He'd been doing a lot of thinking lately, and with the advent of winter came and went his birthday. He was a year old now, old enough to be allowed to make decisions for himself, old enough to decide if he wanted to stay in Imperium or leave. His frustration this fall must have been contagious, because his sisters had been making themselves awful scarce as well. It worried him not to see them all the time - what if they'd died? Would he ever know what happened if they just disappeared forever? He'd been doing a lot of introspective thinking too, about his dad, and slowly piecing together a history of his family as best as he could. The stories that he and his sisters had always told themselves, the vague memories of the time before the demon bear took Roman's life, his conviction that his father was somehow more than a normal wolf had solidified into a clear, obsessive belief. A belief he'd been brooding on more and more. His day today was spent up an apple tree - an easy enough climb, since all he had to do was scramble up onto a mostly-rotted fence to a low-hanging branch and then scramble up it to a thicker one to lay down on. He liked the different perspective it gave him. It was a good chance to see everything from a new angle and in the process change his angle of thinking too. Though today he was mostly just being lazy, his fluffy tail and all four paws hanging down on either side of the branch he straddled as he drowsed safely up out of the cold wet snow. ""

Winter had been... rather interesting so far. Her heat was still lingering, the biting need to get humped was never ending. She was slightly more satisfied after a couple of run ins, but still... She just wanted to get her mind off of things for a moment. Her wounds were healed now, leaving some pretty impressive marks on her back. She chuckled when she remembered Valentine saying that it looked like she got carried off by a massive bird. Her fur had yet to grow back around the puckered scars, and she wasn't sure if it ever was. But who cared, she wore them proudly.

Entering the Orchard she made a beeline for one of the trees, hoping to be able to scratch those healing scars against them. Leaning up against the apple tree she wiggled slightly, a please sigh leaving her maw when she hit that spot. Settling on her rump, she looked up into the tree and was shocked to find a wolf dangling there. Her hackles rose for a moment, but she knew who this wolf was. She hadn't interacted with him and his litter much, but she knew that he was part of this pack. "Wasn't really expecting to see a wolf up there." She commented, head tilting to the side. She knew his name, somewhere in there... "Atreides, am I right? Sorry, I seemed to have not interacted with much of the pack as much as I should." Mercy shrugged her shoulders, knowing that she couldn't really change that fact.

"Speech"
'thoughts'

The sudden feminine voice that interrupted the wintry silence of the orchard didn't cause him to startle, but Atreides did open one bright green eye, flopping his head over the side of the branch to stare curiously - and lazily - at the woman who stood under his tree. "An intruder wouldn't expect it either, would they?" he returned slyly, as though he had been lazing up in the tree tactically. He moved his tail to wave in front of her teasingly. "Yeah, Atreides Armada. And you are..? You look like you're handy in a fight. Or really, really bad luck, one of the two." He eyed her fresh scars with an indolent grin. ""

It had been awhile since she had interacted with those younger than her, generally Mercy surrounded herself by those older than herself. Not that he was a tiny pup, but she was sure that he still had childish antics. At least she thought so... While she was pretty much not a social creature -- hence having to draw out his name -- it was a little more difficult for her to seem so natural. Like he did. He did make a good point about the intruders though, and she smirked up at him. Now this was a topic that she could get into. "Hard to watch for intruders with your eyes closed, isn't it?" she teased, eying his tail as he dangled it in front of her. Snapping her head forward, she tried to lightly bite his tail, not hard enough to draw blood if she managed to catch it. He asked who she was, making her not feel so bad for hardly being able to place his name. "I'm Mercy Destruction," she said, tacking on her last name because he did. She didn't do that usually, because she didn't really sit in a happy corner with the rest of her family. She let out a chuckle when he made a comment about her scars, and she rose up to try and place her paws on his branch, hopefully becoming level with his gaze. "I am rather handy, unless you think taking on a spar with a tiger is less than useful." she commented, her tail wagging slightly at the mention of her pretty new scars. See, this wasn't so hard, was it? This one seemed rather easy to talk to, and about things that she rather enjoyed.

"Speech"
'thoughts'

"All the better to hear them," he quipped back with a grin, unashamed of his own indolence. Hell, wasn't like he'd actually be allowed to chase off an intruder by himself anyway, was it? Last time he'd tried he'd been sent to "safety" like a baby even though between Drashiel's teachings and Daegmar and Hati's he'd been better trained at six months than most wolves were at two years. Whatever. He refused to let himself sink back into that morass of brooding anger that he'd been mired in the last few months. His father hadn't let people hold him back, and neither should he. He deliberately stilled his tail as she snapped at it, hardly wincing at all as her teeth closed over the fluffy appendage and, tucking his paws up under him, he rolled off the branch into the snow as though she'd pulled him off. "I wouldn't doubt you beat him," he claimed, muffled by the snow, "with all that strength of yours. I'm quivering at your prowess. Really! You must be Valentine's right hand man already. Er, woman." He peered up at her, eyes half-lidded, the tip of his tongue sticking out teasingly. "Mercy Tigerkiller, Praetor of Imperialis." ""

She just smirked at his reply, her head shaking slightly as she let out a soft chuckle. He was a bit of a smart ass -- she liked that. Now this was the kind of wolf that she could actually find herself becoming friends with, something that she did not have many of. Well, friends that didn't hump her. She was pretty sure that Cascade was the only other wolf that she could call a comrade who didn't hump, while that didn't make her sad she did like the possibility of adding another to those small numbers. As she glanced up at the younger wolf, she tried hard to place the rest of his family. She did remember meeting one of his sisters, but she was the one who had been killed. Her ears pinned back slightly at the memory, but she quickly shook it off. This would not be a topic that they would discuss, not unless he brought it up himself.

As she latched onto his tail, she let out a giggle as he flopped to the snowy ground as if she had pulled him off of his perch. Delighted, her eyes glimmered with a sense of play as she tried to stand over him, puffing out her chest as if in great victory. At his words she let out a hardy laugh, her sides quivering at the strength of them. It had been a long time since she had laughed this much, and she instantly started to like this boy even more. "And you shall be the first victim of the Tigerkiller!" she called, attempting to dip down and poke at his neck with her nose, giggling slightly before she flopped own in the snow beside him. Who said she was too old for fun? It had been a long time since she had been so carefree like this, and she had him to thank for that. "So Atredes Treeclimber, Great Protector of Imperium, anything unusual you have spotted from your perch?" she asked, purple eyes casting down towards him. She had been starting to pick up on the faint scent of a wolf from another pack, mingled in with the scent of their own pack. She didn't like it one bit, Rhythm had someone from her old Abavenian pack with her here. Mercy didn't trust it, as her scent grew thicker in their land. She wondered if he had smelled her as well. Perhaps they could go on a little hunt...

"Speech"
'thoughts'