This was a bit farther than he usually explored out on his own, but he wasn't finding what he was looking for closer to home. He wasn't exactly sure what he was looking for, but he at least knew that he hadn't found it yet. He had already been looking for ways to make it up to his father for biting him and for just being mean and avoiding him in general, but now that his father seemed to not be spending time with Aranea any more and had gone back to looking sad most of the time he was set on a mission to find something to cheer him up. He just didn't know what it could be. Maybe he could hunt something? Maybe find something to add to the training area his father was always working on? Nothing really seemed right so he just kept looking and hoping he'd know what he wanted to do when he found it.

He wandered down into the canyon carefully, his paws that still seemed slightly too large for his body gripping to the ridges of rock as he worked his way down to the stream at the bottom. The big opening in the ground felt even more impressive from the inside and as he stood at the bottom and looked up he let out an impressed "wow", his voice echoing slightly off the walls of rock. He liked the layers of rock and all of the different colors that peeked out through the ice and snow that was still coating everything. The water in the stream was frozen and made it into a winding strip of glittering ice. There wasn't really any to see here besides the canyon itself, but if he hadn't come down here to investigate then how would he ever know?

Aquila came down to land on his shoulders as he began to make his way down the canyon, passing through the sharp bend in the middle of it. He passed a cave that was carved into the side of the canyon and paused curiously, squinting his eyes as he peeked into the darkness of it. With all the snow making everything outside so bright the darkness of the cave seemed even darker than normal. "Should we go look inside?" he asked quietly, tipping his head up to look back at the eagle on his back, the avian chirping in response. He nodded and looked back to the cavern, walking inside while blinking his eyes and trying to adjust to the change in light.

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Life was full of ups and downs. Sometimes you could be on top of the world, happiness filling every waking moment. Other times the world, the gods, or whatever else you believed in... they let you know that you really had no control over anything at all. Ithaca had experienced both ends of the spectrum. She had known the purest joy. A husband. Happy little children. A wonderful home. What more could she want in life? It seemed as though her joy and happiness would never end. Perhaps she had been too sure. Too happy, if that was possible. In an instant, all of her happiness was swept away. A plague. An illness. A curse? Whatever it was, it ravaged the pack. Each and every wolf wasted away to skin and bones before eventually dying. Her family. Her husband. Her pups. One by one, they fell. Everyone but her. Somehow, she was immune. Ithaca dissolved into sorrow. She cursed her immunity. Why hadn't the gods taken her too? Was she being punished or was she being rewarded? It certainly didn't feel like a reward. The grey woman had stuck close to her home for a while, burying the dead and trying to figure out what she was going to do with the life that she had left. Weeks or months later, she decided to leave. There was nothing left for her there. That chapter of her life was done with. It was over. She needed to decide. Ithaca had always been the optimistic sort. The more she moved, the better she felt. For the rest of her days, she would carry the love and sorrow for her departed family, but they wouldn't want her to admit defeat and she didn't want to admit it either. Eventually she left the lands that her pack had claimed for generations. With each step, she worked to set her mind straight. She probably should have chosen a different direction. As far as the eye could see there was nothing but snow. It was terribly cold and without the warmth of other bodies to sleep with at night, each moment of rest was unsatisfying. As she passed through a wide canyon, Ithaca looked to the sky. Dark clouds were slowly rolling in. The promise of more snow, she thought. It would be best to find shelter and so she sought out a cave or at least a divot in the great stone wall. Eventually a cave came into view but she wasn't the first to find it. A young boy was speaking to an eagle seated on his back. A boy out here all alone? Perhaps he needed some company. Coming up beside him, the lightly striped lady looked into the cave and nodded. "Why yes, I do think we should look inside." With a wink and a friendly smile, the woman led the way into the cave. As she did so, the first heavy snowflakes began to fall. "Ithaca"

He stopped in the middle of his first step into the shadow of the cave when suddenly another figure appeared next to him, making him jump a little and blink with surprise at the smaller lady beside him. His startled response made Aquila's wings flare out to balance himself. Somehow he hadn't noticed her approach at all until she was right beside him - though to anyone besides himself it probably wasn't at all a surprise. He wasn't exactly the most perceptive of pups when he had his focus on something else. Her comment confirming that they should look inside along with the wink and smile she gave him immediately soothed his shock and he watched with something similar to amazement as she confidently led the way into the cavern.

"Um... Yeah... Yeah!" he replied, hesitant at first but slowly becoming more sure of his answer as he hurried forward to catch up to her. His companion quickly abandoned ship and took off from his back to go wait on a ridge of rock near the entrance to the cavern. Ezra easily caught up to the stranger and matched his pace to hers, already getting used to having to slow his steps a bit to match those of wolves smaller than him. Now that he was nearly a yearling he was threatening to catch up to his father in height, though he was still pretty lanky and slim in build.

"So... What's your name?" he asked as they walked and continued to try and figure out this stranger. He already quite liked her just from the way she had approached him so assuredly with so much more take charge-ness than he was used to seeing, but like... in a nice way. The interest in the cave itself had kinda gotten stolen away by his new acquaintance, but he didn't mind. A nice, pretty lady had to be way more interesting than some cave anyway, right? Suddenly realizing that he went against his manners and hadn't even introduced himself first he quickly followed up with, "Oh! I'm Ezra. Nice to meet you."

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The shock on the boys face made the woman laugh softly, her deep blue eyes crinkling at the corners. He easily fell into place beside her, eager to inspect the cave as well. The big, earthen colored boy asked her name and the fae answered in smooth, slightly spunky tones. "Ithaca Greca, my boy." He remembered to introduce himself a moment later and the lady laughed again, casting the lad a sidelong glance. "Good to meet you, Ezra." As the pair moved into the cave, they soon found out that it wasn't terribly deep and ended only a short ways back. Turning her head, Ithaca noted that they could still see the light quite clearly. "A snowstorm is coming, you know," she said conversationally before allowing a small pack to slide off of her neck and onto the ground. "Might be a good idea to wait it out in here, don't you think?" She gave her head a little tilt as she posed the question. "A little chilly though. I think we ought to have a fire. There was an old, dried tree not too far down the path. Think you could help me harvest some and bring it back here?" He looked like a strapping young boy. Surely he had strength in that leggy body of his. Leading the way out of the cave once more, Ithaca left her bag behind. She picked her way down the path and the dead tree soon came into view. It had been dead for a while and was dry as bones. Jumping up, the grey lady bit one branch and tugged downwards, snapping it off with just a few jerks. Placing the branch on the ground, she jumped up to grab another, but was a little too short. With a good natured laugh, she looked to the young man beside her. "It's a good think you're such a big guy, Ezra." "Ithaca"

Ezra found himself grinning even as Ithaca introduced herself. Her whole demeanor was so unlike anyone else he had met, but she was so incredibly charming that it was hard to not be drawn right to her. "It’s good to meet you too, miss Ithaca," he replied, his tail wagging behind him while they moved deeper into the cave. It turned out to not be a super exciting cave - it wasn’t very deep and they didn’t encounter any other animals or anything that had already made it home. It was a nice sized cave though and if they didn’t live in a literal castle he could see this being a good place to live too.

He looked back toward the way they came when she pointed out that a snow storm was coming and he could see the little shadows of the big snow flakes just beginning to fall through the light that was filtering in from outside. He certainly wasn’t surprised - it snowed almost every day these days. It wouldn’t make for a very nice walk home though. He was glad when she suggested that they might wait it out here and he looked back to her with a grin and a nod. He didn’t really want to walk through the snow storm and he wasn’t really ready to leave her yet either.

"Yeah! Definitely!" he replied enthusiastically when she asked about him helping her gather some wood for a fire. He had never been this excited for what would normally be a chore, but the way she had asked made a big difference. She wanted his help - not for him to do it. He glanced at the bag she had left on the floor before turning and following her back outside to track down that dried tree she had seen before.

He didn’t know why it surprised him when she immediately began to pull off some of the branches herself. It wasn’t like he didn’t have plenty of strong women around him back in The Hallows. Maybe it was just the fact that he had been raised with all these ideas of how he was supposed to be helping and protecting and doing everything he could for his mother and siblings. He was the “big brother” so to speak and he had kind of put it in himself to do things for them. Ithaca clearly didn’t operate that way though and it felt like a relief.

He grinned and chuckled when she commented on how it was good that he was big and he replied, "Well, I’m glad it’s useful for something!" He reached up the tree trunk then, climbing a bit with his front paws on the bark to reach the branches further up more easily. He bit and crunched through the dried wood pretty easily, his overly sharp, serrated teeth making quick work of it. Pretty soon there was a nice pile of wood beside him and he hopped down to start getting it into a neater pile so it would be easier to carry back.

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