a wash

Just to the northwest of the Sparse Pines, the ground began to slope downward. Opening up to an ancient riverbed that very much appeared as a canyon to the small, practically newborn pup. Well, he's not quite a newborn. He's capable of catching and eating rabbits on his own, but being unsupervised outside of pack territory wasn't exactly ideal either. But currently, Maelstrom didn't quite notice that he had passed from Syndicate borders into open loner lands. His eyes were drinking up the gleaming and glistening veins of marble that spread through the river's valley.

He wanted, no. He needed to know what the sparkling stuff was. Drawn by curiosity and puppy ignorance, he stumbles and slides down the sloping rocks until he rolls out onto the flatbed of the once river. Marching up to a particularly wide vein of marble, he scratches at it and even tries to bite at it. Smooshing his lips and tongue against the cold ground as his teeth gnash together. Frustrated that he can't retrieve it from the ground, the pup steps back, lifting his head and glances around to see if he can find anything that would help him.

There's not much out here, but what he does see leaves his eyes widening even more. A deer! By herself! His brow scrunches. Brain scratching to remember what he had learned during hunting lessons. Deer were always in herds unless they were male and she didn't have antlers so she couldn't be a buck, right? Maelstrom cants his head, bravely approaching the deer.

"Where's your herd?" He asks, tilting his chin up to look at her as he stops a foot or so away. Hooves be damned, he was going to get answers!