The two weeks were slowly passing and Theta had gotten fed up with being in Abaven. The same lands and the same wolves that were either too happy, too nosy, or regretfully related. There was only one wolf she had found who was even bearable. The restricted pup just had to get out of there, she wouldn’t go too far though. She knew this wasn’t what her dad would have wanted but she just couldn’t handle it anymore.

Sneaking outside of the borders felt freeing, Theta booked it until she couldn’t see or smell the pack borders. Once she was out of there she screamed as loud as her lungs could manage. She was done with life and wanted to go home to the comfort of her den, her father, and her grumpier surroundings.

Cloud had been having a ton of success with hunting as Spring went on. The herds had returned, for the most part, filling the lands with fresh young to take the places of the older generations. The old were dying of natural causes or hunted down to make room for the stronger animals that would help strengthen future generations. As usual, he decided to track down a small herd of whitetail deer that had crossed his path on more than one occasion. He was slowly whittling down the herd, taking out the old and sick but leaving the younger, stronger bucks and does alone. Cloud was mastering his hunting craft and decided to use his skills to better the prey in the lands as best he could without overdoing it. So he had recently started to do this, and right now, he was on their trail again with the intention of taking down one of the few remaining senior does...only this time, it seemed she had gotten injured which was evident by the way her tracks looked. The herd was heading towards the falls, and if he were to guess, they were going for to drink and graze the newly grown grasses by the edge of the water. He quietly stalked them, keeping the herd in his sights for as long as he could. The sound of the waterfall was close, and it didn't take long before the smell of fresh water and the roaring sound of the falls nearly drowned out his senses. The black and white male crouched down out of view as the herd approached the water to drink. From his viewpoint, he scanned them until he spotted his target. The elder doe did have a new injury, one that definitely spelled certain death for her. One of her front legs hung limply, the doe unable to put any weight on it let alone use it for any sort of support. She had broken it, but by what or how he didn't know. There was no fresh blood or predator wounds on it, so he chalked it up to her falling or getting her foot caught in something. He decided he would rest here for a little while and keep watching them. He started to close his eyes, deciding it was a good time for a quick nap since the deer would likely linger close by and rest themselves. His eyes would remain closed for no more than a few, short minutes, however, before a scream pierced the air. He jolted awake and his head rose with such speed that he swore he just about gave himself whiplash from the reaction. Gaze quickly sought out the herd, but whoever had screamed had startled them just as much as they had startled him, and they bolted away. He was quick to rise to his feet, fur prickling with frustration as he was about to follow. He took a step, and then decided against it. Instead, he uttered a sharp bark to his companion to keep watch on them while he went to find whoever had just mucked up his hunt. Heading off, it didn't take too long to find the source. And when he laid eyes on the...pup? What the hell was a pup doing out here alone? He approached with the intention of scolding it for scaring away all the prey, but as he got closer, he realized who it was. Almost instantly his frustration melted away and he hurried towards her. "Theta? What are you doing out here? Shouldn't you be with your mother?" He knew the situation. He didn't personally know Leera, nor did he know Abaven the way he used to. Had they done something that caused her to be out here on her own? "Speak"

Theta’s scream had startled some deer away but she didn’t mind. It was just as well that she go on her adventure alone. But her plans of solitude were quickly crushed by the calling of her name by a wolf she didn’t really know. She knew him by face and by name but had never really spoken to him. She knew he was supposed to be her uncle but who cared right now. He was ruining her plans, why did he care that she wasn’t where she was “supposed” to be, he wasn’t either. “Mother, Siblings, who cares! It’s too crowded and rule-y in there. I’m not going back there right now and you certainly aren’t gonna make me!”

Theta loved her family, she did, but like any family it was very easy to get into fights. She would go back but it would be on her own terms. Not some lame adults’ terms. She knew what was best for herself and she was going to stick to that idea. Right now what was best was getting some away time from her family and some time to herself where she didn’t feel like she was being watched all the time.

He frowned when she replied, but he wouldn't raise his voice nor yell at her. She was a pup, and despite her acting out and breakign the rules, she wasn't his child. But still, she was his niece. His brother's daughter. And he would do well to remember that, and so should she. "It all comes with living in a pack. There's rules, and there's boundaries. You share the lands with your packmates whether you like it or not." He watched her, preparing for a bad reaction from her, but it was true. Maybe she was just too young to understand or something. "Only rogues are the ones that don't have to listen to any rules and can go where they please. But you're not a rogue." He dropped down to her level, tucking his tail closer to him as he lied on his belly. The tag on his collar jingled slightly with the motion. Cloud's bi-colored gaze sought her own eyes as he tried to get her attention. "Look, I know you miss your father. He misses you, too. You know? You just...have to be strong for him, alright? Going out of pack lands like this might get him into trouble..." He didn't know if that was true or not. If Leera or Shaye might use this as an excuse to keep them away longer. Hell, he wasn't even sure how long they would truly be staying away. The days felt like they were dragging on way too long, and despite his not having spent any time with his brother's kids, even he missed them. Hell, Abaven was stripping away his time and opportunity to get to know them, too...and it saddened him. If there was one thing that Cloud did right, it was being around family. He didn't have children of his own, and he didn't get the chance to spend time with Ty's first litter. But maybe he could do that now. "Hey, how about we go do something, hm? You and me? I could teach you how to hunt, or whatever you want to do." He smiled and sought to nudge her cheek with his nose. "You just have to promise to be strong after I take you back. Both for yourself, and your father. Deal?" "Speak"

art by Risketch

Thetas’ angry manner would soon disappear. She knew that rules came with being a pack wolf, she just didn’t like their rules. The ones at home were much easier to deal with, she wasn’t sure she would like being a rogue. It seemed lonely and Theta didn’t care much for being all alone. Replying to his first two statements she would say “I just don’t like their rules, I don’t mind the ones at home.”

As her uncle lowered himself down she met his gaze, he verbally reminded her of her father. That’s who she was doing this for and of course she knew that. Her father was the person she had in mind when she came up here as well as all the times she wanted to burst from annoyance. She hadn’t thought that her leaving could possibly get him into trouble, for all her supposed intelligence she still didn’t think things the whole way through.

Her head hung down, Theta felt like she had been scolded. She felt bad for what she had done, but who knew how long this emotion would last. Soon she might be back to feeling cramped and ready to explode again.

At the suggestion of doing something Theta perked up a bit, maybe this escapade hadn’t been a waste after all. Her uncle went to nudge her cheek and she let him. When she inevitably had to go back she felt that she could last a little longer for having done this. “Deal, could you teach me how to fight?” She said looking at him with excited eyes. The prospect of fighting fascinated her and she had yet to receive any proper lessons. The closest she had was play fighting with her brothers, but there was a technique to it that she just didn’t know yet. “I know it might not be the best thing to do, but it’s the funnest thing I’ve done so far.”

He understood where she was coming from when she said she didn't like Abaven's rules but that she didn't mind the ones back home. "I know change isn't easy, but it won't be much longer. I promise." He felt she was too young to really understand. In time, she would learn that every pack had their rules. The only packs he had been part of was Abaven (though he had been a good boy until going beyond pack lands as a pup), and his brothers packs.

At his prompt to making a deal with her, he saw her eyes light up as she asked if he could teach her how to fight. One brow dot rose in surprise, then again he supposed he shouldn't have been all that surprised after finding out who was on the other side of his family. He had never really been formally taught, but he knew enough to pass some of the knowledge onto her. "Sure, I don't mind teaching you some of what I know!" This would be a good learning and bonding experience for the both of them!

Theta was beyond happy when she heard that her uncle was willing to teach her how to fight. When she got back to the packlands she was so going to rub this in Tytos' face. Her uncle however didn't immediately make a move to teach her anything specific so that left Theta a bit confused as to how she should respond. She didn't quite know how these teacher student things worked yet.

Her focus continued to lie on her uncle to see what his next move would be. She already had a basic grasp on defenses, but so far her experience was tussling with her siblings and the spar with that pup back at Abaven. She really didn't have much grasp on how to actually attack, her teeth were too small and her body was too weak. Of course she would work on that with time, but there wasn't much she could do about it at the moment.

Alright...he had never formally taught anyone how to fight, and he had never really been formally taught, either. But how hard could it be? While hunting was more his forte, he would give this a go. "Alright, we'll start with something easy first." He stood and stepped several paces away from her before turning to face her again. He still wasn't entirely sure how this was gonna work since she wasn't full grown yet, but he could at least give her pointers until he could do a proper lesson back home. Maybe sparring someone her own size would be a great deal better, but right now it was just him and her. "I want you to come at me as fast and as hard as you can. Think of me as an enemy right now, okay? I know I'm a lot bigger, but one day you'll be just as big. And there are also full grown wolves that are puppy sized out there, too." He smiled as he settled into a mock battle stance, teeth baring as he rolled his shoulders. That's what they'd do! He'd just pretend she was one of those midget wolves during this practice session, because chances were, she'd end up fighting wolves both bigger and smaller than her. "Alright, let's begin!

As Theta waited her uncle moved to be in front of her and told her to come at him as hard as she could. He talked a bit about size differences and adult wolves that ended up smaller, Theta didn’t care much for that part. She would grow up to be big and strong and she knew it, size was no matter to her right now.

Theta had no trouble thinking of her uncle as an enemy, she mocked the moves that he did. Baring her teeth and rolling her shoulders back. She ran at her uncle once he called to start, she went to bite his front left leg angling her head to the right. She hadn’t tried fighting any adults yet and she was glad she hadn’t, she wouldn’t be able to do the same moves on them as she did on her siblings.

She copied him, and though he was amused at the sight, he wouldn't laugh at her. This was a training opportunity, and while he was admittedly better at teaching how to hunt, he promised to help her learn to fight. He would do his best to teach her what he knew, no matter how meager his experience fighting other wolves was. Considering this was practice and pretend, he wasn't too worried about injuries. So when Theta raced towards him and aimed to bite at his front leg, He raised it up and out of the way as he sought to place it over the center of her back, though he wasn't too rough about it. Her teeth clipped his toes though, but it didn't bother him too much.

It was...weird, to say the least, doing a mock fight with someone a lot smaller, but he was confident they would both learn from this experience. "Remember, you're smaller right now, so use that to your advantage. Smaller often means faster, too. When you're against a larger opponent, it's best not to let them get a hold on you," To emphasize, Cloud lunged forward with open jaws, seeking to gently get his teeth around the back of her neck. If she was smart, she'd take his words into account and figure out how to avoid him.