Relm was finally happy to move down to Auster after months of living in the harshest winter across all of Ardent in the northern lands of their known continents. Since Kefka and her vacation here it was all she could dream and think about. She hated living an eternal blizzarding winter no matter how cozy Kefka tried to make their den for his daughter. Relm was starting to resent her father dearly. Though from another prospective one might have wished nothing more for their childhood. Freedom to go and do whatever you wished, a bad ass dad to back you up, and also a father who would run his legs into the ground for you. But unfortunately Relm didn’t think all of these great things made up for the bad. She was starting to see Kefka’s loose parenting as negligent, to her seeming like he didn’t care enough for her. It didn’t help he refused to be physically close to her through her entire life. And while it was a deeper emotion she knew she was missing out on, she didn’t know the extent of how it would affect her in the future. Kefka insisted they stay away from the pack nearby at the castle, but Relm loved the golden trees here. Too bad all the leaves were shriveled and dead. Still if she could choose she would pick her den here. Kefka scouted southern areas to see what would be ideal while Relm was out on her own which was normal. So she just wandered the empty trees a while before deciding she should probably venture someplace else while her favorite land was boring and dead. Walk "Talk" Think

Spending even one more minute within The Hallow's borders was beyond what he could tolerate. It seemed like his father was impossible to avoid and every where he turned - there he was. It was pretty obvious that his father was trying to spend more time with him, trying to mend things, but Ezra didn't want that. At least... he wasn't ready for that. If anything he wanted the opposite. He wanted his father to leave them again, go looking for their mother and sister, and be more absent during the day like he had been when their mother first went missing. At least when he was doing that Ezra felt like his father actually cared about their missing family members. He hated this turn that Ulric had taken with trying to focus more on him and his siblings that were left in The Hallows... They were fine obviously - his mother and Everlyse might not be.

He stalked out of the pack's claimed lands and started moving toward the most northern portion of Auster where there would usually be all sorts of trees and berry bushes if the weather hadn't taken a turn for the absolute worst. He didn't really have a plan for where he was going or why, he just wanted to get out on his own for a little bit, hopefully out of the prying eyes of his family and pack mates. Except Resin... he'd be okay if she wanted to hang around him, but of course she had a whole pack to run and take care of so he didn't expect her to take time out of her day for him all the time. He frowned as he trudged forward through the snow, Aquila soaring somewhere above him while he silently wished that Resin could have been his parent instead of his father. All of her and Tamsyn's kids seemed so much happier than him and his siblings.

While he was musing and thinking to himself, he completely missed the stranger that was near by until he was maybe a half dozen feet from the young woman who he guessed might have been about the same age as him. He blinked with surprise as he looked up once he finally noticed the unknown scent, his icy blue eyes landing on the very vibrantly colored wolf in front of him. For the most part all the wolves in The Hallows were just more natural colors like gray, black, brown, tan... There certainly wasn't any pink wolves, that was for sure. It made her stand out against the white and brown background of the dead, snow covered forest and ended up drawing him to her more out of curiosity than anything.

"Hey," he said simply as he got a bit closer, giving her a little nod of greeting. He didn't really know what to say to a stranger so he just dug up the first thing that came to mind. "Um... You should probably be careful walking around out here. There was a big group of saber cats that attacked our pack a few days ago." Was that even relevant any more? He knew they had done some patrols to make sure they had chased them all off, but it was all he could think of to say to keep himself from standing there awkwardly.

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When she was interrupted by a voice Relm would only turn the face the boy, her eyes squinted as he spoke, not really interested in greeting him back the way he had her. Relm somewhat chose to not be polite or whatever. She could have been if she wanted, but she was also pretty blunt when it came to well, anything. Kefka may have taught her otherwise but Kefka also didn’t care either. So she took things as she did, and it was always in some unique sassy way. "Sabors huh?" she questioned looking around quickly before back at the boy. "No need to worry about me. I can fight them off. I’m a big tough girl." her expression was less than happy but she was trying to pull off a joke of some sort. Her chest puffed out to her statement, confidence was definitely in her alley, but she would genuinely believe she would be safe from Sabers. She paused a moment, looking a bit troubled as she thought of Kefka and how he’d protect her. She was definitely growing out of her “I love daddy” phase, not that he would come to notice. Snapping back into reality, "So you came from that pack there? I wish I could live in the castle." Kefka and Relm had ventured the castle just before the pack moved in, and when they went to leave Auster the pack was starting to settle. It made her pretty bummed when Kefka explained they wouldn’t be able to go back. While she like the golden trees, the castle was probably her favorite place she had seen so far. Walk "Talk" Think

Sure, he was a little taken aback by the lack of pleasantries or politeness after growing up with so many wolves around him that seemed to require such things, but he didn't mind. It was kind of nice in a weird way. He was also surprised by the confidence that she showed in response to his warning, but that was kind of nice too. Besides Resin and Tamsyn most of the women he grew up around weren't fighters. In fact, nearly all of them were healers and he just assumed everyone needed protecting until told otherwise. That's how it always felt with his siblings at least - and his mother too... though he hadn't been able to protect her or keep her from disappearing.

That was a thought he tried to avoid though and thankfully the bright pink stranger took his mind off of it pretty quickly when she asked about the pack he came from and mentioned how she wanted to live in the castle. He glanced back over his shoulder at the towers of the castle that loomed behind him before giving a small shrug as he looked back in her direction. "It's... okay I guess," he muttered uncertainly. Living in the castle itself was pretty cool, but he hadn't really gotten to enjoy it because his father was there. The only place he actually enjoyed was his room now that they each had their own spaces because he could get away from everyone in there and had been able to customize it to make it his own.

"I'd let you take my place there if my father wouldn't freak out at me," he confessed with a soft scoff. He envied how she was just out here on her own - no one to bother her or nag at her all the time. "I bet you have so much more freedom out here."

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Relm found it interesting that the boy was less than happy with his situation. He guessed it was okay but Relm actually saw how it wouldn't have been that great, at least in her opinion. "I mean, minus the pack and all. I don't need all that." Her and Kefka had a very secluded life, but that didn't mean Relm was opposed to meeting strangers. She actually enjoyed it rather. It was fun learning the personalities and morals of others, everyone had a different way of thinking and feeling. The boy would mention a similar stance he felt on his father with Relm, at least something she had noted rather than want to sit down and compare their differences. They were after all strangers, they didn't even know each other's name. "Yeah dads are rough." She'd agree with an eye roll and a small grin, "But I don't like running around here by my self all the time. Gets pretty boring." Her eyes picked up and wandered the empty trees, "But don't think I'd like living in a pack either." Walk "Talk" Think

Ezra was a little surprised when the pink stranger sort of agreed and mentioned not needing the pack part of the deal. It was just nice to have someone echo his thoughts since no one else in the pack seemed to feel this way. "Yeah, exactly," he agreed with a nod. If he could just live in the castle without all the pack obligations and stuff then he'd probably like it a lot better. It was a cool place to live, he just didn't feel like he fit in at all. Except maybe around Resin. She was cool. But one wolf out of a whole pack didn't really seem like it was worth the trouble. Not that he had much of a choice - it wasn't like his father would let him leave.

Ezra returned her grin and chuckled when she rolled her eyes over how tough dads were. He could maybe understand where she was coming from with not wanting to be alone all the time, though he tended to like that better than the alternative. Maybe it was just because he could talk to Aquila whenever he wanted so he didn't feel as bored or lonely - though the eagle never talked back to him. "It's like... I'd rather just pick a couple wolves to hang out with sometimes and then just be on my own the other times, you know?" he mentioned, musing about what his perfect life situation would be like. "Then I wouldn't have to deal with my family or train all the time or take care of alpacas." He rolled his eyes at the last bit, chuckling a bit at the fact that they had to care for the wooly creatures.

"I'm Ezra, by the way," he mentioned almost absentmindedly when he realized that they had been talking this whole time without knowing each others names. At some point the black and chestnut eagle landed in one of the trees above him and started chittering at him. He looked up at his companion with a frown. "No, I'm not going back yet, Aquila. He can keep looking." He sighed and shook his head as he looked back to his new acquaintance. "Aquila warns me when my father is looking for me," he explained exasperatedly.

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As Ezra felt about her, Relm could only relate to some of what he was stating. They were living two different lives, and Relm didn't know entirely too much about pack life. She was curious, and she may have thought she would at least be able to conquer living a pack life if she needed to. But otherwise, she found herself pretty independent and able to care for herself, even without her father. She had a pretty big ego at least, save for being an Abraxas. "I'm Relm." She'd reply with ease, but she would go back to what was on her mind when he talked about the alpacas and what not, "I don't know what a family is like. I only have my dad." She didn't seem sad over the fact, it was more an interested statement. Or at least hoping he would talk more about his family since it was uncharted territory for her. Relm liked to know anything she could about others, their lives were always interesting to her. She did after all spend most of her time alone wandering around doing whatever she could find. Relm eyed crookedly at the eagle as it landed above and started chatting. Ah, it must have been like Kichi and his deer. She'd look back to Ezra as he explained, "So, what? Should we run and hide then?" She turned her body with a raised paw like she was ready to take off and find a hiding spot, a devilish grin on her maw. She wasn't opposed to helping the kid run off and avoid his father. Walk "Talk" Think

Ezra was genuinely surprised when she informed him that she didn't have a family - saying it was just her and her father. That concept was as interesting to him as him having a family was to her since everyone he knew had at least some kind of family. All the other pups in the pack he had grown up with were all one big family with Resin and Tamsyn and everyone else if they didn't live with their family currently they had some kind of story about them. They weren't always good stories, but there was some sort of family to talk about so he didn't know what it would even be like if it was just him and his father.

Before he could ask or explain anything else, Aquila's warning had her offering to run and hide with him. He grinned and laughed at the offer at first, but his expression dropped when he heard his father's voice calling out through the trees behind him. "Ezra! Ezra!" He groaned and rolled his eyes glancing back over his shoulder for a moment while Aquila chittered over his head. "You know what, maybe we should," he commented quickly as he looked back at Relm and scrambled to his paws, running off through the bushes and trees to the other side of the grove. The black and chestnut eagle took off as well with a screech, wheeling through the air before soaring off in the opposite direction to lead Ulric the wrong way.

Ezra ducked into a thick cluster of trees and bushes with Relm once he put a bit of distance between himself and his searching father. He held his breath and hunkered down to hide, giving her a glance before peeking out to look for Ulric. A couple minutes went by before he spotted the massive male trotting through the trees, seemingly following the false trail Aquila had laid for him. He watched Ulric hesitate and begin to turn toward them for a moment and Ezra quickly ducked back down into the bushes. Ulric's gaze scanned over where they were hiding but another cry from Aquila pulled his father's attention and he trotted off toward the sound. Once Ulric was out of sight, Ezra sighed and let go the breath he was holding before crawling out the brush and giving himself a good shake.

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The sound of the man after his son came from the distance, and it seemed the boy was willing to take the offer to run and hide. Relm would not object, she would after all understand the feeling, and would find amusement in that sort of task towards her own father. Relm wasn't the best hider though, and she would be surprised as the man lingered over them without spotting her. Not that he was looking for her, but a random girl hiding in the bushes? That would be a little surprising in itself. They must have chosen good brush to hide her fluorescent fur, and now she was wondering if she should invest in some kind of cloak. Her fur wasn't necessarily good for hunting trips, she was a little too big to miss on top of her bright pelt. She had never thought of it until now however. She neither saw her coloration as beautiful or ugly, that just wasn't her. They came back out of the bushes when the coast was clear, Relm gave herself a quick shake of the twigs that would have clung to her fur. "Well that was close." She chuckled a bit, them hiding had a sense of fun in it she had to admit. Maybe only because they were doing something they shouldn't have. Now she only wished for more, could they go play chicken over a cliff side? Surely that would be more fun. Walk "Talk" Think