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It had been some time since he'd been in pack lands to stay, temporarily leaving his few wolves to settle in to their new home while he scouted the lands and hunted, returning to sleep in the ship most nights and refreshing the new scent markers on his way in and out. It was a harsh winter, and he hadn't wanted to depend entirely on the ice's meager resources until he knew how best to manage them. But it was spring now, and while the ice encasing their home wouldn't melt pretty much everything else was, and the muddy morass outside his pack's lands made him happy to set his paws on the slick-wet surface of the pack ice. Well, after they'd weathered the harsh winter so well, it was time to call the pack together and see if any decisions had been made about what paths they each wanted to pursue, and to begin arranging training for those who needed it and provide the opportunity to prove skills already acquired.

The sun was rising as the alpha made his way into the bow of the ship, and leaping to the platform there, he took a moment to appreciate it's beauty. The orange-red glow spilled its color out over the ice as it breached the horizon like the whales he'd watched breaching in the ocean just past their icy land. Watching it, he considered that perhaps it was time to begin expanding their territory in preparation for new members. Or perhaps not - he was still wary of putting the pack and himself at risk by accepting too many members. The more wolves you had in a pack, the higher the risk of slackers, or traitors. He could not afford to drag along those who refused to pull their own weight, and while traitors would be dealt with swiftly and harshly, they would have already done their damage.

He puffed out a sigh, his breath misting in air that was still waiting for the touch of the sun's light to warm it. Well, he would see what the future held when the time came. For today he needed to concentrate on more immediate needs. Lifting his dark muzzle, he called out with a long, low note to summon the small pack together.

Nearly immediately, the sleek white and black form of Asriel lofted over the side of the ship to land quietly on the deck before the snow leopard padded up to join him at the bow. Like any cat, Asriel chose to drape himself along the rail of the ship to observe with that sharp-eyed gaze of his. "Good morning, Enrico," the cat rumbled, twitching his tail along the rail.

"Good morning, Asriel," he returned politely. He was glad the cat had chosen to remain with the pack after he had healed rather than return to his solitary territory, even though unmated snow leopards were not given to pairing up. As Asriel explained it, there were simply not enough of the cats left for him to have any chance of finding a mate and settling down with her, and his injury had made it clear that if he continued a solitary existence for that impossible hope, he ran the risk of starving to death if he became sick or injured and couldn't hunt. Living with a wolf pack may have been strange for him, but he couldn't help but appreciate the security they provided. Besides, the long conversations between the two of them on a variety of intellectual and philosophical subjects was far preferable to the years spent alone with only his own company.

OOC: since many people are on scarcity and/or absence I'm not going to push a hard deadline on this but please make it a priority to post here as soon as possible so we can get Niente moving now that I'm back. I will probably jump in once in a while to move things along while they're waiting for everyone but you can feel free to have your character jump in at any point without being "late".