private!
--
He had what he liked to call a case of
territorial ADD; despite the intrigue in cartography and the art within it, the rascal Nikolai could only take one scene for too long before he grew bored of it and moved on. Of course, he had every intention of returning--what was a map if it was incomplete, after all--but the creature had adopted a delight in nature and its sights. He was no simple wanderer, no hero on a redemption quest, no masterless warrior searching for a purpose and place in life. The grayscale, duel-eyed beast simply was Nikolai, and that needed little explanation.
That said, he found no reason not to wander carelessly into what appeared to be claimed territory--the air reeked of a number of pissing wolves and their pissing mates, and the scent couldn't have disgusted him further. He was no snob; Nikolai simply disliked what it was that characterized claimed territories and packlands, mostly because he had never found one that acted anything like an actual pack in his travels. Not to mention, he had a bit of a grudge against them--the wolf had been run out of packlands time and time again by snarling wolves and their territorial disputes. He was no spy. They had no right to get in his way of doing what he enjoyed. There was a sort of thickness in the air of those lands that struck him as anticipating or challenged... some sort of conflict was happening there, he assumed. Like the creature could say for sure... he was just passing through.
It would have been nice to hear the pack's name, though. He had moved somewhere within the territory that overlooked the ocean, now sitting atop a rock and spying the land on the other side of the bay. The shape was peculiar, difficult to put on paper... He tapped his pencil against the piercing in his lip idly, listening thoughtfully to the small clacking sound that resulted. Nikolai was far into the packlands and well aware of it and, well, if he was challenged... They'd have to deal with it, anyway.
