Some Sort of Sentiment {Open}

[famine]

He didn't exactly understand why, but whenever he was in the south, he had to see the Flumen and the Mount.

It was some sort of sentiment, he knew, and he couldn't get over it. What was the attraction to it? Was is physical evidence that his god was on the earth? Or did he simply like the consistency, the knowledge that it would always be there and always glowing and hot?

By "visiting" it was more accurate to state he was at some distance. Even Oberon wasn't foolish enough to get any closer. He knew he could probably take it, being of Aduro and all, but it would not be comfortable. No, visiting required that he stop at the edges of the dark, volcanic stone, and watch the lave move sluggishly. He always wondered if the lava ever changed courses but assumed he wouldn't live long enough to see it happen.

The Mount was in the distance, dark, and he almost couldn't see it in the gloom of dusk. He always wondered what it would be like to climb the volcano. Would the stones under his feet be warm? Probably, given he was probably ten feet away from the lava and he could feel the heat it was giving off.

In that moment he wondered why no one slept here. The warm stones and heat from the stream would be relaxing. If Oberon wasn't so paranoid about some lava somehow managing to reach him, he would sleep here all the time. Make it his little home base.

The thought amused him enough that he let out a snort.

He would have to leave, he knew, but it was hard for him to budge from his spot. He had sat with the intention of resting earlier; now he didn't wish to leave, glued to the spot by the idea of a good nap with creepy dying trees in the distance and the thought of the savage felines making a surprise crossing into wolf lands, finding him, and gutting him.

Where was this paranoia coming from? If Oberon didn't know better he would say it was the volcano's part. He was always hot as it was; maybe the heat was getting to him. It was time to move, he decided, but then remembered it was dark. Not that he'd never traveled in darkness, but... The southern lands he didn't know as well as he wished and it would be easy for him to get lost.

And the creepy forest at night didn't sound overly appealing to him.

Growling and grumbling to himself, he got up, stretched (and some of his joints audibly popped, which made him wince and wonder if he was getting old or if he'd really been sitting there that long) and tried to look around with limited success. The lava gave off some light, but not much to go by, especially if he was looking for some form of shelter.

He could just... stay in the area around the Flumen. How easy was it to see an orange wolf in red light at night? Probably slightly difficult. But would he die of the heat first? At the way this was going, he was going to be there all night. More grumbling and he decided that he would stay exactly where he was, when he heard something.

Not an easily identifiable something, either. It was soft, muffled, probably some distance away, but it sounded like something hard against stone, which meant it would be closer than what he would like. His first instinct was to fold in on himself slightly, in a vain attempt to hide out in the open, but when he didn't hear anything else he began to unfold, confused and looking around like something was evading him.

That made him make his final decision rather quickly. He would stay exactly where he was until he was sure there wasn't anything going bump in the night near him. His only hope was that whatever was going bump wasn't going to find him.

[Twi]

South. That's where the aduro male was today.

Deus grinned as he saw the Flamma Flumen. Well, of course he liked it here. He was a true Aduro Elemental alright. He loved heat and heat seemed to love him back. Deus's pelt tingled with excitment as he inhaled the hot air into his body. Yes, he would enjoy it here.

It looked abandoned. "Good. No one here to tell me what to do." Deus said brightly. Then again, it would be nice for another for him to command, or maybe a lover. But he quickly shook away that thought. He would start a pack as soon as he thought it needed to. A lover would come after he had assorted his dominance within his pack.

Anyways, Deus padded along and random thoughts popped into his ever-wandering mind. Little did he know, another wolf was close to the spot Deus was. He scented this and stopped abruptly in his tracks. Deus sniffed deeply the wolf's information. Male and Aduro like him.
Deus stalked forward with caution. As he came closer to the other wolf, he easily saw that he was orange. Deus snorted. To him, this wolf didn't look so tuff al all. Deus could easily over power him.

With that, he got up and walked over to the male and stopped just a few tail-lengths away. "Hello. I'm Deus and this is my territory. What might you be doing here?" He said with just a hint of aggression. Deus flexed his muscled quite a bit just to make sure this wolf new that Deus meant buisness.

[famine]

"Hello. I'm Deus and this is my territory. What might you be doing here?"

Oberon didn't know whether to laugh or scoff. What came out was a mixture of the two that was probably extremely unflattering. Really, what other reaction was there to have? To cower down and pretend to be scared?

Apparently, by the way the male flexed right as he said that, he thought he should be intimidating. Not that he actually was. From what Oberon could see of the male, he was larger, but stocky. If worst came to worst, running away would be the best bet and, well, the male didn't look large enough to manage to chase for long.

Deus? He'd have to keep an ear out for that name next time he saw a contact. Oberon was completely certain he had never heard the name before and that was good enough for him.

With another snort, he sat down and settled, something he hoped the male would pick up as purposely mocking. He sat, head up, the picture of casual.

Slowly, curiously, he looked around, before he looked back to the male. "You and your apparently non-existent pack have me quivering." There'd been no scents of a pack; no territorial claims or apparent dens (and what a bad idea would it to sleep on the openness of the Flumen). As far as Oberon was concerned, there was no pack that called this area home, nor would there ever be.

After all, why would someone want to try to make a pack here? So close to the dangers of the desert and the savannah savages and so close to everything in the land that was dead, dying, or on fire? Good luck supporting a group here.

"If you're so worried about someone being in your territory," Oberon paused for effect and do be able to get just the right amount of sarcasm into his voice, "why don't you go play pack elsewhere?"

[Micci]