The boy who had grown only slightly, no bigger than his age, was laying down by the river side. He was laying on his left side, one of his paws over the edge of the frozen river bank. His eyes were limp, but not closed. He was getting plenty of sleep, it was mid-day and the others were probably all snuggled in their dens from the cold. There was no particular reason why he was out by the water just lounging. The recent death of his mother payed absolutely no toll on him; at least that's what he thought. Maybe that's why his body was sprawled out here. Sure he thought of her most the time, but there was no part of him that cried or wished she was still here. He was growing up without a father, how would having on parents make a difference? His body had shown to be exhausted and lazy to do anything, though lazy was who he was. Maybe Esper leaving was secretly hurting him. He would never admit to it though. Something that he was clueless to, was that this is where his father died. Maybe he would never know. He wouldn't know that both his parents would haunt the lands of Abaven; one residing in each of the only lands here. Walk "Talk" Think

The girl didn't like to wander far from the den, or far from her mother either. But today she felt a spark of adventure, the rushing sound of the river calling to her tiny form. The snow was starting to go away, spring was finally coming to Abaven. Little chunks rested here and there, but hopefully it would all be gone soon. The large river rushed passed the girl to her left, and she paused to watch it with large blue eyes. It was going so fast! It was a bit scary, how it just flew passed her without a care in the world. Bi-coloured ears pressed flat against her skull, a whine slipping from her maw as she backed up. That would not be fun to fall into, it would take her away for sure. Shivering, she turned and walked on, placing a bit more distance between her and the water.

It was then that she saw another pup, although he was not part of her large litter. He was older than her as well, but she hesitated. She wasn't sure if she wanted to walk up to him or not, a blush spreading across her pale cheeks. Finch backed up a few steps, unsure of what to do next. He was all sprawled out, not seeming to have noticed her yet. Would she be able to walk away without him even knowing? But that would be a bit rude... wouldn't it? Another whine left her lips as she froze in place, a small paw raised as if she was going to run at any moment.

The boy wasn't aware of the younger pup until she made a whine from her throat. He quickly reacted to it, but didn't move fast. He wasn't not trying to scare her off, his exhaustion just making him take everything slow. He picked up his head, turning it towards her but he was still laying down on his side. After he looked at her a moment, seeing that she had a paw raised in an effort to escape if needed, he laid his head back down and scooted a little to get comfortable again. "I ain't ganna bite you lady." He spoke before finding a nice groove in the ground to stay in. His eyes may have closed now, but he wasn't sure if the girl would walk away now, or was curious enough to stay. Alvin didn't really care, he would just lay down beside this river until it was time to go back to his den and stay in for the night. Walk "Talk" Think

The boy looked up from his flopped over position, and it was then that she saw his eyes. Her own grew wide as she took a small step closer, gray and white tail wagging a few times. Those were the most pretty eyes that she had seen! They had three colours in them, and Finch hadn't ever seen anything like it before. Her siblings eyes were mostly the same, only Shrike had two different coloured ones. But this boy... "Pretty," she whispered, head tilting to the side as she fell to her rump. She didn't get much closer, even though he said that he wouldn't bite she was quite shy. Which is why she spoke so little. Even to her parents she rarely spoke, just enough to get the message across. Other than that she was pretty silent, a nice break from the noise that her litter mates made. The boy had fallen back over, not really paying much attention to her at all. It made her breath a bit easier, and she looked back towards the river. It was moving pretty fast... Was that why this stranger was here? To watch the river move? She didn't know, nor did she really care to ask. That was his own business, and Finch was not a nosy girl. So she just sat there, not bothering to make conversation or to move closer. Perhaps they could just sit here and enjoy each others company. She didn't much like being alone, but neither did she like strangers. At the moment though, neither were talking, or even looking at each other. It was for sure a nice change for her.

The girl's voice would whisper, an silent echoing that vibrated through Alvin's mind. The whisper was so quiet, he felt like he could go to sleep to that whisper. But as he laid there, eyes closed now focusing on the girl's voice that had made her completely invisible, the words struck him. His ears flicked back to point in her direction very roughly before he picked up his head again and looked at her with a defensive look. Pretty... "I ain't no little girl." He spat at her. He noticed she was looking at the river, and even if she was looking at him now, he turned his head to see what she was looking at. He eyed the river a second, and though he might have seen the sort of beauty she may have seen in that moment, it was worth nothing to him. "Why are you even here?" He spoke rudely, seeing her compliment not so friendly. But his eyes turned back to her, eyebrows closed inward to make himself look more angry than he was. He, for sure, was not a friendly wolf. Walk "Talk" Think

She heard him shuffle, his head coming back up to look at her. Her two-toned ears flickering in his direction but she didn't turn away from the river, not until he spoke to her. His words were angry and hurtful, flinching slightly as she turned to look at him. Her blue eyes grew wide as they started to fill with tears, the little girl curling inwards slightly. He was a bug meanie! She had just said that his eyes were pretty, and now he was mad at her! Sniffling, she shook her head and scooted backwards somewhat, wary of the now angry older boy. He asked her why she was here and Finch just shrugged her little shoulders. She had just come towards the river because of the sound really, she didn't expect to run into someone anyways. Casting her eyes back towards the water, she curled her dual coloured tail around herself. "Pretty," she said again, simply, her nose pointing in the direction of the river. She liked the sound it made, it was soothing. Turning her big doe eyes back towards the boy, she sniffled again but tried to put on a brave face. Her daddy ran Abaven! She shouldn't be crying because some boy got angry at her. "What doing?" came her simple words, trying to narrow her eyes to look less afraid. Two could play at this game.

Alvin would look at her with a raised brow. He took note of her sniffling, but he found it even more amusing by the way she was talking. Had he ever been that way? It was hard to believe. But he decided that was enough, the girl obviously being younger than him even though not by much.  "Calm down. I'm playin' with you." He wasn't really just messing with her, he was very "hurt" by her calling him pretty. But his insides would cool by the way she talked. Though it seemed that he would get annoyed very easily, he would let it slide for he girl. "I got away from my brothers." Things were heated with the recent fight between himself and Mingan; if Darrah and Tinaro didn't know what happened, then they sure felt the tension. That was worse than when their mother died and they were stuffed into a smaller den. Alvin would love the day he could have his own space. Walk "Talk" Think

The boy would tell her to calm down, bringing out a small huff from the girl. Raising a paw she rubbed her eyes, drying them from the few tears that had fallen. Her speech was simple, because she didn't really feel the need to speak. This was the most she had probably said more to this boy than she had ever said to her family. She settled back down on her rump, trying to calm her fur so that she didn't look quite so... ruffled. But he answered her question, and it made her turn to him with a knowing look. She wasn't sure if he had even heard about her and her siblings being born, or how many of them there were. But she totally got it, there were times that she just wanted to get away from all the noise that her littermates made, but had been way too afraid to wander away from them. Until now. "Finch," she said suddenly, raising a paw to point to her chest. With the same paw she then extended it towards him, reaching out towards his brown form. A brow lifted in question, she liked to talk with as little words as possible. Already she was becoming quite good at reading body language, preferring to remain silent most of the time. Finch felt a little bold, and scooted her butt a few scoots closer to the boy. A shy smile showed on her face as she quickly looked down at her paws. Her boldness didn't seem to last too long after all...

"Speech"
'thoughts'

Alvin would look at her a moment, eyebrow still raised. But as she slid her paw over to him, calling herself "Finch" and motioning a name from him, Alvin turned his eyes to her paw for yet another moment. Finally, he leaned to get up, rose, and then stretched his front paws down in a stretch. He was pointing a little to the side of the girl, Finch. He didn't want to get into any more space that she had closed between them. A yawn escaped his jaws and he pushed backward to sit down and look at her and finally give her a response after all that time. "Name's Alvin." His eyes kind of wondered behind her, looking at the plains and seeing that no one else was here with them. For a pup so young, should there be someone obsessing over her safety? Of course, the same should go for Alvin, but he didn't have an obsessive parent anymore.  Walk "Talk" Think

The boy was taking quite awhile to answer her, and while it might bother some people, she quite enjoyed it. The silence was nice, she even let out a little sigh as she looked back towards the river. She was so drawn to it, but had no idea why. Maybe it was the fact that it was always there, never changing its course. Yet the water never stayed the same, no matter how long she looked it was never the same water in front of her. Just thinking about it made her toes tingle, a little rush running up her spine. Finch smiled softly, and wasn't broken from her trance like state until the boy spoke his name. Blinking her big blue eyes, she focused on the now and slowly turned to look at him, seeing that he had gotten up and was stretching. Alvin. Good to know. She was caught off guard when he looked behind her, her face sparking as she felt a bit of fear. Whipping her head around, she let out a little breath when she realized that no one was behind her. Was he looking for someone then? Shrugging her shoulders, she looked back to the boy. A timid smile replaced her frown as she settled down.

Finch felt a little at a loss now, unsure of what to do next. It wasn't an awkward feeling, more of not knowing what do. This was her first meeting outside of her family, and she wasn't exactly brushed up on how-to-do things. Letting out a little hum sound, she looked around her and Alvin, eyes picking up every little thing. "Anything fun?" she asked, gesturing towards the lands of Abaven. Not that she was one to wander away, but it would be nice to know what others did to pass the days away.

He narrowed his eyes to actually look at her when she turned around. He thought that was kind of odd, eyes should be on him of course. He wouldn't have turned around in fear of someone behind him if someone was looking back there... I mean, if he started running that would be different. But he wasn't aware that she was frightened about what he was looking at. She spoke again, only this time Alvin needed a moment to think about what she was asking. Was he fun? Of  Course. Was there anything fun happening? Or did he want to go have fun? He wasn't sure... but it probably wouldn't have changed his answer. He didn't really like all the bonding and whatnot. He once played a game with Tinaro, and though it was pretty amusing, that was until he got caught pretty quickly. He thought he had grown out of it. "Ehh, fun is for losers." Of course... Alvin had his own kind of fun. But it probably wasn't the normal kind of fun. Was there anyone else out there that understood him? It didn't matter. He didn't really care. Walk "Talk" Think

The girl flopped to her belly, blowing out a sigh when he said that fun was for losers. Her ears pressed against her skull, eyes watching the river again. She was rather lost at what to do with this boy, he wasn't really helping her make conversation. Scooting her head over to look at the brown male, her little shoulder shot up into a shrug. There had to be something that he did for fun, she doubted that he just sat around all day. She huffed at him, sticking her salmon tongue out at him. "Show me?" She asked, knowing that he did something and just wasn't telling him. Finch was growing weary of just waiting around, being scared of everything. Her siblings were always off doing something, and she had already memorized everything around the den. She remembered her mother talking about how she liked to bring pretty things into the den, and her tail thumped against the earth. Maybe they could go on a treasure hunt! She was sure that there was something that was pretty around here, like flowers, or even shells! "We look for pretties?" Raising herself up into a seated position she let out a small, excited whine as her blue eyes scanned the area. There was a pretty purple flower, pedals wide and spread towards the sun. Trotting over to it she plucked it carefully from the earth, bringing it back over to Alvin and dropped it at his paws. She sat in front of him, eying the pretty flower. See, pretty! Her eyes roamed up to his expectantly, trying to see if he understood what she was looking for.

Alvin lifted a paw to shy away from her as she plopped to the ground. But soon she would ask him to show her. Show her what fun was? Well... he actually did just lay around in the den all day, or outside, or by the river. He thought about getting ready to pounce on her, but it was a good thing she jumped to a different idea because she probably wouldn't have liked it. "Looking for pretties" sounded kind of dumb. But Alvin would watch as ran over to some purple flowers and bring them back to him. He had never done that before... and it didn't look very exciting. But what else was there to do that didn't involve pushing her in the water or sinking his teeth into her... "Um, I guess so." He would say. "You want them to take home?" He asked trying to show at least a little motivation to do so. He would help her gather some of these... "Pretties", hopefully they would be put to good use... He wondered what else she would be looking for; surely purple flowers couldn't be the only pretty thing around. Walk "Talk" Think

When Alvin agreed to looking for pretty things she let out a squee, wiggling back and forth. None of her other siblings liked to look for pretty things, except for Starling. But her brother liked to hide them from the others, saying that Shrike would probably stomp all over them. Alvin asked her if it was for her den, and she nodded her head eagerly. "Momma does it too!" she said, shifting her weight across her paws. She eyed the pretty flower again, picking it up and putting in the the shade of a lone tree, starting a little pile for them to place their goodies in once they were found. Standing up slowly, her blue eyes roamed the river as she tried to look for more pretty things. There wasn't much here, just some rocks. Oh wait, there could be pretty rocks, right? Like shiny ones and ones with different colours. Carefully making her way down the river she kept her eyes peeled, her gray marked tail swinging behind her.