
Maple had stayed in his wolf form around half of the journey back to the school. He didn't need to be in his wolf form to follow the trail, but Maple just felt comfortable in that form. He'd spent more time as a wolf than human back home, just like Root. But then he'd shifted back, because he had wanted to chat with the lady who was following her to talk to the nice people that took care of Maple. Maple had noticed that the lady had heavy footsteps, and it sounded like she had four legs, and she smelled kinda weird. Maple really wanted to ask about all those things, but he also had so much more to talk about! Everything on the island was new and exciting! So, Maple kept chattering about this and that and everything that passed his mind. Like how the sea's smell seemed to really stick to everything, or how the trees smelled really different from back home, or how it was weird that he didn't need to hunt anymore, or how he hadn't met almost any other wolves. Maple could hear Root's warning in his head to be careful and stay alert, but everything was so...distracting! Besides Root...wasn't here anymore. Maple had felt the mark he had given Root disappear and that meant that Root had been taken by the soil. It made Maple very sad, but he didn't want to be sad in front of everyone all the time. First impressions were important and Maple needed to do good. So, he was sad in his room under the soft blanket when no one heard.
Ankh would see Maple almost bump into things and other people, but the young pup seemed to have very good spacial awareness. He still needed to get used to so many sounds and smells at once, but Maple was less affected by his blindness than one would expect. Maple could sense when a human was close through hearing and smell, and when an object was close to him Maple could feel a shift in the air currents and could sense something in his personal space and could dodge accordingly.
Though occasionally he bumped into corners and people when he wasn't paying attention. What could you do, he was just a pup, after all.
Maple's pace was brisk and soon they were at the academy. There were less people here and Maple started jogging and then running towards the place where he was sleeping, they'd called it his "dorm room". Maple still wasn't sure what a dorm was, but there were many people around and Maple liked that. Maple felt safe and warm when many people were around.
"This is my dorm! I can smell the nice person, my caretaker, his scent is strong in that direction!"
Maple declared to Ankh, and pointed more or less towards the door of the dorm building. And what do you know, a young man could be seen near the door, looking around with a concerned expression and looking down at his phone every couple of minutes. Though Maple couldn't see that.
"What are you going to talk to him about?"
Maple asked curiously and looked towards where he thought Ankh was. Maple sometimes felt silly bothering to turn his head when he knew and others knew he couldn't see anything, but it was also rude to look somewhere else entirely when you talked to someone. At least Root had said that.