R simple combustion

[Mauti]

// just putting this here for now, expect slow replies until this thread is close to finished

After the hunt by the lake Mauti had decided to travel south, following the banks of a river that meandered through the empty plains. She hadn't been able to cover good distance in the thick snow, however, and as the storm's wrath picked up, she'd decided to seek shelter.

It came in the form of a small overhang, about ten feet across, that jutted out from a collection of boulders. It was still fairly open to the elements, even under its protection, so she'd tucked herself into the very back of it, curling in on herself to look out at the landscape beyond. She could just barely see where the land dipped into the river's edge; trees, sparsely spread, broke up her vision in neat lines. It was nice, really. Secluded, not as cold as the outside. It gave her the comfort to think back on her encounter with Magnus — how, three days in, she knew what had drawn him to her in the first place.

She'd spent enough time with that light furred boy to know what a heat was, despite this being her first one. And she was grateful in those moments, to him, to how gentle he'd been, informative without being... weird, about it. It prepared her for this — enough to know to stay the fuck away from everyone — and this little nook seemed the perfect place to do just that.

Hours passed wherein she calmly watched the snow, but over time she grew restless. The beginning of an itch rose beneath her skin, sweltering and angry. So she unfurled, slowly stepping out of her little pocket of safety to trot to the river's edge for a drink.

// reference, just with more snow and less trees

[Sinclair]

Sinclair, or sin as his friends normally referred to him, usually loved snow storms. However he loved them from inside a nice warm cave, not being out in one. Wind blew snow into his face at a speed that made it feel like ice stabbing him thousands of times over and over again. He ducked his head and pushed forward. He needed to find shelter and soon, he didn't know how much more his poor eyes could take with being assaulted by the wind blown snow. Squinting he began to earnestly look around for any sign that there might be a cave, overhang, or even just a large boulder to block the wind for a bit. Anything to give him a bit of a reprieve. The wind lets up for a brief moment and in that time Sin sees another wolf coming from an overhang and trot off towards the river. He was torn with what to do. He guessed the other wolf, female maybe by the looks, would return to the overhang seeing as it was still snowing and the wind was beginning to pick back up. So did he wait here and on her return call to her and see if it would be alright for him to wait out the storm under the overhang with her? Did he just go in and see how string her scent was and depending on that decided to stay or leave, or did he just move on. He ruled the last open out almost as soon as he thought it. He would not last much longer in the elements and he was not willing to risk his life on the chance that there was more shelter around. Which left him with option A or B. He debated for a moment longer than decided he would go check out the shelter. If her scent was strong, indicating it was her actual den and not just a convent shelter he would make his way to the river and see if she was willing to share until the storm let up. If her scent was weak he would hang around the mouth of the shelter so she would be able to see and scent him, if the wind was going the right way, before she reached the entrance. He would not steal the shelter from her, but nor would he leave willingly.

With that design made Sin trotted as quickly as he could towards the shelter sight and walked inside. He took a couple of deep breaths and then froze at when his senses were telling him. His assumption was correct in that she was a female, but it also smelled like she was in heat. He had never been around a female in heat, at least not since before he reached sexual maturity, so he was not sure what kind of issue this would cause. But he remembered when he was little watching all the males turn into brutes when mating season started and thinking that he never wanted to act that way towards a lady.

Sin made his way back to the opening and sat just outside the opening, assuring he would be visible to her, as long as she was paying attention, on her approach. Hopefully this did not go over too badly.