He nearly grabbed the pup again when he began to walk away, like one of his own straying brood that had decided to walk too far away from the den, but he kept himself in place with a single, simple reminder. This was not his pup, even if he might have adopted him for the moment. Keeping him from his pack would most likely do more harm than good. He could imagine what would happen if one of his own pups suddenly went missing, and the King had reason to believe that some other Pack or Prince was responsible for the theft. Of course, this pup's pack had already allowed their member to stray far from the nesting site, which was another reason that the King did not think much of this pack.

All the same, he had no right to grab this straying pup, and keep him in close where he would be safe. Therefore, he let the pup walk away, until even the tremors of his footsteps were too small to be distinctly detected. For a moment longer the King remained still, before he shook himself and began to walk away as well. If this was going to be his new territory for a while, he was going to have to familiarize himself with the area. There was no need to mark out his territory; he would not be staying here long enough for it to matter, and, even if he was, there was nothing else in the area that could rightly challenge him for the land if he wanted to name it as his own. That did not mean that he should be unfamiliar with the area, though.

There was not much in the area. The forest was thinner than he was used to, and there were many stumps that looked like the remains of a fallen tree that had been chewed up by some wood-eating animal, but the trunk did not remain. It began to occur to him that perhaps the wood/rock stones of the clearing had not simply appeared there, but had been constructed using the wood from the forest the way that the birds stole straw to build a nest. That briefly caused him to pause, wondering if he was going to suddenly come across a pack of the creatures, gathering materials, but eventually the King reminded himself that they were noisy enough that he would feel them coming from a long way off. There was only one place that would really be suitable for a den, a pile of rocks that had been covered in dirt at some point and now created a stony bluff in the land. It would be sheltered from the snow in the winter and, once he cleared out some of the rocks, it would make a strong structure that wouldn't collapse easily. He pawed at the dirt a couple times, scraping away some of the grass and small plants, and a brief flare from the orange chips covering his body was enough to cause a cascading shower of loosened soil and create an indent in the bluff, before reminding himself that there was no reason for a den. The only pup to protect was too large to fit in a den, even a den made for a creature his size.

The King continued his patient exploration, even though there was nothing of import left to find. Somewhere in his journey, he began to wonder if the pup was actually going to come back. Perhaps his escape had been an accidental thing, brought about by his own appearance, and the wounds had been collected on its journey from the village to his location. Perhaps the Pack was even now tending to its lost pup, and they would be much more vigilant in their watching and caring in the future. If that was the case, there was no reason for the King to be staying here. He was never going to be a part of this strange pack, if simply because they seemed far more interested in entrapping him than letting him join. Beyond that, he had no interest in being anything but the leader of a pack, and if he wanted that he would have simply stayed with his own. All the same, he knew he would wait a couple of days before leaving again, just in case his initial impressions about the state of pup and pack were correct. A couple more days would make no difference in his strange, new quest.

In the end, though, the King did not even have to wait half a day before the pup returned. He had not stopped his patrolling this new area, so it was more than a few minutes after the pup returned to the forest that the King drew close enough to feel his footsteps vibrating through the ground and air. 

He did not race to return to the pup. After all, he was neither a new mother nor a pup himself, and racing to do anything would do him no good. He might have hurried if the pup had left against his will, simply to remind him that he was never supposed to do such a thing again, but he had let this pup go. Now he had come back. It seemed that the negative impressions the King had originally received about this strange pack were true. 

The King padded into the shaded stretch of ground where the two had originally met nearly silently, the only sound heralding his approach being the quiet crackle of the needles beneath his weight, and the soft sound of his own breathing. Once more his feelers reached out, brushing gently along the pup to confirm to himself that he was still mostly unharmed, Once the King was satisfied that "his" pup had sustained no new wounds he lay down gently, sprawling out across the ground in a furry lump. He whined slightly at the pup, inviting him over, before settling down to rest in the shade.