Standing in belly high water, Angelus stared straight down into the crystal clear river. He stood perfectly still with his knees locked and his tail curled over his back. Small fish swam around his legs. They weren't shy about it either. The fish nibbled at his toes and occasionally bumped against his legs. Every once in a while a particularly frisky one would graze his belly and the boy would have to fight the urge to squirm. He steeled himself as a pair of fish darted between his legs and grazed his left armpit. Angel could not, would not, squirm. He was here to fish. The boy didn't know a whole lot about fishing, but from what he'd gathered so far he'd come to the conclusion that they wouldn't swim anywhere near him if he was moving. Because of this, he'd picked a spot to stand and then stood completely still. And wait. And waited. And for good measure he waited some more until he was certain the amount of activity around him meant that the fish had accepted him as a part of the river. Up until this point he had simply stared longingly at the passing fish, but now that he felt ready, his gaze took on an assessing edge. It was hard to pick one good fish. Most that passed just out of his reach looked perfect but greed kept him from lunging. He was under the impression that a bigger fish was sure to swim by next. After several more choice specimens swam by Angelus decided he just needed to go for it. He picked a fish and then jumped at it, his jaws flinging wide and his eyes closing as he struck water. Something grazed his tongue and immediately he slammed his jaws shut...and somehow he missed. With a snort he broke the surface and began paddling back to shore. Maybe fishing just wasn't for him. He could catch rabbits all day long though, so at least he had that going for him. Reaching the bank, the boy flopped down to let the sun dry his coat.

rio grande What was with her apparent ability to find all the biggest wolves in Alacritia? It was almost annoying. First Seraphim, then Amachi, then Seraphim's bitch of a sister, and now... this wolf. Lillie regarded the male from a distance, green eyes hard as she stared at him. She could already see the resemblance between this one and Seraphim; it was so clear they were siblings, just like Seraphim and his bitchy sister whose name she never got. She approached, warily; her body was stiff. She did not trust his seemingly relaxed appearance; the female had appeared quite friendly, gathering herbs, and that had backfired worse than she thought it would.. though truth be told, she did instigate the female. It was still the other one's fault, though; she started it. Biting her tongue to prevent herself from greeting the wet wolf rudely, she stopped several feet away, her head tipping to the side slightly. When she thought she had her tongue under control, she uttered a simple greeting, tone neutral but still wary of the wolf in front of her. "Speech"

He had half a mind to wade back out and try to catch some mudpuppies or mudbugs. Those he knew he could catch. Mud puppies didn't taste that great, but they were pretty easy to catch. Mudbugs, on the other hand, were a challenge, but they tasted really good. To get those you had to flip rocks over and, should a rock be hiding one, strike quickly and hard, and even then you stood a pretty good chance of getting pinched. Angel's head shot up as a girl's voice reached his ears. She was standing off to the side and almost out of his line of sight. To fix this the young Imperialis half crawled half slid his upper half around so that he was facing her. She was red and small, almost Rhythm small, and she seemed...off. Reserved might have been a good word for it. Actually, she kind of looked mad at him, which confused the yearling since he'd never met her before. This confusion led to a greeting that unintentionally ended in a question. "Um, hello?" Wait...was this one of those slave brats his dad had let go? How many girls were there again?

As if the boy's voice broke a dam, all the tension flooded from Lillie's body. This one wasn't hostile. Thank goodness; she really didn't want to have to deal with that again. Of course, she could also tell that her earlier tenseness was seen by the male, and her head tilted just a little bit as her head was tilted to look up at him. A warm smile graced her face. "Hi," she returned with a forming grin, nevermind the fact that she started the greeting in the first place. Then she hesitated, and she looked down at the waters, at the salmon jumping in them. She glanced at the boy again.

"Try jumping from the shore. That's what I do, and it works. Because the moment you twitch in the water, the fish are alerted. From the shore, you can move and they won't notice. But you wanna go headfirst and biting as you enter the water, or it's too late," she explained, still smiling. She made doubly sure her tone was not condescending, nor superior; just matter-of-fact. "My adoptive parents taught me it when I was younger," she added a second later, a slight sadness colouring her words. It was genuine, though manufactured; the comment was said on purpose to hopefully make the other wolf not become hostile.

"Speech"

The girl went from wary to really friendly in the blink of an eye, the sudden change in temperament catching the boy by surprise. It added to his confusion and sent his little mental hamster running in frantic circles. Was he reading into it too much? Girls were tricky. She said hi again and out of habit Angelus responded with a knee jerk, "Hey." Why? Because that's what you do when someone says hi to you. You say hi back. Apparently you say it even if it's already been said. His ears pricked forward in interest as the girl shared some tips with him. "Yeah?" he asked. "Huh." Standing farther away from the fish sounded counterproductive, but what did he know? Her explanation sounded good, it made sense, but he couldn't quite get his head around it. It sounded exactly the same as what he'd been doing except the part about being on the shore. "I'll try that next time," he said with a firm nod. "I'm a bit fished out now." You could only jump face first into the water so many times. The impact may have been worth it for a mudbug or two, but not a fish. Standing suddenly, the giant shook out his coat and then flopped down into a lazy sit. The gritty sand working its way into his fur was kind of annoying. "Name's Angelus - thanks for the tip."

A small grin formed on her face as he noted her advice, and her tail wagged happily. And, she had to admit, she snorted just a little when Angelus said he was 'fished out'. Such an amusing way to put things. In fact, she was rather liking him in general - he wasn't awkwardly staring at her wounds and not saying anything, or even asking. As if she was normal, not wounded. It was appreciated - and it was a conversation she wanted to avoid.

She nodded at the name, resisting the urge to try and say it. It seemed... interesting to say. "My name is Lillianna," she returned with her own name. "And no problem - I like helping others." She gave a sheepish smile. Based on the friendliness, she tried a question: "You're Seraphim's brother, right? You look like him." She also knew that Vana had two brothers, and one of them was Seraphim. It made sense that this be the other brother. It was also the only other thing she could think of to say.

"Speech"

Completely the greeting the way he'd heard his dad do it many times, the boy said, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Lillianna." He smiled back at her, careful to keep her gaze and not look at her wounds like he desperately wanted to do. From what he could see they were pretty gnarly looking, like she'd tangled with one hell of a beast, but he was practicing manners and whatnot, since that was important for alpha business or whatever. Surprise flashed across his face as she mentioned his brother's name. Phim had left packlands and not taken him along? Not cool! Never mind that Angel himself was currently outside the pack and he hadn't invited his brother along - that was totally different. He nodded, then said, "One of 'em, yeah. And," he said because it needed to be said, "he looks like me. I was born first." Maybe it didn't matter to anyone else, but Angelus was rather smug about being the firstborn.

Lillianna flashed a grin back - oh, she was enjoying this male's presence, as much as his brother's so far. She nodded to his words, responding with a simple statement that completed the name exchanging interaction: "Likewise." She had to laugh lightly at his surprise, a grin on her face still despite the pain of it. And one of them? There was more? How much more was there? She thought there was only two! No matter; that was not the focus - the focus was on Angelus.

She laughed again at the emphasis on first born, amusement crossing her features. "Oh? So the best of the bunch, eh?" she teased, tail wagging behind her as she did so. "You're certainly the tallest," she added dryly. Her head then tipped to the side, the smile never wavering, the tail never not moving. "Soooo... if you are first born, does that make you an heir?" She knew some packs did it that way - the firstborn child. Other packs, like Abaven, didn't have such a method. At least, she was pretty sure.

"Speech"

The best of the bunch? Heh. He grinned. "I like to think so." Although if he were being honest and not trying to be funny, he wouldn't have been able to say that. "You're certainly the tallest," she commented. That he could agree with. His height was another source of pride for him. He'd never met anyone as tall as him. Everyone in his family except his mom stood at the same height. He liked being the tallest even if only a few inches separated him from his siblings. "...does that make you an heir?" Angelus frowned thoughtfully. That was kind of a hard question. "Honestly? I don't know how my dad decided, but I'd like to think he put more thought into it than that. I mean, I am the Ultimus, that is, the Heir, but..." He shrugged and smiled again. "But yeah, I'm hoping it was more than a firstborn thing."

The scarred girl chuckled, a grin appearing on her face. Oh, this one was cocky, no doubt, but she also felt that it was in jest, as well. He did not appear, or feel like someone who would truly believe he was better than someone else, let alone his own siblings. She liked the feel she got off him, such a different one than his sister… although, she might be a bit biased about that. Just a little, after all.

She nodded slowly to his response about the heir. Ultimus, eh? It did sort of sound like it was… putting one above the others, and it was, so to speak. “It… probably was,” she replied thoughtfully. “I don’t see your father as choosing someone solely based on their birthing order. Maybe at first, but not now.” It made sense to start with the first-born, and then demote and promote as necessary for the job. After all, a wise ruler would not keep an heir just because they were firstborn; if the heir turned out not to be a good fit, they would be replaced. Angelus had not been replaced.

Her head tipped again to the side, and she regarded Angelus with a curious look. “What is it like in Imperium? What… what is the culture, the customs?” She was curious, truly, about life in other packs. Each pack was unique… and she kind of wanted to learn them all, as much as she could.

"Speech"

Lillie's questions about Imperium momentarily stalled him. Having never known anything else and not really grasping just how different other packs were, he drew a blank when it came to describing "interesting" aspects of his pack. He knew nothing else so everything about Imperium was mundane, was commonplace and ordinary and honestly, kind of boring. How could it be anything else if it was all he'd ever known? "Hm," he mused thoughtfully, his eyes momentarily rolling heavenward. "I don't have a whole lot to compare it to." At least he recognized that much. "But I think we're kind of a strict pack. My dad doesn't like soft packs or people. Says that's "coddling the weak" or something like that, so no one in the pack is allowed to be weak. Everyone's gotta be their best and they have to work together because cohesion," he could hear his father saying the word, could remember the heated rant that had filled their patrol that day, "Makes us strong and the strong thrive." In their lessons his father was fond of reminding him that the weak were meant to serve the strong. "Honor's real big in my pack and it's something everyone's expected to defend. I guess that's kind of a custom, settling disputes and defending honor with fights." His brow furrowed in thought. "Is Abaven different?" Of course he knew where she was from. Her pack scent was all over her and it was a smell he'd encountered many times with Rhythm and her niece going to and from the pack regularly.

She would listen quietly, only nodding here and there. She'd listen to the pack description; warrior-based, eh? That made sense; even a healer knew how to fight. She did agree with it, to an extent... though she had a feeling she'd have been kicked out for failing to fight against Evangeline. Cohesion, though... that was key, that was what was missing from Abaven. It made her desire it, as much as it made her be driven away from her pack. She had no desire to leave but sometimes... she found herself contemplating it.

When Angelus questioned back, she found herself already ready to answer. "Yes. In a way, especially with the honor. We are all expected to have honor. However... it is believed that honor and disputes can be settled in other ways except fighting. We are not meant to deal with conflict. It is a problem." It was clear with the whispers of Rhythm, of the fight that had happened there... and the fall out until recently. She was not around during that fall-out but the whispers had said enough. She paused here, head tilting as she thought of words to describe, and also wondering if she had said too much; she had the same problem as Angelus.

Words would come again, slowly, and she spoke once more. "Sometimes, it appears as if the pack is less family and more of a band of wolves - and sometimes it seems as if the pack is just Destruction, with outsiders being... outsiders, despite technically being pack. Abaven is supposed to be a mercenary pack. Lending members to other packs in times of need - fighters, the bulk of our pack - and receiving favors in return. There are healers, and my rank: messengers. We are meant to deliver messages between packs, make trades, complete trades." And, she would not know it yet, but also to spy. She fell silent as she realized she went a bit off topic, and realizing she didn't have much more to say.

"Speech"