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Well, this one took me longer than I wanted to write. I just couldn't find the modivation or drive to write it. I want to keep going, but it's becoming harder now. The little spurt of inspiration I had a few weeks back seems gone.

But, I dunno. I get the feeling that if I put this down, I'll never finish it. But taking that short break to do the other quick story was quite an entertaining distraction. Maybe I'll just have to hop from one thing to another while they last, coming back to older things when I can.

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"No-no-no-no-no-no! Put the dirt over there Rhael!" the upset botanist shouted and pointed over the loud droning and growling of the hydraulics of the loboth's large bulldozer as he overturned the woody soil of the clearing. "Over on the west end! Not the north end! I don't want to have to climb over a wall of dirt every time I want to come out here!"

"What!? Oh, sorry Caryn. I thought you just wanted the dirt turned over and moved away anywhere," Rhael yelled back as he turned to face her shouting up into the vehicle's cab and grimaced in embarrassment.

Caryn climbed up and stood on the stair outside, leaning in through the open window on top of the dull gray piece of construction equipment. "No, not just anywhere. Weren't you paying attention when Amina and I went over this?"

"Yeah, I thought that only the trees got piled up on the western side?"

"And the excess dirt and rocks," she sighed. "If it's not one thing it's another around here. I suppose there's not exactly all that much I can do about some of it though..."

Rhael watched the loboth hop back down, frustrated, and shut the machine off. "What's wrong Caryn? You're not that mad at me, are you? It's not that big of a deal, I can fix the dirt."

"I'm not upset at you Rhael. No, I'm mostly just irritated at those damned animals that keep breaking into the work shed." Caryn shook her head and the two of them looked over at the makeshift metal paneled shack of a building on the northeastern corner of the patch of loose dirt they were working on. "Somehow, they managed to dig their way in and knocked over a bunch of equipment I setup in there."

"Animals? What animals? I don't think I've seen any here yet."

"I've seen them," she answered with an abhorrent scowl across her face. "They're little gray and brown primates with black stripes of fur across their eyes and faces. The little raccoony bastards are too clever for their own good. But, other than them setting me back a few hours, I'm not mad."

Rhael shrugged. "I'm not sure what to tell you either. I've got problems of my own I'm trying to deal with too. Maybe you could set some traps or shoot them?"

"Problems, you? What could possibly be so bad for you?" Caryn laughed and set her paw on his shoulder. "You've got it easy compared to some of us, mister breeding stud."

"And that's exactly what I'm talking about. Everyone continues to tease and flirt and make advances at me. I'm trying to be nice at Amina's request, but there's only so much I can tollerate."

Caryn moved in closer towards him, reaching one arm around Rhael's back and poking him in the belly with the other. "You need to relax, wolf. Don't worry about things outside your control. Just deal with what you have to, and do your job. Yours is a whole lot simpler than mine, or Amina's, or even that one engineer who seems completely in love with you."

"You mean Wrena?"

"That's her name," she responded as she snapped her fingers. "Yes, even her job is harder than yours. All you have to do is dig and mate with the rest of us. And all you've got to do for that is show up, right? Amina and the doc are doing all the planning and hard work for that."

"Well, I suppose so," Rhael weakly agreed. "But..."

"But nothing. Just focus on what's important," Caryn interrupted. She let Rhael go and turned to take a set on the large tracked wheels of the bulldozer, beckoning him to join her.

He slowly hopped up onto the steel tracking and adjusted his tail behind me, trying to get comfortable for the inevitable lecture he was sure to receive. "Look Rhael, not everyone here is out to get into bed with you. Don't get upset because of the words and actions of just a few loboths."

"And who isn't after what's in my pants? That's all I ever hear about anymore. It's always, 'I want you Rhael,' or, come on Rhael, I know you want to do it too."

"I'm not trying to mate with you, am I?" Caryn tried consoling him. "I've been doing more important things than worrying about just myself. All of us are going to need these fields ploughed and greenhouses built."

"If you're not that interested in having pups like everyone else, then why'd you come alone? This can't be any better than your old life," Rhael lifted his head to face her and continued, "I'm sure you had a great job as a botanist or something back home."

Caryn's ears sunk as she frowned at his comment. "It's not that I don't want pups of my own; all of us do, no doubt about it. But to be honest, even with all the setbacks we've had here this is still a more promising and free life than I had back then."

"How could this possibly be better?"

"You remember how things were getting to be with all the world governments and their bickering and fighting, don't you? Well," Caryn closed her eyes and sighed, pausing momentarily. "I couldn't take anymore of the bureaucracy and the petty fighting. It was getting more and more ridiculous every day, and my job became so frustrating."

Surprisingly, Rhael reached his paw out to the slumped down, upset looking loboth next to him, trying to offer the same comfort everyone else had been giving him. "Yeah, it was getting bad for all of us I think. I could barely hold a job for more than a few months before getting laid off again. What happened with you?"

She took the outstretched hand and held it up to the side of her face, leaning into the touch of his soft pads. "The agricultural laboratory I was at kept getting its budget cut, and all the requests for materials we asked for got pushed aside. It took six months to fill an order for a batch of lumi-blue kelp."

"Lumi-blue kelp, what's that?" Rhael asked as he went along with the stroking movements of his paw that she was forcing him to do along the side of her head.

"Oh, it's a genetically modified strain of kelp. There was a lot of promise with the stuff to actually try and help fix some of the world's problems, if enough time and effort went into research." It didn't take long for her to get the wolf to start petting and scratching behind her ear on his own, relaxing the both of them with the pleasant calming action. "Let's see; it grew fast, could be eaten or turned into bio fuel, and wasn't too terribly expensive to process. We just needed to work a few kinks out."

"Wow, that stuff sounds pretty good. Why didn't they try and grow more of it?"

"Mmm... typical governmental politicians," Caryn gently moaned. "They were more interested in pointing fingers than finding solutions that worked. I wouldn't take any more of it and joined up with the Exodus program. I thought that maybe I'd be respected someplace new, and I won't deny that that an entire planet's worth of new plant life appeals to me."

Rhael continued to rub and scratch at the wolf's head and neck, despite his own sense of self awareness of the action. He had no idea why he was doing it in the first place; he didn't do it for anyone, except when coerced by certain other individuals who couldn't keep their paws off him. But somehow, he found that freely giving himself to another like this was surprisingly satisfying.

"And as much as I love working with plants, there's just something they can't give back to you," Caryn continued. "Plants will do as they're told without complaint, they won't do stupid irrational things, and there are so many exotic varieties out there. Elysium would be a treasure trove of botanical gold, if we could get out there to dig for it."

"What can't they give back? Companionship? I thought you liked being alone? You're always kind of cold and serious to everybody."

Caryn nodded her head slowly, to not let him pull away. "That's just how I am... But, beneath that tough bark I'm just the same as everyone else. I don't mind working alone, yet, I can't be alone all the time. Nobody can."

"I don't get it," Rhael questioned at her inconsistent attitude and behavior. "If you want to be alone, then why am I sitting here petting you? You're not making any sense."

"Aren't I? I think it makes perfect sense. You're not worrying about anything but the moment right now, right? No digging, no mating, just talking and giving your full attention to me."

"I, what?" he paused his brushing motions and left his mouth agape, completely taken aback by Caryn's words.

She broke the silence of Rhael's revelation, turning her head to face the frozen wolf. "I'm right, am I not? Don't you feel much better only focusing on one thing at a time? It doesn't solve the later problems, no, but they're much easier to deal with individually."

Rhael slumped back against the dirt moving machine, feeling cheated and tricked. "I-I suppose you're right, Caryn," he sighed and closed his eyes. She returned the pleasant favor, bringing her paw up under his muzzle and neck to gently scratch at the gray fur there.

"So, are you going to keep making a bigger deal out of the whole breeding thing than it really is?"

He shook his head, "no, you're right too I guess. I'll keep trying to not think about it, even though I still don't like the situation."

"Good," Caryn grinned and kept moving her fingers in a light grabbing motion. "Then let's finish up out little break here and get back to ploughing the field. And this time, move the dirt to the west."

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So, that's the start of the backstory and side arc for Caryn then. She's not a bad wolf, it's just that all work and no play can make anyone lonely.