all play, no work

Had he ever been this far north before? He couldn't recall. The biting chill was certainly a little more intense than he would have liked, as a wolf built for warmer climates. Hallux had (probably rightly) stayed behind, her delicate form ill-suited to anything less than blistering heat and stifling humidity. As the cavernous maw of the darkened mines reared up before him, the svelte yearling opted to venture inside. It was eerily dark, with the steady drip of water from overhanging stalagmites punctuating the ambiance. His every step echoed along the stone walls, and suddenly he found himself wondering if he hadn't been so good at slinking about at all.

A faint flicker of light from somewhere below caught his keen eye, and the godling traipsed the well worn pathway deeper into the mineshafts. Tall ears perked to the sounds of life that typically accompanied a contained flame, the boy kept his head low and stride short as he crept ever closer. The tip of his dark banner twitched against his thigh, his own curiosity an insistent tug of strings at each wrist like the chords of a marionette. It was only when the silhouette of another wolf finally set itself in stark contrast to the low light of the flame that he paused. It was not a large wolf, at least not by his own standards. A male, by the scent. Older than him, as well. He was rifling through a pile of refuse that had likely sat there for aeons before now, undisturbed but for the occasional inquisitive rodent.

Tipping his crown curiously, and leaning to one side to peer around the male's mottled shoulder from a few feet away, he blinked owlishly at the mess that the stranger sorted through. "What are you looking for?" he questioned in typical soft tones, his stance lax and languid despite the circumstances.

"Pontifex" || "Hallux" || "others"