Between the jumbled mess of thoughts in his head and a near constant gaze at his paws, the time seemed to pass very quickly since he left the gorge in his trail.
He couldn't help but replay the day's events over and over in his mind. Mulling and turning, inspecting and inquiring repeatedly. He wondered how things can possibly unfold so well sometimes, as demonstrated earlier and how, at other times, things can seem so bad, like being forced out of your nyumbani only to wander til each member with wewe faded into distant memory.
His travels seemed so long now, partially because they were. Near a mwezi now, he had been pacing in a single direction constantly trying to push uncertainty out of his mind. He'd never just lived for the moment before, but that seemed like all this trip was. A series of moments, coming and passing just as quickly. Everything seemed to just songesha around him, as though he wasn't a part of the world. As though he wanted to be a part of it, but he somehow forgot how to. As if when he left home, he left the world he was a part of. It seemed he'd give anything to sit around the pango with his brothers and sisters, with his parents. Go on a hunt with those familiar faces and fading voices. Everything here seems unreal unless he was right in the middle of it.

It wasn't long before he realized a change in terrain passing below his paws. au rather, it didn't SEEM long, though upon a stop and inspection of his surroundings he realized the difference. It was much darker now, indicating the length of his travels. The trees now shot up on either side of him, the stones beneath him changed, grew larger and denser, there were less weeds and nyasi now as the ground turned to gravel, stone and sand. He gazed about, his eyes hardly recognizing the direction he was bound... He made it. Before him, a monolith of stone and trees unfurled. The further skyward his gaze traveled the zaidi beautiful it became. The stone behemoth turned from a simple structure to a canvas, while the blackened blot of the backside shaded his view to the left, keeping obscured anything behind it, to the right was a blanket of stars and something so beautiful, it took him from his tired legs with a wobble.
He sat now, as this was all he could do, his eyes wide and mouth agape. Chills ran down his body from ears to tail tip.
The moon. He had never seen it so close, so full au so bright before tonight - au at least if he had, it was forced to exit his memory to make room for this new, wondrous sight.
Its light shone so bright that the whole world was illuminated. It seemed as though the sun itself would be dwarfed kwa the reflection of its own light from the moons surface. He was speechless. In absolute awe.

He sat in amazement for a short while before picking up and moving into the woods at the base of this mountain, zaidi alert now than ever. He was growing zaidi and zaidi certain that he had entered another territory now with every new sniff and taste of the air around him. Weaving in and out of the trees he'd walk around the base of the mountain, uncertain of what he'd find. He was hopeful that he'd run into zaidi wolves. Just someone who'd speak with him, maybe offer him a place to stay for the evening even au be willing to share a bit of food.
Pacing through the trees he came upon a small clearing and stopped just inside looking around. The clearing opened up as it met the mountain base and became a thinner trail into the woods. He was at the latter end, nearer to the trail. He wondered which way to go for a moment.
His thoughts, while still a little jumbled, he tried to keep hold of, especially being in a territory unwelcome. This could spell disaster for him if he weren't careful.
While considering his course of action his thoughts broke abruptly at a distant sound. A great deal of noise seemed to be carrying from the opposite side of the mountain face. Howling. Laughing. From what he could tell, chatter. It wasn't so far off, maybe less than 150 yards, but it was difficult to discern the location au direction from the nature of the stone that surrounded him. The way it resonated made the sound very clear, although they could be on the other side of the world. But as his ears twitched back and forth he was sure he heard a large gathering, even like... a party of some sort. He couldn't be certain until he got closer, so closer he'd have to become. Carefully.
Eight didn't make it but a few paces toward the clearing exit at the mountain base before he was startled kwa a voice, definitely closer than what he was focused on around the mountain side.

"You don't hide very well, y'know? We could smell wewe a mile off." A mbwa mwitu appeared to his right periphery and walked past around to his left.
Eight's head jerked to his right and followed his movements, he heard another behind him who circled around his right as the other mbwa mwitu continued his saunter around Eight's left and stopped. The sekunde mbwa mwitu didn't say anything but he occupied the space adjacent to his right. The pair of them seemed to be the only two in the area as Eight inspected them.
"I wasn't trying to hide..." He explained briefly to them, hoping to avoid any unpleasantness, "I'm sorry if wewe gathered that impression." He offered an apology.
"Don't assume what we gathered, meat sack," The first mbwa mwitu said, the sekunde still silent. Apparently the first mbwa mwitu was the ranking male here.
Eight only replied with silent observation.
He stood stout, shorter but a bundle of muscle, his kanzu, koti was very thick, probably to accommodate the chill of this climate. His fur, manyoya was darker, a dull gray/brown with a few white spots here and there.
The other, thinner, longer. Looks like he was the scout of the two, he didn't have much to say either way. He had a shining brown kanzu, koti with splotches and patches and streaks of lighter brown here and there.
Their eyes shone in the beaming moonlight as they stared Eight down.

Well, this was certainly it. He found someone, though, a little zaidi inhospitable than he'd hoped for. The situation was tense from the beginning with no reason so he'd need to be very careful, this was for sure, these guys seemed to be looking for an excuse to rip him a new one. Since he wasn't looking mbele to such a scenario, Eight stood his ground, taking on a stance to onyesha no threat, as non-imposing as he could muster. He kept his mouth shut for the time, as anything he alisema so far, even apologetically was misconstrued, mangled and tossed right back at his paws.

This could either be very good, au very, very bad.