Cairo felt himself glancing repeatedly at the owl that sat dozing in the oak as he worked on the armor for Lia. She was a pretty creature, the owl, and he’d found her on his way home, grounded with an injured wing. She’d had a few days to recover, and had her flight back now. She’d taken a liking to him for helping her, and he found himself with a ghostly shadow most nights, floating silently above him during patrols, dozing nearby during the majority of the day. Her eyes were different from other owls of her kind. Pale, which made her look even more ghostly. He shrugged to himself. She was useful, and had fascinating insight from the sky. And he liked her nature. His attention turned back to the carving he was working on. He was on the fourth panel, and still had several left. It had taken him the first two panels to get the rhythm and paw control down. Many hours later, he had the next two panels done. He sat back for a break, blinking and stretching and studying the design. It wasn’t perfect, but for as scrappy as Lia was, it was more than likely her use of it over the years would scar the designs anyway. Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Hear" ---- Think

The plains were quickly becoming more and more familiar to her even though they had only been here a few days so far. She had set to work learning her surroundings right away in a way that only an energetic yearling could. She was sure with a couple more days of exploring she would have the plains memorized front to back. Once that was out of the way she could get back to her lessons and training. Something about being in a new place had really kick started her drive to learn even more than it already had been. She knew that part of it was just wanting to make a good impression on her new pack mates, but she also wanted to make sure she was going to be a really helpful member of the pack too. In her exploring she came across a male that seemed to be working on a project of some sort and she was immediately curious. She moved a bit closer, peeking around a thick tree trunk to see what it was that he was so focused on. It seemed like a set of armor of some sort and she tipped her head to the side a bit as she looked over the pieces in front of him on the ground. She debated with herself over whether she should leave him be or not, but her curiosity and desire to get to know her pack mates finally won over. She slipped out from behind the nearby tree and padded closer, giving the brown, speckled man a friendly grin. "Hello!" she called cheerfully, her tail wagging gently behind her. "I saw you working over here and just thought I'd stop by to introduce myself. My family and I just joined a few days ago. I'm Elba!" "Speech"

A rustle of paws in the grass brought his eyes up from his study of the armor in progress in time to spot the girl peeking around the tree trunk. He flashed a grin at her, tail tapping the ground as she approached. She was quick to greet him and introduce herself. Ah, one of the new members, Aurielle’s cousins. “Good to meet you, Elba. I’m Cairo Adravendi, Steadfast Seeker of Valhalla. How are you liking Valhalla so far? Any plans for your ranks?” He grinned, settling back down and reaching for his tools, preparing to start the next panels, though he glanced up with a wink that encouraged her to settle in and talk. He set the sharpened claw of one bracer on the line he’d marked with a piece of charcoal, working slowly as he sliced through the hide. Each panel would be put through a process to harden them once holes were set and rivets in place, something he’d have to ask for help from the primates for. After all, this was protecting Lia’s spine. He wanted an attacker to get a nasty toothache if they tried to bite her there. Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Hear" ---- Think

Her grin grew a bit wider when he introduced himself and made her realize they were at least distantly related. Her mother and Baine had insisted that this pack was full of Adravendi family members and that was already proving to be true. Even though she went by her father's last name, she still knew about her Adravendi family well enough. When he made it clear that she was welcome to join him, she sat on her haunches across from him with her tail brushing gently against the ground behind her. "I'm liking it a lot so far! There's a lot more going on here than in our last pack so that's really exciting." There wasn't much hesitation in her answer when he asked about what rank she might want to pursue. She had listed very closely when Aurielle had explained how the ranks here worked and the idea of having something to work toward was very exciting for her. It was like a form of motivation since she would have something she could attain in the future. "I'm going to work toward being a Rescue," she replied confidently, grinning slightly at herself. "I've been learning a lot about healing from my mother and I really enjoy training in fighting so that seems perfect for me!" Since he was working on what looked like armor, she had to assume that he liked fighting as well, but she had been wrong about things that felt obvious before. Her father taught her to never assume things since things were often not what they seemed. "What about you? What are you working toward?" "Speech"

He listened with a smile as Elba chatted about how she felt about the pack so far, a grin blooming as she added that there was more going on here than in her past. That was good. He hoped to see Valhalla thrive and bustle with life, and with the planned raids with Lirim, hopefully they would gain resources enough to expand. Valhalla would some day be comparable to the Valhalla of old numbering in the seventies. He set a newly cut panel aside on the small stack, grinning as Elba went on, announcing her intent to reach Rescue. “A good goal to reach. With how the pack works, you could even be a Dauntless Rescue. It adds some responsibility for handling fight training as well as fighting and healing together.” He grinned approvingly as he bent to cut yet another panel from the hide, setting it on the stack and counting the panels he’s finished, glancing over the hide to be sure he had room for all the pieces he’d need. To her question, he winked. “Sentinel. It’s kind of promised, but only if I work hard and prove myself worthy above all for the job. If I’m lucky, and work as hard as I can, I might make it by three, at earliest. But I’m expecting not to reach it till four or five years of age.” He chuckled, then studied the hide again, cutting more panels and stacking them, before switching to the thinner areas of the hide, to be used as straps to connect the panels so that they would articulate with Lia’s movements, instead of keeping her back stiff and limiting her mobility. Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Hear" ---- Think

She grinned when Cairo made the suggestion of how she could take her goal even further if she wanted to. She liked that even when she eventually reached her main goal there would still be something else for her to work for. She knew that eventually she would reach the top of where she could go as far as positions in the pack went, but that could be years away from now so she was sure that she wouldn't have to worry about that for a very long time. There was still a lot of work she would need to do to even feel like she was a good fighter or healer, much less before she would feel comfortable teaching it to someone. Elba was pretty impressed that he felt confident enough to say that he could be Sentinel during his third year, even if he did clarify he wasn't expecting it till he was four or five. It certainly told her that he had in fact been working very hard and he knew exactly what he was wanting to do. She was glad that so many wolves here seemed to be so motivated - it helped her stay motivated as well. That was one of the reasons she liked learning from her parents and training with her sister since they all enjoyed learning so much together and it helped keep her engaged and interested in whatever it was they were learning that day. She let her green and blue gaze drift to the armor he was working on, watching as he cut pieces from his materials and began piecing them together bit by bit. It was incredibly interesting to watch him work and she started trying to pick up bits and pieces of how he was doing it while he continued. She almost wished she had been here to see him do it form beginning to end so she could see how it all worked. Maybe some other time she could ask him to show her more throughly. "Were you born here?" she asked curiously. He seemed to really know the ends and outs of the ranks and how the pack worked so she wouldn't be surprised if the answer was yes. It seemed like the kind of thing that someone would only know that well if they had grown up here or if they'd been here a long time. He didn't seem old enough to have moved here as an adult and then learned all about it with time, but she still liked to ask questions and confirm things herself. "Speech"

Steadily, strap after strap after strap was birthed from the tender parts of the hide—the edges that had been the flanks and belly and soft point just behind each elbow and along the throat. When he had enough, he switched to cutting the pieces for the pouches that would attach to the armor, for healing supplies or herb gathering, or simply somewhere to put a travelling meal. At Elba’s question, he grinned. “I was. My mother was Gwenevere Adravendi, one of my namesake’s direct descendants. Her mom was Epiphron, and Grandma Pip’s father was Cairo the first.” He arranged the armor panels in the way he intended to connect them to get an idea of how they’d look, smiling slightly in approval. Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Hear" ---- Think

Elba listened to Cairo explain a bit of his lineage and his name sake and she blinked a bit with surprise and awe. There was such a long line of wolves from here that she didn't know much about! She knew her mother was an Adravendi in some way and her grandmother Zuriel had been as well, but she wasn't sure where they all fit in to all of that. She and her sister didn't even go by Adravendi anyway, but it was still cool to know there was such a long history here for them to learn about. "Wow, that's really impressive," she replied honestly, grinning a little at the idea that she'd be able to add history to all the other things that she'd be able to study here. Her head tipped to the side a bit with thought and she glanced off into the distance as she started trying to piece together what she knew of her family tree - at least on the Adravendi side. "So Daelos is my mother and Zuriel was my grandmother and Aunt Baine was her sister... And..." she squinted a bit, trying to remember the few stories that her grandmother had gotten to tell her. Admittedly, she hadn't known her grandmother very long, but her grandmother certainly liked to tell stories and her mother shared a few here and there as well. "And Zuriel's mother was Surreal... I think that might be all of them that I know... I didn't get to learn much about them yet. I go by Kvasir though - that's my father's surname." She realized he may not really care that much about all that so she let it end with that, but still gave him a smile all the same. "Your project seems to be coming along nicely!" she said, complimenting his work as she looked it over again. "Is this for you? Or are you making it for someone else?" "Speech"