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Perhaps luckily for Tribalwind, and perhaps not, she wasn't about to be alone for long. The sound of someone pacing by the den's entrance echoed in the tunnels, and a moment later a very white and very distracted looking dog staggered in. Staggered not because he was ill, or hurt, but merely because he seemed so lost in thought as to trip over every exposed root and small stone in his path. Taking no notice of the female, he slipped right past her, to the back of the den, where he promptly lay down and shut his eyes with a tired sigh.

Distantthinker was well known to the older members of the pack by now; from birth he'd always seemed aloof, paying little attention to the world around him, and more focused on his own thoughts and distant ideas. He was clumsy, often tripping or bumping others, but harmless enough. That he'd been gifted with a veritable green paw for plants only stood to confound those closest to him. His duties were never shirked, but he just never seemed to be paying attention to what he was doing--how could every plant he touched thrive?

Thanks to his duty, Distantthinker had taken to occasionally being awake in the day, unlike his packmates. Plants grew best in the sun, and...well lets be honest. Most often it was not a conscious choice to go to bed in the day, he simply got caught up thinking and forgot to. That'd been what happened the earlier day, and now the white male was exhausted. Combined with his inattentiveness...it wasn't surprising that he'd wandered into the wrong den.

Only after several long moments did one of his eyes wink open again and lazily drift over to Tribalwind. "....."

The lady's words went in one ear and out the other it seemed, as DT just kept laying there with a half-glazed look of pure inattention. A long moment after her question he finally blinked, and then seemed to finally see her smiling at him. "......Why are you in my den...?" He finally asked, tilting his head slowly to one side and raising it an inch or two off his paws.

He'd been so tired, and so caught up in his own thoughts that he'd neglected to mind where he was going. As far as he knew, this was his den. Why was there someone else here? Hmm...

Of course, it wasn't his den, and after a little more thought he seemed to wrap his mind around that. His eyes widened just so and he sat up. "Oh...this.......this isn't my den, is it? How'd I get in here, I wonder....Mmph." He'd been looking around at the walls and come back to the female. He'd frankly forgotten about her with the revelation that this was in fact not his home. "....Who are you again?"

The glazed look began to fade from the male's eyes. Just because he was often lost in thought didn't mean he was unintelligent. It just took him some time to get back to himself. He could carry on a conversation with a pretty lady. At least he thought he could. What'd she said her name was again?

"...I'm Distantthinker. Because...uhm...well I'm Distantthinker. Peke'Na? ....Yeah. Yeah I am." He smiled cheerfully. He'd answered both her questions and not gotten (too) distracted at all! "That's nice of you to offer....was it Terriblewind? That's a...a bad name. You're....too pretty to be terrible anything." Gulp. Now he WAS getting distracted the more attention he paid to her. That wasn't fair at all! He was trying to focus...

"Oh, I like Tribalwind much better. I don't think you're Terrible either...Oh, thank you." He admired the fruit without eating it for a moment. He was a tree shaper after all, a worker of plants. This fruit seemed very plump and shiny...that was good. He wondered what part of the pack's lands she'd picked it from. He'd have to snoop around the next day in the light and try to see.

"I don't think I was born here...but...mother brought us here a long time ago. When the pack first came here. So yes." He wasn't one of the original blood, perhaps, but he was as Peke as a Na could get, right?

He started to say something else but then seemed to mentally slam on the breaks. "Wait...you said your name was," and his voice dipped to a whisper, as if he were afraid someone else would hear, "......Kokuro?" His ears laid back and he blushed under his fur, becoming once again very interested in the fruit. He rolled it a bit with one paw. "Uhm...you told me your true name...and.....I thought only mates did that?" A horrifying thought hit him. He DID space out for a lot, even important things. "Are....are we mates?" She must hate him for spacing out during the whole ceremony! Had he even told her his true name? She was probably waiting on him and he was just ignoring her!

"Mine's Mbali'Akili." He blurted, blushing deeper and staring HARD at that fruit.

Oh spirits and heavens preserve them both. First they were mates, then they weren't, but everything DT'd been raised to think was screaming to him that you only told your true mate your real name, and not only had she, which might have been okay because she was from out of the pack, but he had too! He took small comfort in that at least they both knew...That would keep the balance of power even until they got this sorted out.

"Unless...what??" He was desperate to know if he'd done something as awful as ignoring the poor female all through their mating ceremony. He didn't remember wooing her or any of the other things that came with courtship, but they'd shared names so they HAD to be mates. Didn't they? And to be honest the majority of his life was a blur from his lack of attention. He really could have forgotten it all!

"....Tribalwind, right?" He didn't dare use her real name until he learned the truth. "Are you sure we're not mates? I....I don't remember....but only mates tell each other their true names. Right...?"