The grass moved differently here, it wasn't the trees of the unfamiliar scents, or the strange abundance of water that seemed hell bent on collecting into every hollow and stream it could find. No, it was the way the grass bent, folding beneath the wind instead of resisting it. The grasses of his home had been far more stubborn. The cub sat alone, forepaws neatly tucked together as his golden eyes tracked the rolling landscape.

The move had happened and no one had asked him what he thought of it, Legend was occupied with her new offspring and the wolves of this new group. He hadn't truly known Satriya either, but the desert was familiar enough to his homeland to feel right. Back home there had been heat shimmering off stone, endless horizons and sand that held the memory of the sun long after dusk arrived. He missed the dry air, missed knowing what every plant was for. — missed the certainty of familiar things.

—

He’d gone through a lot, last few months.
With the addition of new mouths, new kids that weren’t him— meant attention was split. Meant she hadn’t gotten to know him like she wanted to, and like he deserved to be.

But as the infants started behaving a little more like toddlers and had longer periods of sleeping than crying, she knew a mother should disperse any lasting connections outside of their blood. Least, it was what she had seen often.
Nakhti never strayed the mind. And she made certain he was fed and had a place to sleep with her and her whelps. His own little high bed towards the ceiling, and one down lower with them.
He hadn’t attached to any other.

Nakhti had already lost one.
Legend didn’t want to be another.

She made her way to him. A half-smile, lopsided and sweet in that spicy candy kinda way.

Hey, kid.