The note of my howl carried across the vast mountain range, echoing back to me as I inhaled before intending to continue my call to Vortigern. But my breath caught in my throat as a song not my own rang back to me. His voice was laden with strength and pride, and if a howl could sound handsome then he had achieved that as well. For a moment I was frozen in the clearing, nose still lifted into the air as though I might be able to smell the freshness of his scent even from such a distance. Of course the clearing bore traces of his scent, but nothing could beat the aroma of burying my nose into the fur of his neck.
When his call was no more than an echo in my mind I lowered my head and began to pace. The urge to bolt off in the direction his call had come from pulled at my heart and limbs alike. But I knew I needed to be patient, to wait for him here so that we wouldn't end up missing each other on the different shortcuts that we both knew through the territory. Waiting for him was agony, knowing that after all this time only minutes and leaps and bounds of his muscular white legs separated us. So I continued to pace, my stride so fervent that after only a few laps I was already leaving my mark in the soil. My eyes were kept on the tree line, snapping around with each turn that I made so that there was no chance I would miss seeing that dashing dark mask emerge into the clearing.
Of course it would have been hard to miss his arrival even if I hadn't been eagerly anticipating it. His gait was thunderous, heralding his approach as he barreled closer and closer. My pacing ceased and I leaned forward readily, and then there he was. Vortigern whisked into the clearing in a halo of light and scattered leaves and needles displaced from the tree line he broke through. He was like some champion come to claim his glory after a grand battle - and I would gladly be his prize. Maybe I was seeing him through rose colored glasses, more handsome and impressive than he'd already been to me, but that was perfectly fine by me.
As he placed a lick upon my cheek I came alive, dancing forward and leaping up from one side to drape my forelegs over his withers and sneak a return lick atop his head. My nose then casually drifted through the fur of his ruff, flooding my senses with his cologne and I sighed contentedly as I slipped down from my perch and pranced away and then back towards him again.