Katja was often a restless soul, prone to wander despite the absolute rigidity of her loyalty to family and pack. It was the viking in her, the tendency for her people to explore going back to antiquity, to spread and to colonize across the world even aside from traveling far and wide to raid. It did not allow her to stagnate in one place even if that place was ideal for her pack to remain. Her feet needed to wander - and so she did, using the opportunity provided to scout out new food sources, new dangers, new possibilities. She'd taken it upon her this evening - particularly tense with the arrival of her birth month and, therefore, her heat cycle with its accompanying irritability and restlessness - to scout throughout their new home in the north, through the unclaimed lands nearby in the event that they need to look beyond their borders for resources in lean times - in this case the Sparse Forest. This forest was much different than her red forest, clusters of trees huddled together on a vast plain rather than the towering monoliths that her pack laid claim to. The wind, though it carried with it the faint scent that said 'spring', had a sharp bite to it as it struck her silken gray coat. Katja endured it as she endured most else in her life - with a stoic calm as she continued to stalk across the plain. She aimed her path for a patch of pines, though with the intention not of sheltering from the wind but rather of exploring further. "

It had been far too long since he had traveled so far north. Though the warmth of spring was not overbearing, he still longed for the harsh cold of winter to return.  Now that he had reunited with his sisters, he felt more at peace than he had in some time, and it was with a light heart that he took his farewell - likely for no more than a few days - to heard further toward lands he was familiar with. There was no wariness as the terrain grew slightly less hospitable as he took his journey north, the plains shifting into a tundra-like terrain Even when the sun begin to retreat below the horizon, his paws continued to carry him along. Despite the spring, some snow still dappled the earth and the chill in the air was undeniable. A distinctly audible sigh of contentment left his lips, his head bowing as he tested the scents around him. There was little wind tonight and it made it difficult to truly know who might linger nearby. Curious, he would continue onward, aiming to direct himself to a particular cluster of pine trees. Quickly he noticed a slight movement ahead of him, and his muscles would tense instinctively as his pace slowed. "Greetings," he would call out, his voice neutral and his accent heavy as he awaited a reply.

The voice was unexpected; the form it issued from more so. Katja regarded the male with a faint wariness as her gaze took in his appearance. The height, though no greater than Laufey, had him tower over her. The bright splashes of brick-red against his otherwise monochrome pelt. But mostly, the fangs... no... tusks, that curved from his muzzle. More and more it seemed she found these strange creatures, these oddities that seemed like legends come to life. Star-spangled wolves and purples and giants and now, tusked creatures. It made her wonder what was happening in the world that would spawn so many strange things, more incredible beasts than she had seen in the whole of her life up to this point. "Heil," she returned with caution, holding her ground and moving no nearer to him, though showing no aggression to him either.

The voice that answered his own held its own sort of accent, similar in some ways yet distinctively unique in its own right. Slowly his eyes would fixate on her, her dark fur little more than a silhouette against the darkness of the clustered pines even as his eyes grew accustomed to her form in the distance. He would dare take a few more steps closer, though he wasn't nearly as wary as it seemed she was. He understood her wariness and his head would tilt to the ground in a respectful display of his neutral intentions. "Do I intrude?" he would ask plainly; it was a fine night and he had no interest in starting a fight, and he knew these wolves of Alacritia often viewed lands as possessions, quite unlike him. If he was encroaching on a fight, he was content to leave this woman be, though admittedly she had quite a unique aura and he couldn't help but be curious as to who she might be.