It was a comfort to have someone that watched over her the way Solitaire did. He was not pushy, not demanding she come to a pack nor was he snide about the fact that she was small. Not entirely helpless but almost there if it came down to it. Being pushed from the caverns had made her realize that her place in Molodian was just as fragile as it was elsewhere. It didn't matter that she had been born on the soil of this vast continent - she was small. Forever small. Still, she managed well enough and she had very few scars to show for it. She counted herself lucky for that since many wolves who ventured only a few miles from home normally ended up with scars and she had travelled far. It seemed both Solitaire and Malleah were learning their place in this world, both overcoming obstacles of childhood even if they did so in very different manners.

Children were not something Malleah desired for a long time. She knew taht with her slender figure carrying a large brood would most assuredly hurt something inside of her. She had seen females torn from the inside by the birth of their children. Left to bleed out until nothing was left of them save a blood-stained spot on some dirt floor elsewhere. It was not a pretty sight and the pups were often left to die for not many wanted to take in children that were not their own. It had struck her that Solitaire did not seem the sort to want children either, if only from his shyness. Whatever his reasons she did not frown upon it. Who was she to judge anyone?

She grins at his own exuberance to show her the plants. It would be good to know some herb lore herself, for both of them, and living in the wild meant she needed to keep her wits about her. Really, how she had lived this long without learning was a mystery. "I would like that. Hopefully I won't be required to use them this winter, though," she jests in remembrance of her own racoon bite. No need to actually get infected and waste away alone out here.

His words about children make her ears stand up and she smiles, a more soft and genuine one than before, meant to sooth him. "They are not for the faint of heart. In fact, they quite literally suck the life out of you," she says, fluffing up her tail indignantly and peeking from her lashes to see if she earned a smile from him. "I am sure there will be much time in the future for such things if you wish them, Solitaire." It is simply put because they are both relatively young. It wasn't like Molodian wasn't popping out pups every winter anyways. They could wait, both of them, before they each had a brood of children to become friends as well.

When she leads him to her den she waits with an almost impatient manner, shifting from paw to paw and grins happily when he speaks of how clever it is. "Yes, my thoughts exactly. I am glad to have such a place for winter." Only, she doesn't know that she will never get to use this den during winter.

(OOC: You don't have to reply to this, we can end here and pretend they parted ways. I will reply to your other thread promptly!)