Don't Fear The Reaper

Mist and fog shrouded the damp portion of the mines that Dominus had been calling home for the time being, a small breach in the wall of the mountain that extended out to one of the mountain's collection pools had made for easy access and shelter for the behemoth. The vibrant flickers of ember orange and red reflected off the rugged walls of stone and dirt that surrounded the beast and made contrast in the brilliant blue of his eyes. Despite their bright coloration as the flame from the lantern at his side would attempt to light them, those gentle orbs somehow seemed void of the excitement they once held in his youth.

He rested there next to his dying lantern, soaking in its warmth without any sort of relation to the time that was passing. He was well-fed from an earlier hunt and without much a reason to continue expending his energy- if any of those that had once known him had thought he was dead, they weren't far off. The ghoul lingered without much movement aside from the faint rise and fall of his chest as breath escaped him and created little plumes on his exhale until they became intermixed and lost with the rest of the mist.

When the flame finally died, Dominus finally managed to move his massive crown to observe his surroundings. Darkness. He could have slipped out of the crevice he'd managed to enter from and search for more marine life along the coast that could help him refill his lantern, but the drive to do so simply did not seem to be strong enough to motivate him to move at all. Instead, he embraced that darkness and lowered his head to rest on his own forelimbs, stretching out across that his lantern had warmed in an attempt to preserve such heat. He drifted off, but not long after heard the disturbance of someone moving through the mines.

The way the noise seemed to be approaching from had been mostly obstructed to his knowledge, so he was surprised to hear someone coming from that direction at all - they must have been determined. The scent of his musk would be impossible to hide, but still, the dark-colored brute did his best to move out of what little moonlight was able to cast itself through the breach in the wall. He wanted to be able to observe before the stranger came all the way in and get an assessment for them before he would decide what to do with them.

Her scent carried to him just as he heard her paws push through rocks, quietly searching for sure-footed foundation as she pushed through. He knew she would find herself with much more room to explore here soon, so he waited for her to come into the room. Some part of him felt nervous as that scent hit him with a sense of nostalgia. He couldn't place it at first, but once she managed to be touched by the casted light of the moon - he held his breath.

She was much taller than he remembered, but immediately he knew who she was and that memory of her and their last fishing trip together brought a smile to the beast's scarred lips. He tried to remain quiet, but his tail was already brushing idly through the dirt behind him as he rolled his shoulders and spectated her a bit more, playing the part of a giant wallflower as he hugged the inner mountain. Once he had given her a chance to check their surroundings, a small room with a cracked wall to the outside that held a small pond of mountain runoff at its base, he stepped forward and let his baritones resonate in the air of the room around them.

"Well, damn. If it isn't little Altair. Not so little anymore, I must say." Slanted grin took over his muzzle as he stepped into the small streams of light coming through the rocks- his language amusing him as he remembered how much she hated it. He was much bigger himself, bulkier as his heavy set of muscles finally filled the height of his skeleton. He was a massive wolf, comparable in size to his uncle Acere even if they seemed absolutely contrasting to each other in coloration - right down to the color of their eyes.