Nimue huffed as she slowly made her way through the world. She was tired, beaten, and totally broken at this point. She had traveled far, but she wasn't sure for how long she'd been on the move. Her black and silver coat was mangled and matted from neglect. Nimue was sure she looked like a rabid dog; she didn't care. Paws brought her to the very edge of a mangrove swamp. She'd never seen anything like it in her travels. Her nose quivered and she sniffed around and slowly sank to her haunches. This was it, she needed to relax. Nimue was weary. Her eyes slid closed, her ears still stood at attention. Maybe just a little nap, she thought. She hadn't eaten in over a week. Thankfully her coat was thick, surprisingly, as her ribs and hips would be easily noticeable. Nimue was also what you wouldn't call a great hunter; her family was only able to teach her the very basics before she had to...run. At the thought of her family, her eyes snapped back open and surveyed the landscape before her. No sign of anyone, but she could smell that wolves had been there. Possibly, were always there. She was uncomfortable. The girl refused to lay down, even if her body told her she needed to. This was a strange land with strange smells and there was no way she would stop being alert. Who know? For as she could know, this was an awful place exactly like the one she just left. Her small heart pattered in her chest. Her anxiety was climbing at her thoughts, she knew she was being way too silly. There was no way there was a place as awful as her 'home'. Her eyes looked around again, taken in the strange new place. Was this it? Was this the right place for her and will this pack safe?

Another day, another patrol. For a while the repetitive nature of the patrols bored him, but now that he had gotten used to them they were actually relaxing. He took them as a moment to have to himself. The borders were almost always quiet anyway, making his patrols into more leisurely walks. Occasionally he would have Svet join him on these walks or anyone that wished to join him really, but today he was alone. He made his way slowly around Fiori's border and was just about done when suddenly a stranger's scent caught his attention. His ears perked with curiosity. The scent seemed far enough away that whoever it was hadn't crossed the border, but they were certainly lingering near by. He picked up his pace a bit and headed toward the stranger. Moments later a young, blank and silver woman appeared in his line of sight- but he immediately noticed that she was in rough shape. Concern was etched on his face as he approached her. Normally when he met someone new at his border he was sure to keep his posture in a way that made it obvious that he was the alpha here, but in this case he was just careful to come off as nonthreatening. If first impressions were true she looked like she had plenty of problems without worrying about him. "Hello, there. I'm Leo. Are you okay?" he asked as he came to a stop a few feet from her. "Talk" "You" Think

Her eyes snapped open. Did she close them again? Damn! She was almost losing the thread of it due to her meanderings. Her mother told her to keep moving hew paws until she couldn’t anymore, and that’s what she had done. Now, here, she was too recklessly tired. There was no way her presence would go undetected. If the scent in her nose was correct, at least. Nimue knew it was. She could hear, faintly, of someone’s approaching. Her body was telling her to flee as quickly as her little paws could take her, while in her head she had to tell herself, “NO!!” Fear creeped up inside of her, no matter how hard she tried to suppress it. Nimue had skirted around and as far away from any wolves until now. It had been months since she’d seen anyone of her species and it frankly freaked her out. She was torn into two; Nimue knew that if she didn’t get the protection and leisure of a pack she’d die soon enough. But she was still fearful of what could happen. What if this pack was a horrible place, just like her old pack? What if this wolf approaching decides she needs dispatching and kills her? She was of no condition to outrun anyone or defend herself. She’d just simply lay there and die and hope death came swiftly. She sighed heavily. For all the things her own mother told her, she knew all these thoughts were ridiculous but still couldn’t help it. It’d been a rough road up until now. She shifted her weight around but held where she was sitting. The other wolf came into view, her yellowed amber eyes keeping sight on him at all times. As the reddish wolf closed the gap, she shrank smaller and smaller, more instinctively than anything. He spoke to her; she was almost too tong-tied to speak. Nimue took a minute to compose herself so that her voice wouldn’t shake. “Ummmmm…I’ve been better. I’m Nimue.”

Leo waited patiently the the girl to speak. He didn't want to push her or scare her any more than she obviously was. He could see the fear in her face and the way her already small frame shrank down even more. He was almost positive that if she cowered any more she would just disappear into nothing. She finally spoke and a small smile curled at his lips. He nodded encouragingly and sank down onto his haunches in hopes that maybe his settling into a sitting position would make him less threatening for her. "I could've guessed that. It's nice to meet you, Nimue." He knew nothing about her, where she came from, or what had brought her here, but the point was that she needed help and she had landed on his door step. That's all he needed to know right now. He had the resources to help her and it would be selfish of him to keep them from her when she was feet away from what she obviously needed. "There is usually a much longer and more formal conversation when it comes to letting wolves into my pack, but I think we can put that off for a while. If you want to come with me I'll find you some food. Then we can talk some more." "Talk" "You" Think

Food. Nimue had the ability to completely block out the fact that her stomach was dreadfully empty. Growing up - since she was the smallest - she was always last to feed. Her mother tried to do her best to make sure she got food, especially when Nimue went into hiding the last few months in her home land. That was, at least, a grace for her, because if she had been able to feel the pain in her stomach she would be figuratively crippled by it. The last thing she had ate was a half-dead rabbit. She got lucky on that one. Her mind was quite foggy on when that had been, however. Last week? No, must've been longer than that. It iddin't matter anyway. "Are you sure?" she hesitated, not sure if he was being truly altruistic, "I wouldn't want to be a burden on you!" Her small body relaxed a little and she unwound herself a bit. She was still suspicious of him but so far he hadn't seemed to have any malicious tone in his voice, nor any evil glint in his eyes. Nimue nodded slightly, "If you're willing to do that for me, then sure, lead the way."

Leo was actually relieved to hear her agree to let him help her and to see her unwind a little bit. He smiled and gave a little shake of his head. "Non sense, you're not a burden at all. I'm thrilled to help you. Come on, I know where we can find you some food." He gave a little nod with his head in the direction he wanted to go and then turned to head back into the territory. "It's not far, I promise." They walked for maybe a minute or two till they reached one of the deeper, larger pools of water in the Mangrove. It was connected to the rest of the pools in the Mangrove by a small river and small fish were swimming around the roots of the gnarled trees. "Wait here, I'll be right back!" Since moving to Fiori all that time ago he had gotten pretty used to fishing and knew he would be able to get her a little food quickly this way. He slowly waded into the water, being careful not to move too quickly so he didn't scare away the fish. He stood still and a few minutes later he snapped up one of the fish that had dared to get too close. He repeated the process one more time and then came back to the dry patch of land that he had left Niume waiting on. He placed the fish at her paws and took a step back to shake the water out of his fur. "Here you go! I hope you don't mind fish too much. It's a pretty common part of our diet here since the Mangroves are so wet usually." "Talk" "You" Think

Nimue padded along with him; her stomach churned within her. She still felt a little anxious about this whole situation but there was nothing she could do now. Quickly they reached their new destination and she was glad. If it had been far away she probably would’ve been even more exhausted and her mind would’ve wandered more and created bad scenarios. She watched Leo as he entered the water, almost fascinated. Why hadn’t she thought of eating fish? Of course, her home land wasn’t as…watery as this place, so it hadn’t occurred to her or probably anyone in her pack to eat fish. Realizing that now, she felt a little dumb. Her mind thought back to all the streams, rivers, ponds, and lakes she had traveled near or through. Oh well; no use thinking about it now. “Oh no! Fish is fine. I have actually never had fish.” She looked down at it. She had seen fish before of course, but their taste was a mystery to her. She put a paw on the tail of one fish and started tearing into it. Wasn’t so bad, after all. She had been worried it was going to be utterly disgusting. She continued on and finished both fish quickly. Nimue sat back, licking her chops. “Thank you for everything you are doing. This is very kind of you” She felt the need to be very explicit with her thanks. Leo had no reason to take her into his pack; she was almost knocking on death’s door and would be a burden until she could get healthy. That is, if he let her in.

He chuckled and commented, "I'm not that surprised. I never really thought to eat them much myself till I moved here." Leo sat down and let her eat her food in quiet, letting his gaze drift across the area around them. He busied himself with cleaning his mismatched fore paws till she was done. To her thanks he dipped his head with a smile and replied, "You're quite welcome, but I'm really just glad I could help." "Well, now that you have a little food in you, would you mind telling me a little bit about yourself?" He wanted to assume that she needed a home and if that was the case perhaps she would like to join Fiori. But, before he invited her to join he had to satisfy is own curiosity and find out what got her to this state as well as just figuring out if she would be a good fit for his pack. From what he could gather from her so far she seemed like a good soul, but it was hard to judge from first impressions alone. "Talk" "You" Think

She squirmed on the insides at the thought of having to recount her past. She knew it was necessary to do so; that was Leo’s job. There was no way he would let her step a foot farther inside his lands unless she spilled everything out. Nimue sat back, and looked away. She didn’t know how much detail she really wanted to go into or how much he was going to want of her. She sighed deeply. “I will be honest with you; I’ll tell you as much as I can. But it’s still all painful and fresh inside of me. I can tell you that my parents were the alphas of my home pack. My father was a horrible, horrible creature. My mother was trapped in the situation as he had killed her first mate. He had been getting older and weaker, but had beautiful lands with a decent-sized pack. ” She paused, thinking of something, and continued, “I was the smallest of the litter and was not expected to live. My mother babied me most of the way, to her I was still important and useful. My brothers were all giant brutes; most of them were gentle souls. As I grew, my father turned nastier and nastier towards me until my mother and two of my brothers decided to hide me for the time being. They had all planned to retake the pack but it wasn’t so.” She looked away again, not wanting to talk anymore, but steamrolled on. “Unfortunately my father killed my two saintly brothers and my mother. I had been able to escape by the hairs of my tail. She had told me that it was a possibility and had tried to teach me everything she could the few months before it all happened. Because of this, I lack quite a bit of experience in the ways of pack-life. Her last words to me where to keep running until I couldn’t anymore…here we are. I couldn’t tell you how long ago it was. To me it feels like I’ve been traveling for years.” Another sign escaped her, she dipped her head down. This had been the most she'd talked to anymore since her mother. It was hard. Her voice was now sore and she had all those horrible feelings resurface again. However, she had to. There was no way she would survive alone.

Leo was patient and quiet while she spoke. He didn't want to interrupt her and the more she said the more he was sure that it was hard for her to talk about it. He let her finish, but he wouldn't ask any more questions. He had heard plenty. From everything she told him he could tell that she wasn't the cause for anything that happened to her, she was purely a victim of a very unfortunate set of circumstances. His heart went out to her and he wished there was more he could do. At the very least he could give her a home. "Well, as far as I'm concerned, you don't need to travel any more," he told her with a reassuring smile. "You're more than welcome to join my pack if you'd like. The only thing I ask of my pack members is that they do the best they can to give back to the pack and try to better themselves in the process. You take as much time as you need to recuperate and get better. We'll talk more about what position you would like to work in later." "Talk" "You" Think