought I might have it right, and tested out what I’d thought he’d tried to convey. “Reich?” I asked. Once I received his confirmation that I had interpreted him correctly, I turned to pick up the remnants of my meal. I moved forward into the territory, stashing the bird beneath a rock where I could return for it later. Turning back to him, I saw that he was still waiting patiently at the border line. I smiled at him; maybe I was surprised by his chivalry, it was not every day I encountered such a respectful wolf.

I motioned for him to join me, gesturing with my head towards the path we would take. Once he joined me, I turned and fell into step beside him. The trail I had chosen was wide enough for us to walk along side by side. It slowly lead uphill, a gentle incline that we could tread at a leisurely pace. For a while I lapsed into silence, letting the sounds of the mountain fill our ears for a time. Birds sang from the height of their perches, and the breeze created a soft symphony as trees of all shapes and sizes rusted against one another. There was even the occasional chatter of squirrels and chipmunks to add to the chorus.

After a time, I looked over to my companion, hoping that he was enjoying the mountain’s song. “Do you call Asteraia home?” I asked, curious to know if what I had suspected upon first meeting him was true. I wondered was the landscape of the plains was like, if there were any trees or just vast and endless openness.

As we gradually ascended further up the mountain, the trail cut back and up, and as we rounded a slight bend in the trail the path suddenly opened up on Reich’s side of the trail. Though the trail had been on only a minor, but steady incline, we had actually gained a fair amount of height from where the border of my pack was marked. The openness along Reich’s side of the trail would offer him a beautiful view of the lower eastern portion of the pack; in fact we could easily look down upon the group of rocks where I had stashed my pheasant. But from this height, they appeared much smaller. I slowed my stride in case Reich might want to stop and take in the view; and if he did, I would have no qualms with stopping altogether.