Stolas hadn't been sure what to expect coming to the carnival with his family. His fathers had described it as a large festival where wolves of all types and walks of life could attend to have fun, and while it sounded entertaining in premise, the young lord didn't know how he felt about the massive amount of wolves and other creatures all over the place. He was usually a much more reserved child, interested in his own learning and exploration, and suddenly being surrounded by so many strangers that were bigger than him, he felt more than a little out of place. After playing a game with his sister, Stolas had asked to go somewhere quiet, and Plague had sent the boy off to a more quiet part of the carnival with one of his snow leopards to keep an eye on him.

From his resting place beneath a large oak tree, Stolas quietly nibbled on a piece of some sort of fried dough. It was tasty and sweet, and he found he quite liked it! It also afforded him some reprieve to allow himself to recharge before he tried to go into another group social event with his family. Graphite gray eyes studied all the creatures perusing the carnival, people watching off to the side while he ate his snack and quietly wondering about each wolf or other animal he saw. He came up with little scenarios in his head of who they were, what they were doing here, and other little tidbits about the lives he made up for them, entertaining himself with his little game.

Code © Skelle 2022 | Art © Fox 2022

"Speech!"
So far the carnival had been quite fun! She even played a game at one of the booths and won a prize, but the day wasn't over yet! Food was scattered around the gully on tables and similar booths. While her siblings, mother, and erathius wandered about the event, Widow would quietly sneak off to find a quick snack. A growing girl certainly needed her food, even if she hated to admit it. The journey here was long enough, so now it was time for a snack.

Her young cat rested peacefully on her back as her raven broke from the crowd to follow her towards the food stalls. Once the bird had caught wind of the meals however, it quickly flew off and landed on the middle of the table, taste testing anything it could reach. Widow shouted at the bird and rushed over, only for the bird to mockingly caw at her before flying off yet again. Widow chased after the bird then and she felt the sharp claws of her kitty friend gripping into her fur and flesh. With her eyes on the bird flying above her as it flew towards a tree to peacefully eat its snack, Widow made a fatal error and didn't watch where she was going. As the denim girl barrelled through the crowd after her thief of a bird, many moved out of her way to avoid the collision, however in the last moment she realized that she was headed straight for someone, she re-positioned to skid to a stop... however, she didn't stop until she crashed straight into him.

Stolas wasn't even aware of the commotion coming his way until it was far too late. He'd been busy watching a pair of wolves sharing a kiss after the boy had won something for the girl with a grimace at their public display of affection (as one would expect a young boy to do) and stuck his tongue out with an audible "Blegh!" Then there was a scuttling and shuffling of paws, a blur of movement to his side, and Stolas turned just in time to see a slightly older girl come rushing right towards him. There was no chance to react, no time to get out of the way. All of a sudden he was tumbling over another body in a flail of limbs with a yelp of surprise, his world spinning as he and the other pup's body went sprawling about across the ground.

The boy wound up on his back and staring up at the sky with a weight on top of him. What on earth had just happened?! A quick glance down revealed another wolf pup sprawled across him, equally as tangled up in him from their collision. "Excuse me! What's the big idea?! Get off of me!" Stolas snapped and began to kick his legs out at the girl that had crashed into him, trying to squirm his way out from beneath her. Fortunately he didn't seem to be harmed, just a bit shaken up and with a significantly greater amount of dirt and dust in his coat. But all he really wanted now was to get back on his feet so he could get a better look at who had come charging like a mad bull straight into him.

Code © Skelle 2022 | Art © Fox 2022

"Speech!"
When she had barrelled into the unsuspecting victim, she let out a squeal as they collided and landed on the ground in a haze of dirt and dust. As some of it wafted past her nose, a sneeze forced itself from her nares as the victim exclaimed at her. Collecting herself a moment later, she realized that she was in fact on top of the victim and scrambled to move.

"I'm sorry!" She exclaimed, hunkering slightly as she was used to from hiding her ever growing height. "My bird was stealing food and I was trying to stop them. They're up in that tree now." She said as her silver gaze panned upwards to the large oak tree that had been behind the slightly smaller boy and she motioned towards it with a large, dark paw. Scowling up at the bird with furrowed brows for a moment, Widow sighed and looked back to the boy.

"Are you okay?" She asked finally, the annoyance towards her bird written so clearly on her face now fading as she looked him over for signs of injury.

Fortunately, it didn't take much beyond his squirming to get the pup on top of him to scurry off, allowing Stolas to roll back to his paws and get up once more. With a quick shake and shimmy of his body, the dust and dirt fell free from his black and red galaxy of a coat, leaving him mostly cleaned off and unscathed. He had a couple scrapes on his legs, but it wasn't anything worse than he'd receive roughhousing with his siblings. Otherwise, he was wholly uninjured. The Abraxas-Destruction pup turned annoyed eyes back to the girl who was slightly taller than he was and watched while she hunkered herself over for some reason, making the boy tilt his head in confusion. She was a bizarre one, that was for sure. She apologized, offering an explanation that she was chasing her bird for stealing her food. Stolas was even more perplexed until he followed her silvery gaze up to the tree and saw the triumphant-looking bird happily munching away at something.

The girl asked if he was okay and Stolas simply looked over himself again before nodding his head. "Yeah, I think so," he replied, giving himself another little shimmy to make sure nothing hurt. His own self diagnostic complete, he looked over the girl who stood a couple inches taller than him. "Are you okay? You're not hurt, are you? You were running pretty fast." While the girl was making sure she was okay, Stolas glanced around and realized his own snack had been smushed in the trampling, leaving both pups without their food. He sighed and frowned, but was too pragmatic even at his young age to start crying over it.

"Um, would you like to go with me to get another snack? We can make sure your bird doesn't steal this one too." he offered the girl, motioning back towards the stall he'd gotten his friend dough from. He nodded to Plague's snow leopard, who began to follow alongside the boy while he started back towards the food stall. "How come you're standing like that?" asked the dark-furred pup, looking at the way the girl was hunkering herself over still. "It looks uncomfortable. Don't you wanna stand up?" Stolas wasn't put off by wolves that were taller than him. Every wolf was taller than him right now pretty much!

"Stolas Abraxas-Destruction"

Code © Skelle 2022 | Art © Fox 2022

"Speech!"
At least he was okay. She didn't know what she would do if she had hurt someone with her massive size. While she would admit it was useful to be so large in fights against her brothers, she still didn't like all the attention she got from it. Even if it wasn't directly or vocalized, she still felt the glances and the stares. She was large for a puppy of her age, larger than each of her four brothers even. When he followed up with the same question, she nodded once and responded similarly. "I'm fine, I think." He looked down at her limbs to look for signs of injury and found none besides minor scrapes but nothing to be worried about. If she were lucky, no one would even notice.

When he noticed her bird, she followed his gaze and glared at the large black raven. As it finished it's stolen snack, it let out a single caw! and swooped down from the tree to fly in a circle over the young princess. She rolled her eyes as she dipped her head to find the dark gaze of the young boy as he asked her about joining him for another snack. Her eyes found his trampled one on the ground and she frowned again. "I'd like that, actually." She sighed and turned to follow him to the table with her body somewhat crouched and her head low. When he pressed about her posture, she frowned and straightened her legs to stand at her full height, which wasn't much taller but felt like it to the young girl.

"Everyone calls me huge." She frowned and although she was starting to come to terms with it, she still didn't like talking about it any.

Stolas was surprised to find himself pleased when the girl agreed to go find replacement snacks with him. He didn't know why, given that he was usually such a solitary creature himself, but maybe it was because he didn't like the idea of any sort of injustice, and a raven getting away with stealing a snack and causing the girl to embarrass herself seemed pretty unfair to the young lad. Well, it wasn't anything they couldn't fix with a few pieces of fried dough! When he asked about her posture, the girl frowned and seemed more put off by his question than the way she was carrying herself. She straightened herself out, and although she was a couple inches taller than he was, Stolas mostly chalked that up to the girl appearing to be a little older than he was. Surely he'd grow like her if given the time, right?

When the girl explained that everyone called her huge, Stolas couldn't resist a little puppyish giggle while he looked at her again. "Huge? That seems mean. You're just a bit taller than me, so does that mean I'm huge too?" He laughed again while they walked to the fried foods vendor, flashing a little smile at his new acquaintance. "Actually, now that I think about it, I am the biggest one of my siblings, so I guess yeah, I'm huge too." He rolled his shoulders in a shrug and met the girl's silvery eyes with his own graphite gray gaze. "We can both be huge together, and then you don't have to walk like that, and nobody can say anything about it to you. And if they do, we'll just have to beat them up!" Stolas snickered in obvious jest, but there was a small smidgen of truth to his words. His father had always told him not to take any sort of bullying lying down, and he applied that ideal to looking out for others as well.

As they got to the front of the line, Stolas ordered the two pups some fresh sugared doughnuts. The snow leopard paid with some gems Plague had given Stolas to spend around the carnival, and once the food had been made, he slid one of the sweet treats over to the girl. "Watch out for ravens," he teased while he snatched up his doughnut and began making his way back to the oak tree and away from the crowds so they could have some peace and solitude. "Oh, I'm Stolas, by the way," he introduced himself from around a mouthful of fried dough. "Stolas Abraxas-Destruction, from Ashen."

"Stolas Abraxas-Destruction"

Code © Skelle 2022 | Art © Fox 2022

"Speech!"
When he snickered at her words, she wanted to disappear. Whether he meant it in jest towards her or not, it didn't feel real good to have someone else laughing about it. Even when he asked if he was huge too, it hardly helped but she feigned a small smile anyway. He kept talking, though it hardly bothered her. If he kept talking then she wouldn't be forced to answer just yet. He mentioned being the largest one of his siblings and what felt like a breath of relief came from her. Apparently she was holding her breath? At least for a moment, but it felt good to hear that at least. They met eyes and she smiled, glad that even if he was smaller than her that he was at least trying to be supportive.

The next thing he said caused her to quickly look away, her cheeks heating up as he mentioned taking on anyone that tried to bully her. It felt good to have someone on her side, especially someone her age that wasn't family. With her eyes averted and her cheeks burning, she muttered a soft thanks as they stood and waited in line. She didn't know what to say, but felt somewhat giddy inside suddenly despite the way she felt moments before.

He ordered them a fried dough snack and the snow leopard paid. Smiling at the cat and offering a nod in thanks, she carried her doughnut alongside her new friend towards the tree, laughing at his comment. There was no doubt that her raven was already eyeing the new snack from it's perch, waiting for the right time to come over and beg for a bite. She sat down at the base of the tree and took a bite of her doughnut as the boy introduced himself finally, giggling as he spoke around the mouthful and also reminding her that she hadn't introduced herself either. "I'm Widow Klein, from Habari!"