[private] Aten;

[Ruan]

the taigan

The scent was buried in his nose, lodged there and trapped. He could still smell it now even as he passed the border and into home. Not the blood, though there’d been plenty of that - blood was nothing startling. Their scents. A man and a woman, if either could be called such after what he’d just left. His companion had taken care of it after they both surveyed the place as wolves. She was probably still taking care of it now as he split away before it was done to find Jinju.

But it wasn’t Jinju that caught his eye, his blood still crashing through his veins in a tempered wrath, the damn scents clinging stubbornly in his nose as if he could ever forget them. His face was set, still processing the scene he'd left behind, at the needless cruelty done to an innocent child. Hard, ice-bright eyes slid to Aten just as the golden man also passed the border a ways down from him.

”Aten.” His eyes warmed for this man that was more a son to him than his own was, and he angled to greet him. ”Wow, you look…” His gaze took him in, finally home from so long training and fighting. He could swear Aten, already so fit, had built even more muscle since the last time they’d seen each other. ”Thicker,” he finished with a chuckle, stepping in to give him a brief hug then giving him space again.

”How have you been?”

Oh, yes. He'd almost forgotten about that, his mind on other things, and took another step back so Aten could see him better. His coat was completely different now, the proud coloring of a grey wolf replacing the black and purple leopard. His face and legs were still dark, and those eyes were still the same honest, arctic blue. He tilted his head a little, an easy half-smile in the corner of his mouth and dark forelock falling to the side.

The change had not been his choice, but he couldn't deny that it suited this particular Alpha quite well now that he'd come to terms with it being permanent. Plus, he still got to keep his purple, trailing down the fur of his spine like the dorsal stripe of a buckskin.

Every bit a wolf in a horse's body, he watched Aten curiously for his thoughts on it.

@[Aten]