Walk | Talk | Think The leggy, black and grey wolf traveled rather distractedly through the forest of new growth, paying no mind to the autumnal state of the trees or the fact scents of many different kinds covered the landscape. Whatever had drawn them here had since ceased, and with the big bunch of plants that she carried within her mouth clouding her sense of smell she could barely make sense of her surroundings anyway. As far as she was aware, she was the only one within the forest, except for maybe the little black cat that followed closely at her heels. In the quiet, her mind roared. Leaving Ebony had felt like the right thing to do at the time. The pack had lost yet another ruler and was once more changing hands, and in the process a fight had broken out. It was all just pointless drama that should never have happened in the first place, but Callisto had been so irked by everything that she had gotten up and left without a second thought. It was only after the border was long behind her that she began to second guess her choice. She was a lone female wolf within her season, traveling alone with nothing but a cat and some plants for company, and she had nowhere safe to go. Could she have set herself up for a worse disaster? Growling, Callisto stopped abruptly and dropped the plants in her mouth with a huff, her nose wrinkling as she stared at the pitiful pile. Travel was not doing the plants any good, and her distraction had not helped. There were broken stems, wrinkled leaves, and, from the look of things, she had lost some of her store along the way. Her sharp, silvery-blue eyes panned over to the cat as she wandered up, her little mouth full of the thistle plants she had taken on the responsibility of caring for, and with much more care than her mistress she set the plants down atop the pile gently. Well, at least they had survived the journey. Of all the plants she had in her possession, those were possibly the most important, especially considering the circumstances. Once a week, she had been instructed to take one of them, and so long as she did she would be infertile during her season. And just as the cat had suspected, she had warmed up to the plant rather quickly. There was some comfort to be taken from that, but still Callisto sighed heavily, sitting herself down before the pile of plants as she cast her sour gaze around to actually look at her surroundings for the first time during her headlong rush out of Ebony. No - Yfir. From beside her, the little cat asked, "So where do we go from here?" but Callisto had no answer to give and instead stayed silent.

"Does it matter?" The youthful voice that piped up to answer the cat's question with one of its own was cold, but the twist of scorn made it caustic, spoke of controlled rage and recent hurt that had frozen solid, diamond sharp and biting. The figure that uncurled from it's hidden sphinx-like position was leggy and sleek, but clearly belonged to a wolf who had not yet even reached his full height let alone adulthood. Sabre Thyre had been spending as little time within the bounds of Imperium as possible, as little time with his sisters as he could. If it hurt them that he avoided them, he didn't care. He was surviving his grief in the only way he knew how, lashing out at those that reminded him of his pain, retreating into himself where he could wrap his hurt in ice and feel nothing. This woman had stumbled upon his temporary hiding place, and the boy made a note to seek out a new. But she was, if nothing else, a distraction. Where do we go from here? "Everywhere you go is the same. Nothing changes." A bitter, jaded sentiment for such a young wolf, perhaps but one he felt to be a wholly appropriate philosophy.

Walk | Talk | Think Neither wolf nor cat expected anyone to answer the question meant to stay between them, and both turned their heads to stare at the youth who had interrupted. Callisto's brow furrowed with a mild irritation, mostly because she had been wanting the forest to be empty and now it was confirmed not to be. Was she destined never to get anything that she wanted? But as the boy stood, showing off a lanky build and mostly dark coloration, she was struck by the sudden return of an old aching guilt. Her son would have been close in age to this boy. Would he have looked similar to this youth, all legs and dark fur, with a mouth on him that was sure to turn some faces sour? And her daughter? What had she become? Like the brainless pet her father kept or somehow worse? Time seemed to mean nothing in regards to the events of the past, the lives she had unwillingly brought into the world. The bitter disappointment she felt in herself for abandoning them to their fate with their father, the wretched demon Lel, continued even now to eat away at her, and made her wonder if they still lived or had mercifully perished before the cursed beast could mold them in his image. It had been months since she had given them thought, even longer since she had abandoned them in the north, but for how strongly it came back to her it might as well have been yesterday. Unlike her mistress, the cat was quick with her answer and spoke up with an undertone of irritation. "My, so optimistically insightful, aren't we?" she responded dryly, and might have added more provocation if she felt more certain her companion would have backed her up. But her relationship with Callisto was shaky at best, and it was still just as likely for the grey-legged wolf to turn on her before the kid could. She was far too attached to her tail to risk it. But as Callisto saw it, the boy had the right of it, or at least in her special case. No matter where she went, trouble followed. No matter what she did, everything went to hell in the end. She was cursed; it was to be expected at this point. And yet it was tiring, incredibly so, to live like that, knowing each action she took, each choice she made, would somehow lead to further pain, further destruction. What was next on the agenda of potentially damaging things she could do? She had left her pack, made herself vulnerable in the worst way. Maybe tempt fate a little more? See how wrong things could get before they went right? She growled yet again, an attempt at silencing the voice of her own thoughts, and gave her head a quick shake for good measure. "Enough," she spoke for the both of them, hoping to cut off anything else that might be said. Whatever they wanted to say between themselves, she did not want to hear it. "I need a place to put these," she spoke in regards to her deteriorated cache of plants, mostly to the cat as it was the only creature present she had any influence over, "now." Intending to ignore both the cat and the kid, and trying hard not to make any connections between him and anyone else, she got to her feet and marched forward to investigate one of the nearby trees for a little nook to place her things.