Rurik's ears twitched as the pup turned around, and he flashed him a toothy grin. Even though the little guy was younger than him, age had never meant too much to him in the way of friendships. The boy seemed of the friendly sort and for that, the star-marked adolescent was glad. He'd never been to the beaches of Glorall, never had a reason to, but he could smell the salt air on the stranger's pelt even from all the way over here. Beneath the herbs, he wondered if he smelled of dusty rock and deep canyons. "Never been, but everywhere gets quiet if you're there too long." Rurik gave a shrug of his lanky shoulders before settling down into a sit, his tail waving across the soft grass of the riverbank.

"Yeah, you know, I'm just finding herbs for my Dad. I'm supposed to be a healer too, but man, I just go where life takes me. It's, like, really freeing." His eyes drifted past the boy and towards the river, snaking languidly through the land, continuing onwards no matter what happened around it. Rurik wanted to be like the river. Free and unattached to anything except for the trees and the grass and the riverbed. There was something real pleasing about thinking that he was floating down the river, just a drop of water being carried by some foreign current. For now, though, his paws were planted firmly on the ground, and he needed to remember that. Even he knew of the dangers of becoming trapped in a world where nothing was familiar.

His bright eyes returned to the pup sitting before him, though his gaze was dreamlike and far away. "You should try it. Just, like, go with the flow. Let the water carry you where it will, stuff like that. It's good for the soul." He flashed him another toothy grin, seeming to come back to the present in an instant, straightening his posture and letting the dreamy look in his eyes dissipate. "My name's Rurik. What's yours, little man?"