It seemed the D'Angelo pup differed from the Lykoi in almost every way. Where the Lykoi had a pale pelt of golden straw, the boy he was soon to meet was as black as night with only a few silver filaments beginning to sprout in here and there. They were both young, but Scorpius was still vibrant and full of childish vigor where the Lykoi was more subdued. Loneliness was welcome to the Lykoi and detested by the D'Angelo. When alone, Scorpius would do everything he could to seek out a partner in crime, or someone with which to bide his time. He was terribly curious, as any keen cub his age should be, and wanted to know what everyone else knew, so questions were oft rolling off the boy's sociable little tongue. He drank in the information from others, filing it away in his growing mind to refer to as soon as he needed it. Naniko's boy was growing fast and thankfully so was his wit.
For the bulk of his impressionable months, Scorpius had lived within the dens of Anathema. He hardly remembered the time before, the cult that Naniko had birthed him into and then deserted. They traveled for a long while, mostly with Scorpius slumbering in Naniko's arms, or riding in the wicker basket with his russet cousin Juju. When he thought back on it hard enough he could remember sections of land and a few events – like trying to wander off from his mother only to be plucked off the ground and carried for the next few miles – but mostly those days had blurred together and have been replaced by better, more useful ones.
He enjoyed the open terrain of Anathema, but the boy was certainly growing accustomed to the maze like hallways of the cavern, and since he was unfamiliar with any other way of life, he loved it. The boy had barely set a paw outside of the den since the day his curiosity sent him wandering off and right into the face of trouble. Now he spent most of is time trailing the veins of the underground passageway and had compiled a fairly impressive internal map of Anathema's infrastructure. Living within the caves was improving his senses greatly, too. Except for small tendrils of light that trailed into the depths from the many entrances or ventilation cracks in the stone, there was no light in the dens, and in order to successfully navigate the shadowy passages at night he had to rely on his sense of smell and his hearing. Before he used to bump into rocks and walls at even the slightest turn, but now he was growing skilled at navigating by scent and sound alone.
And tonight his sharpening senses would find him another mate to talk to, if only for a little while. The pup padded slowly through the tunnels of Anathema with no real destination in mind. Usually he searched for his mother or for his dear brother Harlowe, but Naniko was off with more pack business and Harlowe had given him the slip (though Scorpius did not know his brother had intentionally ditched him – he just assumed his older brother worked hard to help the pack, and forgot to bring him along). All Juju wanted to do this evening was nap and kept whining when Scorpius chewed his ears, so he quickly gave up that game and left the hollow that was his aunt's den in search of better tidings.
It was his sense of smell that tipped him off first, since the Lykoi around the bend was unmoving at first and thus silent. A scent wafted through the tunnels on the light dusk breeze and Scorpius's dark nose detected it at once. His paws stopped and he tilted his head up for a better surveillance. This was not a scent he had ever detected before. His curiosity peaked, he cocked his head and went on, trotting forward at a quicker pace now. It sounded like whoever was there was moving now, coming towards him, he could hear the whisper of paws. His tail curled up as it often did with his more dominant personality, and his attention was forward as he rounded the corner. The dim light from the night spilled into the caves from the nearby entrance and encircled the Lykoi, casting only shadowy silhouette for Scorpius's slow adjusting eyes to see.
The Lykoi was older than him, evident by the difference in stature, but still smaller than a full adult. He could make out little else with his eyes and would have to wait for better light, but his nose did alert him to the scent of another pack on the creature's fur. The scent was old, mottled, and fading, replaced with the stony scents that were common of Anathema's members.
Scorpius blinked once, trying to will his eyes to adjust faster, and grinned at the other. “Hey, who are you? I'm Scorpius.” Sometimes he would introduce himself as Scorpius, Naniko's son but to him the appendage was redundant because everyone should already just know who his mother was. They all knew her, for she was their leader, so naturally, why would they not know that the black pup that wandered Anathema's halls was her child?