The storm came faster than he had liked, the air going heavy and electric pressing down into his fur like a warning. He had already turned back to the treeline, moving at his unhurried pace when the thunder split the world open. That'll rattle something loose tonight, he thought grimly, and he wasn't wrong. He had nearly walked past it and would have probably if the wind hadn't shifted at the right moment. A thin, frightened sound that bypassed ones thinking mind and went straight for something deeper.

The man stopped, turning his broad head slowly, clouded eyes catching almost nothing in the strobing darkness. The pale suggestion of something small huddled against the ground ahead of him, he stood still letting the rain fall as he studied and tried to sort out exactly what it was.

Slowly, he would lower himself, careful and deliberate with the slow gravity of someone who understood that size was terrifying when you were smaller, he settled onto his haunches in the mud waiting patiently while the lightning painted the world. Another crack of thunder. The small shape flinched hard, a whimper escaping it, and in that half second of light, Flicker saw enough. A pup. Months old at most.

He exhaled slowly through his nose and let his voice come out low and even the same tone he used when beginning a story.

Hey, you're alright he offered, it was a lie perhaps, but maybe not. The thunders only the sky makin' a fuss he added, unbothered by the rain soaking into his earthy coat. It's loud and dramatic but then it passes, he added speaking as if he were sitting by a warm fire instead of the stormy field.

—