good enough

Clearing the dirt, trying to clear his head with it. It's not too cold, too frozen to make it work. Not just yet, at least. Winter is coming. It brought Erik's thoughts back around to the boy before him, and how dangerous it was for a pup to be out on his own. Then, he'd been sent on his father's courier missions at the same age. Was this really much different? There's always the resolve to be better than your parents, Erik guessed.

Lost in the digging, until the boy speaks up. "The Hallows," Erik nods, thinking of Ember once more. "But with the strange ecological bullshit, I came back north." Was he from the north? Not really. Not in the same way his father and his siblings were. Caught in the in-between, hell, he'd been all his life. "Do you have somewhere you belong?" Sneaking a glance at the boy, wondering just what kind of reaction he'd have. There's no telling exactly why he was on his own, after all.

Standing back from the hole, satisfied with the depth, he looks to the boy. "It looks good. I'm going to plant the stakes, deep as they'll go. Only in the middle, and off to one side, so we can get in and out. No use catching dinner if I can't get out of the hole." Grumbling and pushing off, dragging himself up the side... it would do. "There are plenty of mountain goats around here. Shouldn't be too hard to chase one into the hole."

"Erik"