Pride looked back at the wolf's bones one last time, the stone at his feet. He concentrated on it, on lifting it with magic instead of in his teeth, to settle it in the armor at his back.

'We didn't really have the chance to do introductions.' "Understandable," he murmured, his mind only really half there. Most of the rest of what Sora said wafted through him, passing by his attention, only in part registering. Words, things he might 'realize' a few moments later, when his mind had come back around to the present. But 'littler Vargas,' after a brief delay, first clicked into place and then jarred him from his thoughts.

His gaze swung around to regard Sora with surprise, pale eyes blinking. -'Littler' Vargas? Does she mean--Orthoclase-Alpha..? Does that mean its mother died?
Damn.

Pride wondered, for a moment, if he ought to seek the creature out and offer his condolences. Or would even care-? Had it had something to do with this, perhaps?

The clinohumite was now settled in place atop his back, at least; and he shook the thought away and focused his gaze ahead. "I don't know most of those you've mentioned, but I'm sorry for their loss. And... it is a shame, but I do not sense their stones," he added, grim sadness toching his tone. He looked around, the blinding light flashing off his pale antlers as he squinted against it.

Warrior lived here..? He chose to live here? Why? he wondered, puzzled--though, hadn't the horse said he lived up in the ravines, where it was safer? More pleasant, too, perhaps.

"Lead on, then--this way, was it?" he asked. The loop--it went back this way? Caves, but it was hard to see past this flashing light across the water and the sand. It burned his eyes, his fur... he didn't like it here. He was half-torn between his suffering in the heat, and trying to mourn those whose stones they were retrieving--and he wasn't all that sure he liked how insistent his body was on taking the priority. It felt... sacriligious, somehow; but perhaps nature simply insisted on survival, even when those around had fallen.

He would mourn them properly, later--and forever; he would never forget them. And as for Sora--"I hope these stones can bring you and your friends some form of closure... for what that's worth." It was quietly-said. There'd be no bringing them back--and they still hadn't found a few... but it was all, for now, that they could do.

He did not think of himself as lucky. He wasn't thinking of himself at all, at that instant--only Nassir, Fireheart. "I'll certainly accompany you," he responded. He might have thought it odd, later, that Sora didn't thank him for coming with her--he'd assume her brief thanks now was in regards to his remarks--but perhaps she was only overwhelmed by other thoughts. He certainly was. And anyway, he'd had his own reasons for coming. "Then I will take Nassir, Fireheart--what remains--and that dog's stone, back to Orion."

Softly-said.

And there was little more to say.