this life does not end with death, there is a journey left to make;
ancestors watch over us and guide the path we take

As soon as her head dropped, her gaze fixating upon the paw which he knew had been injured despite his inability to feel the pain related to it, Iluq's nostrils flared and his maw pulled shut. He had honed in on the female, his interest in her pushing aside all thoughts of the simple puncture wound to his paw. But her attentiveness to it pulled his focus back to the cut he thought he had dealt with, frosty eyes dropping to the paw that she motioned towards. With a deep sniff, he recognized the tang of his own blood, and red was beginning to stain between his toes once more. Releasing the breath in a huff, a low grumble of irritation reverberated through his throat. His gaze flashed back towards her as she stepped forward, ears pricking forward as she whined softly. Typically he would ignore the injury in the presence of another, especially one he did not know anything about. But her concern was honest and evident; his gaze narrowed, critically assessing the situation for a moment longer. His tail hung still in the air for a moment before resuming its slow and steady waving rhythm.

Finally, he lifted the paw, revealing a bloodied partial paw print, and lowered his head to investigate the lesion that he thought he had already taken care of. Even after the years of looking after himself, tending to wounds that were inflicted by dangerous encounters or simple missteps, he still underestimated clotting and healing times. While his nose sniffed at the injury, his pale eyes remained fixated upon the female. More gently than before he worked his tongue over the spot, clearing away the blood once more and revealing the site where the thorn had been embedded in his paw. There were no winces of pain as he worked at it, his facade remaining placid and unmoved. The blood came slower, but before he set it back upon the ground, his brows pulled slightly closer together, a thought going through his mind as he watched the shewolf. The decision that followed was outside of his normal repertoire, but he felt a desire to appease her wide-eyed concerns over the miniscule injury. So he extended his leg forward, rotating it slightly so that she may investigate the paw and see for herself that it was not something grave enough to be worried over.

Whether she took the opportunity to look over the paw or not, after a moment Iluq set the paw back on the ground, putting his weight on it fully. The motion brought him forward, and depending on how close she might have come to examine his paw, the distance between them was likely to be much smaller than it had been before. Once more his maw parted, his attention given to her, curious why she would feel such concern for a wolf she did not know. He wondered if there were other predators that walked these woods that he should be concerned with. His tongue moved forward slightly as he breathed her in, tasting her scent once more and discovering now that the perfume that hung upon her fur was not hers alone. Other wolf scents were there too, a clear indication that she belonged to a pack. His ears pivoted back momentarily before pricking forward once more earnestly. The tail that waved behind him slowly lifted higher, suddenly keen to assert himself should other wolves be nearby. Frosty eyes flashed around the woods behind the female, looking for her pack, and finding himself wondering what her standing among them was. But when he saw no other wolves, his gaze dropped back to her, a whine building in his throat as he felt the excitement of their proximity to one another grow. It had been many moons since he had encountered a wolf so receptive to him, one not driven away by his primal tendencies, and he had no intention of squandering this encounter.

ILUQ