Breaking In, Shaping Up

A familiar voice rang out, calling his name. A grunt was all he uttered, focused on the task at hand. Valerian root would be useful during the winter with any respiratory problems. However, he needed to take the time to properly harvest it. "Come out, come out wherever you are!" the young female called out, breaking his concentration once more. His chest rumbled with a low growl for a moment, before he shook it off and buried his snout in the dirt. His tusks cleared more of the soil from the edges of the hole, and he shoveled the remnants away from the roots with the top of his nose. Closed nostrils and short breaths inward kept him from inhaling the loam.

He had to contain his reaction when he felt the brush of breath against his flank, and there was Valkyrie. "I see how you are. Too busy picking daisies to come see your friend." He exhaled heavily through his nose, resulting in an explosion of dirt around his face. He lifted his head from the soil with a deadpan expression, tusks and snout coated in a thick layer of dark dirt. "Better to be picking them than pushing them, Kiki." he used the informal name in hopes of riling her up, though it rarely worked. He shook out his pelt, clearing specs of loam from his ruff. An appraising look flicked from her head to to her toes. He hadn't seen her in nearly a year, not since his parents had become ailing.

"And it's valerian root I'm collecting, not daisies." he added with a scowl, amethyst gaze meet with her own icy optics.