Long gray limbs stretched out, eating up the ground and carrying him ever swiftly up the mountainside. There was a devious grin on his face, a purpose to his speed, and a direction to his stride. These were the lands of his birth, the trails he had climbed since puphood, and his destination was one of great familiarity as well. Though he and his siblings still shared a den, he seemed to spend less and less time there of late, and more and more closer to the place he was headed to now. Even so, that was where he was coming from this late-spring morning. The first hints of summer were in the air, in fact it practically was summer. For all the snow they had had the previous winter, things were quickly growing dry. It was as if a year's perspiration had fallen over the winter, and now the skies had nothing left to give. As a matter of fact, Rhaegal couldn't remember the last time it had rained. But that wasn't important now.

What was important was that he reach the lofty den tucked away within the peaks before he had said he would be there. He liked to think he still had a few surprises up his sleeve when it came to his relationfriendship with Bastille. They were grown now, but that hadn't diminished their adventurous personalities. Today's adventure was yet undecided; however, he'd told her that he would be arriving promptly (which usually did not mean promptly whatsoever) when the sun reached the entrance to her den. So she should expect him within the hour following that, thereabouts. Rhaegal's plan, of course, was to arrive early and shock her out of a nap. With his impressive earliness, of course.

As he came closer and closer to the altitude where Bastille's den was housed, he slowed his pace. One couldn't come huffing and puffing up to the entrance of a den and expect the resident to still be asleep, what with all that heavy breathing. So he slowed to a jog, and then a walk, and then began to stalk forward. He crept right up to the den mouth, then popped his head in and said, "Good morning, sleepy-he...Bastille?" To his surprise, the den was empty. He glanced around the interior once before withdrawing - where was she?