In the Dark

Kassander sat framed in the mouth of the cave he'd chosen as a den, at something of a loss. He'd chosen as large a cave as he could safely find, partly because he'd be housing himself and a fox on a permanent basis as well as any patients temporarily, but on top of that the need for storage and room for crafting - it was much larger than what he'd chosen in Yfir, and he felt like he was rattling around the empty place. He'd been able to take nothing from Yfir when he'd begun his wandering, so he had no stores to move here, no pots or furs or anything he could work on. His stores in Yfir had been wrecked not long before he finally left when a surly wolverine decided to claim the comfortable den as his own when Kassander was away. The evil-tempered beast had destroyed the clay pots, spilling the contents over Kassander's furs and herb stores. Nothing had been salvageable even if Kassander had bothered to challenge the creature's claim, so he'd been left with nothing. Luckily he had some time before summer was over to harvest herbs, and most of Remy's ingredients didn't ripen until autumn anyway so there was time to gather new supplies.

Until he was able to, though, he felt pretty useless, and to be honest, pretty alone. He didn't recognize anyone else who had joined Ivory Ridge, and being one of the oldest in the pack felt odd to say the least. When had he gotten old? He didn't feel like he'd even truly left puphood behind, let alone made it to five summers old. He still felt like he should be asking an adult for advice, yet supposedly he was supposed to be the adult. He needed... an adultier adult. Here he was hiding in an empty cave instead of going out to meet his new packmates. It was embarrassing. The auburn healer huffed out a slow sigh, staring out over the admittedly gorgeous views that his new mountain home afforded him. Maybe he should take Rommel out and get some clay, start over on his pots...