Winterwind found her place in the pack. She was a finder, and a damn good one. She was slowly learning her way around, and slowly learning very few people's names. Sniffing around, nose pressed to the ground, she seemed to be looking for something. Green eyes were focusing on trying not to trip on rocks or tree roots. Ears perking, her brown head snapped up and she smirked. Found it. Tracking a rabbit for supper was actually quite hard, but she found it and wasn't going to let it get away. Her black tipped tail went still as she walked slowly, crawling on her stomach.
The bush a head rustled and she pounced, catching tha hare between her front paws. She bit down on his throat and stayed like that until it wasn't moving anymore. She chuckled around the now bloody body and got up, looking about and getting on a big rock.
That's where she started eating, uncaring that she was getting herself covered in blood.
Distantthinker liked trees. Probably that was why he'd grown up to be a tree-shaper. He wasn't particually excited about helping the trees grow, but unlike some he was amply patient for the job. After all, the thing he was best at was sitting in place and staring off into space and thinking. Trees grew so very slowly, as to be boring to most. But not him. Actually, if pressed, he probably knew more personally about each tree and shrub in the pack's territory than the members of the pack itself.
It also helped that he didn't mind being up in the day. And day time it was. His white fur was blinding in the light, but he sat so still (off in his own little world of fancy) that the hare had crept right up along side him in its wanderings, and then settled just a few shrubs away.
About a handful of seconds after the fact, he startled at the sudden attack. He blinked owlishly at the newcomer as she ate, as if some half-rusted spark was trying to fire in his brain enough to make him think that maybe he should be wondering if he knew that dog.
She felt someone watching her, and she looked up, lime green eyes focusing on the white, ghost like dog that was jsut staring at her. Creepy, yes, but he didn't seem to stare at her like he was mad, or grossed out or anything like that. She was basically done with the hair, leaving only a bit of fur and meat before starting the bath to get most of the blood off of her.
He was still staring at her, wasn't he? She frowned at that and got up, moving over to him and then sighed. "It's very rude to stare at someone, especially while eating." Winterwind didn't know this dog; didn't know that he was a bit slow in the head. "Who are you? Why were you just staring." It creeped her out to no end when someone watched her and said nothing. Pups did this to her, too.
He watched unflinchingly (or perhaps without noticing) as the dog finished her meal and then bathed, and then even walked right to him. His ears swivled towards her a bit slowly, perhaps, and he blinked again. Oh. Yeah. Probably should say hello. She was talking to him now.
"....Hello." He finally managed. "You're....uhm....Sorry, what? Staring? I was?" He trailed off and seemed to turn pensive. Had he been staring? She'd said so. Most people usually knew better than he di about things, so she was probably right. He'd been thinking about something while she'd talked to him and not paid attention.
"Do I know you?" He finally blurted. "I'm, uh....uhm, Distantthinker, yeah. That's right. I'm....Distantthinker."
She blinked when he started and then shook her head. OK, so she was dealing with a slow dog. She could talk to him better now. Sitting down, Winterwind tilted her head and then nodded. Distantthinker. What a perfect name for him. She curled her claws intot he dirt and then smirked. "Winterwind. I'm new to the pack." Of course the brown female looked him over, who wouldn't? He was pure white and she didn't often see that. Even her white siblings had brown on them.
"What is your job, Distantthinker?" She didn't know all the jobs in the pack yet, so it was a perfectly innocent question. One she was interested in.
He would have been delighted that she wasn't upset with him any more, and that she'd begun moving more at his pace of things...if he'd at all noticed it. Instead he just continued his wide-eyed watching. He tilted his head when she did, in the same direction, keeping eye contact...glassy and unfocused as his gaze was.
"New...? Oh. That's nice. I'm old." He was. He'd been born here, or right before the pack came here. Like a lot of things, he couldn't remember for sure. "Job...?" He briefly spaced out, shifting to look just over her shoulder and up at the sky for a long moment. A passing breeze seemed to remind him of himself. "I, uh....I watch the trees. And...look for rare plants. Make....medicines? Yeah. And be sure things....grow..." He shrugged. "Grow...right."
So he had a job only he could hav. Nodding at that, Winterwind watched his glassy eyes trying to focus as he talk and then lose when he paused. It was sort of endearing, in a dealing-with-a-pup type way. He made medicines and watched trees. "I find things, too. Anything someone asks me too. Old? Have you been here since the pack had?"
The very thought of this pack not being old was a little unnerving. New anything always had their kinks and bugs to work out. Flicking her tail a little, she waited patiently for his answer. She didn't have a job right now, she could wait.
Usually by this point in the conversation the other person would have given up and gone away. All the new pack members he'd met had seemed very patient though. At least, he thought they had. How many had he met? One? One. And she was patient. Apparently. Another breeze blew by, making the leaves rustle, and with slightly better reaction time than anything previously displayed (meaning still at a snail's pace) he looked straight up into the branches.
"...There's a loose branch up there. I'll have to...go get it." Of course if he waited he'd forget, and so he slowly got to his paws and wandered towards the tree. He could climb, though he wasn't the picture of grace while he did it. A few sloppy moments later and he was up in the lowest branches.
"Oh...yes, I'm old. Not old. The pack...yes, since then." He hadn't toally forgotten her. He just had a job to do. Or so he thought.
She followed him, curious as to how he would do this. In fact, she was curious as to how he heard the branch in the first place. She didn't hear anything from the wind. Ah, well, this was his job. It's what he did. "I see." She smiled a little. If she stayed patient, Winterwind thought she could find many good stories from this one.
But maybe it would be good to ask him about his job. "What is the tree you are climbing now called?" She figured it was a safe enough quesiton. Oh, hopefully she didn't distract him. Really, she didn't want him to fall.
He carefully picked his way from branch to branch, occasionally slipping only due to his spacy nature. If she'd thought to ask how he'd known about the branch, he'd have explained that the wind wasn't making the right sound in the leaves. Or tried to. Instead he just focused on finding the right branch. Better to take it down now than have it fall on someone or break more branches.
From up in the branches he heard her question, and after a moment replied, "It's called..." And here he made a sound imitating rattling leaves as best he could. "...But...I guess if that's hard to, uhm, say...Scratchybark?" It didn't occur to him that she might mean the type of tree, and not his own pet name for it. He'd named all the trees, or at least thought he had.
She couldn't help but laugh at that. It was cute and just mad her feel like a pup. OK, so maybe Winterwind wasn't as cold as she let on, but she could be. Still, Distantthinker could easily be one of his favorite dog around here. "Scratchybark? I was... talking about the type it was. But I shall call it Scratchybark. It seems like a very good name!" She called up to him, watching him carefully. She wouldn't leave until he was down on the ground and safe again. For now, though, that would be her last question until he came back down.
