set in moonstone lakes

Element hadn't strayed too far from his home in the city, but still enjoyed the change. The scents and musk of the deep forest and grass rather than stagnant water and cold stone - the sounds of birds and other creatures rustling in the foliage rather than silence, save for a few birds - the feeling of soft, green earth beneath his paws, rather than the hard concrete he was used to. He loved his home, but it was good to be out in the forests again, where the natural creatures roamed before the humans, and long after.

One of his favorite spots in this woods were the three lakes - they almost glowed when in the moonlight, but as it was, in the day, their clear blue visage was still more than welcome. He lay close to the shore of one of them, staring into the water, seeing small fish dart to and fro in schools. There was a slight breeze that ruffled his ebony-coated fur and tickled his ears; the tall, heavy grass almost concealed his dark form, but his coat stood out against the bright green and brown of the surrounding woods. He was alert, his ears perked and senses piqued, but he was content.

The feline could hear the canine before he could smell him - although canines had superior senses of smell, Element the cat had the upper hand when it came to sound. Noise funneling in to his enormous, cupped ears, he could easily hear every sniffle, step, and movement that was made by the wolf, even when it wasn't within his line of sight. He remained in his position, however, until the wolf either presented a threat or went away - he gave off the air of not knowing where the wolf was, or even that it was there in the first place.

He heard the wolf surround the area with his loud steps and sniffing - although a canine might not have been able to hear the sounds as clearly, Element could hear them as clear as day, marking the wolf's movements until it came into a circle. He could suddenly see the predator in the corner of his eye; surreptitiously, he turned his head a degree towards the wolf, finally able to see him fully.

He brought himself to his full height then, standing tall among the grass - although to the wolf, he was sure, it was no impressive feat. Aloof eyes scanned the wolf, curiousity piquing at the ebony feline's mind; "What are you searching for?" he asked offhandedly, keeping the mask of offhandedness and uncaring, but still having curiousity underneath the guise.

Few had the skill of the cat's in disguising emotions, all the while looking cold and uncaring when really, one could be burning with curiosity underneath the aloof air. So was with Element - coolly asking what this dog was searching for, even though he truly was curious as to why the canine would simply wander in circles, sniffing and snuffing loudly at the grass, which crunched noisily underneath his heavy step.

However, Element was slightly surprised when the canine leapt back, baring its teeth at him - perhaps he had been too daring to speak to the beast. His time in Nova Scotia had taught him that not all canines were ruthless brutes - but some were, and he, as a feline, was no stronger than a wolf than a rabbit was stronger than a fox. If it came to a fight, he would undoubtedly be the prey. He instinctively fluffed up his fur, appearing to be bigger than he was, as he stood on his toes, back arched highly.

However, the canine seemed to relax, and Element flattened his fur, turning his defensive position into a cool, calm stretch - first stretching out his front legs, and then lengthening his back legs to loosen the tense muscles. He then sat again, curling his tail around his front paws, green eyes shining calmly at the male as he spoke.

"I did," the cat said in his usual tenor, the smooth, silky meow of his voice contrasting sharply with the canine's guttural, gruff language.

He noted the dog's motions carefully - he seemed slightly puzzled, although that was not anything new to Element. He was used to canines being surprised that he could speak the same language as them, although the dialect was quite different. He observed silently as the wolf finally sat down on the ground, creating a slight crunch as the leaves were flattened by his weight, and listened as the canine spoke again in the rough language of the wolf.

"You don't say?" Element asked. "There are quite a lot of dogs in this area." He supposed that it allowed Element to realize that the wolf was looking for a living thing rather than an inanimate object, he supposed, but he did not think that the wolf could have been any more vague when it came to terms of what he was looking for. Then again - the wolf had been quite surprised when intelligent speech came out of Element's mouth, so he supposed that he wouldn't entirely trust him yet. He continued to wash with his paws, eyes drifting along the scenery, now gazing at a baccate bush.

Although all notions of loyalty to a pack, a group that you have no relations to, was foreign to the ebony feline, he did understand the concept of revenge and justice. Do good to those who exalt you - punish those who smite. It was that very basis of revenge that had led him to blindly attack Halo Lykoi, the one who had killed his love, even though she was clearly more powerful, strong, and dangerous than him. In fact, the only reason he had survived was because Sepirah Lykoi, another of the Inferni pack, had stepped in to save him.

That concept of revenge as well as common sense led him to wonder, as cats do. "Why are you doing it alone, then?" he asked. "If this dog hurt members of your pack without trouble, surely she could hurt you without trouble." Although those thoughts had not gone through Element's head when he had attacked the superior coyote, that had been in a fit of rage, a moment of near insanity. This wolf, although angry, was not in a similar state of mind - he was calculating with his nose, scenting out this female. Alone, no less, Element thought with a single lick of his paw.

Element cocked his head, considering the words of the canine in front of him. Although his sense of hearing was superior, Element did not have the prowess that the canine species held when it came to the sense of smell. Although he could easily differentiate different species, and could track a scent, canines seemed to hold an even greater importance in scents and smells; and one canine, he thought, that could track a scent could be tracked himself.

"Even then," he said, puzzled, "if you manage to catch her scent - won't she also catch yours?" The sable feline was not one to confront, mostly - his passive, quiet nature helped him to hide, rather than to fight, and although all canines were larger and stronger than the smaller cat, the quick-footed feline was faster than all of them. It was no wonder that his critical mind took over when speaking of fighting and tracking, then, rather than being consumed in the heat of the moment.

Element decided to drop the conversation about the mysterious dog that this canine was looking for - he seemed to have his own plan, and it wasn't much of Element's business what he did with dogs that harmed his pack anyway. Rather, he listened to the wolf's plan, and nodded, a thoughtful and inquisitive look in his emerald eyes.

The wolf then asked why he could talk, and the ebony feline glanced at him, the aloof and nonchalant look returning to his face. Why could he talk?

"Why wouldn't I be able to talk?" he asked the wolf in his feline dialect, the words sounding almost more like a song than the guttural, barking language of the canines around the world. "Why can you talk?" he questioned the canine. He seemed to assume that canines were the sole species that could speak, and that any others that had the ability were extras, and that they had to have a reason to be able to communicate with others. Element found himself to be perfectly fine - he did not know High Speech because he wished to communicate with canines, but rather because his mother taught him; he could as easily speak Low Speech as well.

thank you!

He nodded at the canine's statement that Element's voice moved up and down - it was a singsong sort of voice, contrasting sharply from the canine's own. The canine seemed quite shocked, as if a new world had been opened up to him and he hadn't known it yet - Element did not blame him, for that was probably what it felt like.

"We all learn new things," he said. It was true - he doubted that many of them would ever really stop learning. Element himself had learned a large amount of new things since he first arrived at 'Souls, and he was still not yet done learning, either. Books to be read, places to be explored, people to be met - the world was full of new things to do and new ways to learn.

Element the cat was glad to see the smile on the canine's face - he was always happy to see another learn something and enjoy it. Too many took the world for granted, never wondering what was out there and how much there was to learn - it was refreshing to see someone who did not hold that view, or used to but did not anymore. And Element was even happier to have caused it.

"I do," he said proudly, his tail wrapped around his front paws now. "I learn by exploring, but I also learn by reading books - I live in the Halifax library." He thought back to his library home, where the dusty and gray books resided within the stone columns of the ancient building. Ancient to Element, of course - the cat's perception of time and even space was radically different than those of other creatures, humans especially. To him, even the youngest building made by the humans was ancient and old, far older than he and his lineage.

Although the canines called themselves the dominant ones of the planet - perhaps rightfully so, as they now possessed the bipedal forms and some inventions that the humans once had - they did not know everything, and not everything that they did know was shared by all of the canine species. Indeed, it seemed that this canine - although virtuous in integrity and strength - did not know what books were, or what reading was.

"When you read, it's like hearing words with your eyes," he said, explaining the concept as best as he could. "You see the words on paper rather than hear them. A book is a lot of words that you can read; sometimes they tell you how to do things, and other times they tell a story." He remembered when he was first introduced to the world of reading - it took more effort and time for him to learn than some others, perhaps, but after he did learn, he took to it like a duck in water.