Pierce's hands clasped together, his thumbs lined up in perfect unison as he blew through them which caused a soothing owl call to cast a noise over the forest. It was his return order, meaning all four of his dogs came barreling to his side and lining up in their appropriate order. Ash was on his right hand side, Oak was on his right, Walnut was on his back right, and Aspen on his back left. The young man silently held out a small piece of meat for the four dogs who happily swallowed their treat as they guarded their assigned post.

Stein had Pierce training dogs since he could walk. He was able to do impressive things by now with his current pack.

Today, the boy wanted to travel even further from the bunker than last week. It was a reckless behavior that Stein wouldn't have approved of. All it took was one sighting and you could be tracked back home and raided for everything you had.

Pierce was desperate though. If he didn't find a way to get more antibiotics before winter he'd be in trouble. It wasn't the type of thing you could scavenge from the forest when you needed. That type of thing only ever came from human settlements.

"Aspen, fodder." He pointed in the direction he wanted his dog to go in first. You always had to send an animal ahead before approaching new territory. Aspen would give the signal if anything was wrong. Pierce's dog behaved well, treading ahead of the party as it tried to get accustomed to the new scents. The young man withdrew his rifle, carefully positioning himself so that he had Aspen's back if anything unexpected were to arise.

SNAP !

"Fuck." It felt like the trap went off in slow motion. The boy hoisted his gun over his shoulder. "Stay." Pierce demanded, his other dogs remaining at their post. Quickly, the teenager barreled forward, throwing himself down on his knees as he looked at the trap his dog's leg had been caught in.

The only thought really going through his mind at that point was the amount of damage and if he's have to put Aspen down or not. Funny how the worse-case was always the most prominent thing rattling around in your head during the heat of the moment. Pulling into a more logical train of thought, he tried to calculate if he should focus on any sort of medical aid or work his way into freeing his pet first. Which would result in the least amount of damage? Aspen's whines only made the pressure of the situation push down on his lungs and make it feel like it was impossible to breathe.

If they were starting to come across traps, how far away was Pierce from reaching other people or monsters? "Quiet. Quiet." He whispered to Aspen, trying to get the dog to shut up before the noise carried too far. It always took a lot of training to teach dogs not to bark as they pleased. He'd never thought to train them into staying as quiet as possible when they were injured or hurt.

Sometimes the little noises slipped by without registering.

Adrenaline made Pierce very sensitive to the things happening, but normally he tunnel versioned in on that one threat. In that moment? His entire life seemed to circle around that single trap. What words could he use to describe the current situation? Shit shit shit shit. He thought to himself on repeat.

"Put a cloth over his face, preferably with your scent. It'll help calm him while you get him out." The unexpected voice caused Pierce's soul to nearly jump out of his skin. The young man tore himself off his knee and stumbled for his gun, instinctively fussing with it until that barrel was pointed directly at the intruder.

What were the odds he'd run into someone here?

How did Stein know which humans were good and which humans were bad to interact with?

There were so many things he had to learn and apparently it was going to be by trial and error. Pierce knew he needed to try his hardest to eliminate mistakes that could be made. The human's finger wasn't on the trigger yet, instead resting patiently against the body of the gun as he stared at Gabrian for much too long. Pierce's mouth started opening and shutting a couple times as though he was trying to speak - or perhaps make a glubbing motion like a fish. It was like he needed to practice speaking before getting anything to leave his lips. "When-" He finally almost spoke only to pull his sentence back before it escaped his lips. "What-" Another disorganized word poured from his lips only for that thought to also vanish into the ether.

It would probably be abundantly clear there was something off with Pierce at that point.

"You came," Pierce finally managed to get a second word out, his voice coming out as choppy and sharp as his gaze. The barrel of the gun slowly pulled away from Gabrian's body and was dragged to focus further in the direction he approached from. Pierce was now observing the area that might lead towards civilization. "From there." Though honestly, it was difficult to tell if the strange boy was asking for confirmation or pointing out an obvious fact. He was clearly not the most charismatic man in the woods.

"They haven't found us yet." The feeling that filled Pierce's gut was good when the other man responded. How long had it been since he spoke to something and actually got a response? The young man stood there looking very still as he tried to move past all the positive feelings washing over him. He had to mentally argue with himself to move past the sensation and nerves having human interactions with a stranger.

They? It was the main word he needed to focus on. Pierce continued to stare in the direction the stranger had come from. How many theys were there? Was it an entire civilization with like ten entire people? The thought was overwhelming. Maybe they was just a pack of revenants this man had spotted.

"Stay back." Pierce finally said as a breath of air escaped his nostrils. He looked towards his dog and slowly took the two steps to Aspen where he slowly knelt down and froze a moment as he tried to calculate a way to keep his gun pointed on the man all while dealing with the trap. Pierce fiddled around a good two minutes, awkwardly positioning himself as he tried to multitask when both things needed both arms. "Tch." He failed to make any progress and at this point the sun might as well have moved another finger's width in the sky. Pierce sharply got back on his feet and stepped away from Aspen a few meters.

The boy's tongue clicked inside his mouth before he pointed the barrel of the gun back towards Gabrian. "You." He wasn't sure what else to call the guy. "... Do the trap." He gestured towards his dog again with another harsh movement as he tried to pair Gabrian and Aspen. If Pierce focused on the gun and Gabrian focused on the trap, they'd be able to use both hands for their designated tasks.

That same shot of endorphins filled Pierce's head again when he spoke to the man. His lips parted slightly as he tried to think of something else he could say too. He was getting greedy. Maybe Pierce could tell Gabrian something about antibiotics. His head immediately started speeding through different ideas. I have other dogs. No. He shouldn't say that one. Get me three rocks No. He shouldn't be giving away that he used rocks for communication. What's the theys? No. The two already stopped talking about the theys that Pierce was deathly curious about. The moon is half full tonight. No. That would be weird, wouldn't it?

"Hi." Pierce said suddenly without warning, the word out of place as it was inserted into the wrong part of the conversation. He still had that gun pointed towards Gabrian's face, and PIerce certainly managed to hold his stern expression, but inside Pierce was feeling giddy. Absolute butterflies and explosions as his brain was the most stimulated than it had been in weeks.

"Okay, okay. I can do that." Gabrian actually moved closer to help with his dog. As he dug through his medical pack Pierce could only look in envy at the supplies the man had with him. The 19-year-old really needed more. "Hi. My name is Gabrian. What's yours?" Pierce froze when the man asked a question he'd never heard before. Introductions were a concept Pierce had never dealt with since it had always been him and his father his entire life. Something about telling the man his name felt oddly intimate and personal.

"Er..." The boy audibly let the confusion slip from his lips. Pierce and his father always named their dogs after trees. He glanced around the area desperately trying to find a word to give Gabrian. "Leaf." He said quickly. It wouldn't be hard to tell that wasn't a name. Especially not his name.

The stranger placed a cloth over Aspen's eyes. Between Pierce moving away and the stranger coming closer, the dog started to try and twist and tear its leg from the trap even harder, flinging it's body around nervously snapping it's teeth as it tried to stop any threats from coming near. Maybe it would've been better if Pierce actually had listened to the man and took off a his jacket. It was hard not to panic at the thought of his dog harming itself past the point of repair. Pierce and his father had tried to do homebrewed surgeries on some dogs in the past, but a lot of the time it didn't end well and they had to be put down anyways. He lost his dad, the last thing he needed was to lose one of the dogs before he had a chance to breed a new one.

The boy tossed the gun backwards, away from both himself and Gabrian. If he wasn't going to use his gun in that moment, there was no way he was going to let a stranger get his hands on it. "Guard." Pierce called, the three dogs who had been patently waiting behind the clearing came flying out from the place they had been hiding. The three started circling around the gun to make sure nobody but Pierce would place their hands on the object.

Pierce darted forward and immediately maneuvered himself into a headlock with the dog to keep it from biting Gabrian or himself. "Get it get it get it!" Pierce hissed out, no longer caring about doing things the calm or easy way. He just needed that trap off.