She was almost a year old so that meant she should be brave by now! Right? Eh, not always true, but she would try. If not for herself, but for her parents. They urged her to get out more, explore the world, only if she were safe though. Always take Hem with her or an older sibling that could protect her. Which she did every time. At her shoulder, keeping an easy pace, the midnight colored dog, Hematite, was sure to always be near. Gem didn't mind it, actually enjoyed his company since he let her do most of the talking. Gem came out here to enjoy the scenery. Autumn had fallen across Boreas and turned the maples and oaks into an array of golds and maroons. Positioning herself against a sturdy elm whose leaves had all but nearly fallen, she relaxes with a content sigh. "Boreas really is beautiful time of year," she mentions to Hem who comes to sit beside her, tongue out, panting quietly. While the morning had been chilly, the afternoon had brought about a cloudless sky and blazing sun. Gem Klein

The warnings from his sire in their first few moments of freedom always stuck in the back of his mind. Keep your sisters safe, keep your family safe. So he carefully trailed along after his sisters when they wandered off, as often as he could manage. Call him overprotective, neurotic. He worried for them. Couldn't help it. Especially his smallest sisters, like Gem. She was such a delicate creature, even as they approached their yearling stages. As his sister made herself comfortable in the meagre shade of a scraggly looking elm, he decided he would break from habit and approach. A low, playful growl escaped the gangly young male as he pounced. Those great big paws landed just shy of actually smooshing his sister, and he immediately flopped over onto his mottled flank beside her. "Gem!" he crowed, a broad and unabashed grin stretched across angular features that still clung to the vestiges of puppy fat. "I was gonna ask if you wanted to play the cloud shape game, but uh," mismatched eyes lifted for the briefest of moments towards the unblemished blue of the afternoon sky. "We'll have to think of something else." he decided instead, his mastiff companion settling down against his hip and panting in the late autumn heat. The patchwork boy grinned at his sister again, ebony dipped tail thumping lazily against the warm leaf litter. "Dagger Prince"

Her mastiff companion is quick to scramble out of the way as Aethon comes bumbling over. When he's grown, Gem is sure he'll have grace, but those too large paws sure must trip him up a lot right now! She can't help but giggle, a paw covering her two-toned lips, as he flops over onto his side and croons her name. Beside her, her tail thumps against the roots of the trees as he inquires about playing a cloud shape game. Turning her own eyes up to the sky, she laughs again with a soft shake of her head. "Appears we're out of luck," Gem mentions as she brings her gaze back down to her brother. Aethon's warm and goofy smile makes her day better though and she's pleased to have his company. "How about we," she thinks for a moment, bringing her paw back up to tap at her chin. "Do you know much about birds?" Her head cants slightly, inquisitively looking at her brother before looking up to the trees that lined the fjord behind them. She knew somewhere in those trees, birds would be roosting for the day. Staying within the shade to keep cool from the late autumn sun. Gem wonders to herself how birds knew directions so well. Her mother had taught her recently about migration after she'd asked why certain animals were around one season and then gone the next. Would she be able to direct herself through the fjord like birds did one day? It wasn't quite a difficult place to traverse, at least from her perch up along the ridge, she thought it looked simple. Its sloping sides full of rocks and bare trees narrowing down to the river below that flowed only one of two directions. Surely she couldn't get lost here, right? Gem Klein

His sister was quick to agree that there wasn't going to be any cloud shape admiring this time around, but equally quick to get to work dreaming up an alternative. He watches one pale paw come up to tap thoughtfully at her chin, and moves to mirror the action with an alabaster paw of his own. He can't help smirking to himself at the pure comedy of copying his sister while she isn't looking at him, ready to have her look back over and see him definitely not doing the exact same thing she's doing right now. Finally, she offered up an alternative, though it didn't sound like the same kind of fun game that he had planned. "Uh, lots." he lied. It was all about the confidence, and the young Klein was nothing if not blindly confident. He followed his sister's gaze up and around them, picking up exactly what she was putting down. They could search for different birds, for now. He wasn't sure how long he could maintain the facade of being a master ornithologist, but he could try. He lifted a forepaw to point at a tiny feathered critter in a tree to their left. "That's a brown-sided flysnatcher." he announced, awfully boldly for someone who had invented the name while the words were still coming out of his mouth. "Dagger Prince" pixels by squishyalpaca

Gem's gaze moves to Aethon to catch him copying her thoughtful paw against lip motion. She gasps, dropping her paw to swat at him playfully before giving him another smile and a light giggle. Her brothers sure were silly sometimes! Before she could say something about his copying, he was boldly telling her that he knew lots about birds. Both of her brows raise in question and curiosity. Since when had he become interested in wildlife? Not that she paid much attention to the animals either since her interests lie in the plants, but still! Still curious to know what Aethon would point out, Gem looks back around them and then toward the trees. For how bright and cloudless it was, it appeared the birds really didn't care to be flying around too much. Plus, how could they identify them with them all the way up there?! So her gaze settles on the trees, admiring and examining how the changing colors dictate the season and provide a new vision to the world around them. With the leaves turning gold, they would soon turn brown, which meant winter would come soon. And with winter, would come the cold and the snow. Quickly pulled from her thoughts, Aethon is pointing at a tiny bird that he calls a 'brown-sided flysnatcher'. Her brow furrows, wracking her memory of any recollection of any bird being called that. She would have to hand it to him that it did sound like a bird name, but it wasn't familiar. "Oh, are those native to the south?" Gem inquires, still quizzically looking up at the bird that roosts on the tree limb. "It's not some kind of Thrasher?" She questions, still unsure herself, but it didn't hurt to ask. Gem Klein