Rind.

The surprising part was when he actually made it to the door. The unsurprising part was when, milliseconds later, he found himself face down on the cold wooden floor, arms behind his back and face pressed to the ground.
"Get off of me!"
He wriggled, nearly wresting free at first from his captor, but thereafter finding himself locked in an unbreakably tight grip.
"Be still, human!"
The voice was as gruff as before, but not particularly more upset. Good to know, then, that he was of such value and threat to this wolfe that his near escape was viewed as nothing more than a minor inconvenience.
"Let go of me!"
Gustin had stopped fighting, but his words still had a sparring spirit to them. The wolfe scoffed, picked the human up one-handed, and half-carried him to the door.
Confused, Gustin allowed himself to be dragged along. At the heavy wooden door, the wolfe growled and used the other hand to pull it open. It slid slowly to the side, resting heavily on its bearings, and Gustin thought he felt the whole house fair shake with its movement. Gus meant to take two deep breaths to steady him for the chill outside, but he only got through one and so was just halfway prepared when the wind hit him.

He had expected it to be a bit cold, but he certainly hadn't expected this. This was painful cold; screaming, unbearable, icy, bone-soaking cold, and it cut through the thin layers of his clothing instantly. Twisting in the wolfe's grip, he tried to escape the frigid onslaught, but wound up just writhing in place.
"Look."
The wolfe said, tersely, shoving him closer to the outdoors. Gustin did as he was told; he looked. Outside, the earth was white. White sky, white space, white earth. The wolfe spoke again.
"Know what that is? It's snow, human. Storm's been through. You run, you won't make it past my territory line. Freeze first. You understand, human?"
Gustin nodded - he would have agreed to anything to convince the wolfe to close that door. Agreeably, he did just that, releasing Gustin back into the house and using both hands to slide the heavy door shut.

He turned to face Gustin, who was standing where he'd been left, looking now only slightly unsettled and distantly amused.
"Well, I'm glad we had this talk. While I get to work thinking of a plan B, why don't you tell me what you kidnapped me for?"
Gustin's eyes, Kellar thought, were awfully bright for a human who'd just woken up where this one had. He banished the thought immediately, scoffed and turned to wander off into to the center room. He had no need, he reminded himself, to complicate the situation further.

He had walked away. Just walked away. Rude damn host, this wolfe was. That was why he preferred his men tailless - made them much more civilized. Gustin stood in the empty open room for only a moment before turning to tag along behind him.
"I asked you a question, you know. Even a Lout wouldn't be rude enough not to answer."
The wolfe was crouched over a stone fire pit in the center of the round room, working something over, but from his low position, still managed to give Gustin a pretty sharp sideways glance at his mention of the word Lout. Gustin lowered his eyes, a move that worked with pretty much every species, until the annoyance seemed to have passed.

Looking around, Gustin began to process. First step, he thought, find out where you are. He'd been running information (sort of - a bit of a forced vacation, one could say) about the northernmost Pack when he had been attacked. He'd been planning to go the median path between Wolfe territories, reaching an entranceway near the south side of GreatLake by noon and taking the quickest undergrounds the rest of the way back to Psire territory. If things went according to plan, he'd be back in their colony within six days and sleeping in a nice soft bed in seven. Days eight and nine would probably be spent getting to know the locals; day ten would be spent eating anything within six yards, and days eleven through forever would be spent repeating the rotation. That was the plan. Things had not gone according to plan.

In front of him, the wolfe adjusted his position and Gustin quietly admired the sinewy shift of his muscles beneath thin clothing similar to Gustin's own. A thick grey tail swept across the floor behind him. No, things had definitely not gone according to plan.

It was snowing. Gustin knew that much. So, connecting that to the path he'd been on, he must be....nowhere near far enough North for this to be right. Where was he? Casting around for some clue, Gustin took in the home he'd found himself in.

The entire structure was wood, and although parts of it looked weathered, other parts seemed fairly new. Massive beams, too massive for just one human to have put them into place, held up the domed ceiling; around the room, small windows were cut, which now had doors of their own drawn across them, and were, Gustin guessed, shuttered from the outside as well. The floor beneath was also wood - rubbed smooth and dark from wear. In the center of the room, there was a large stone fire pit, the heat from which spread outwards in trickles to warm the room. There were furs and rugs of various sizes hanging around the room on the walls, and a bed was pushed off to one side, in the corner.

Not a bad home for a packless wolfe. Gustin was quite sure, after all, that this wolfe had no pack. What else would he be doing living alone in this snowy expanse? His pack must have abandoned him. The reason why remained a mystery, but Gustin did know that such things happened. Wasn't sure why, but he knew they happened. Had never seen the situation with his own two eyes - all the wolfes he'd ever come into contact with were absolutely insistent on the idea of living as a unit - but he knew they could exist. And that was all that mattered. Knowing things was, in fact, his business, and it suddenly occurred to Gustin that while he was here, perhaps he could learn some more about these loner wolfes; the information could come in handy some time in the near future, after he escaped.

Escape. Right. Ought to get on that. Looking behind him, Gustin realized that the room he'd seen the main door in was attached to this big round room that he was in, and that other smaller rooms also seemed to be attached, at random angles to the one they were standing in. He'd been so bent on making a break for it when he'd woken up here that he'd had no real time to take in details. But Gustin was a pragmatist above all else, and so, with the snow piling higher and higher outside, he suspected he would have plenty of time coming to contemplate his temporary home. The wolfe's voice stirred him from his thoughts.

"I did not...kidnap you."
Gustin raised an eyebrow.
"Are you the one who attacked me by the greenwoods?"
The wolfe made a sound but didn't answer.
"Well? Are you?"
The wolfe made a sound, closer this time to a growl. Gustin growled himself, which surprised the wolfe long enough at least to get his attention.
"Answer me."
This time, the wolfe raised an eyebrow.
"No. I am not."
He turned back to his fire pit, poking at it a few times before continuing,
"It does not matter how I came to have you, human. I have you now, and I don't intend to lose you until our problem is solved."
"Our problem?" Gustin asked skeptically, unsure how he'd become involved in whatever issue this wolfe had.
The wolfe growled.
Gustin sighed.
"Right. Our problem. In it together; a regular unit. Victim and attacker. Very nice. Well, why don't we at least practice a few formalities, then, since we're apparently going to be working together?"
The wolfe didn't move from the fire pit, but there was a short exhale of breath which Gustin took to signal interest.
"Why don't you first tell me who you are?" A sideways glance.
"You ask me who I am, but do you know who you are, human?"
Gustin was silent for a moment, unnerved by the sudden change in tone that came with the cryptic answer. Stepping away to put some space between him and the wolfe with some very possibly scary intentions, he replied,
"Gustin. And you are?"
The wolfe eyed him for a moment before returning his attention to the fire pit.
"I am wolfe Kuskellanar Mik'rreamn'amirra of Arem'mir."
There was a pause.
"Wow. I'm going to call you Kelly for short."
Kuskellanar growled.
"Kellan?"
The growl dropped off. Gustin sighed again and took up a seat on a small round mat that was set by the fire pit. This seemed like the beginning of a better-sit-down sort of day.

~:~