Seth trotted - well, hopped - along without even a faint attempt at obtaining that effortless glide that most wolves traveled with. He couldn't do it, he'd never been able to, and he wasn't going embarrass himself pretending otherwise. He had taken the opportunity provided by Amon's command to explore as a temporary reprieve from his... beloved... aunt's further attentions. It certainly wouldn't hurt to keep his head down for a time anyway, with Amon already irritated at Anamalech's fool of a child and Seth the easiest target of his anger.

His head twisted slightly and his awkward steps slowed as an oversweet scent assaulted his nose. Berries, but even better, a cache of berries that some enterprising creature had sought to store away at the end of the southern continent's autumn several months ago that had been fermenting away ever since. Excellent.

His nose led him to the cache heaped in an extremely primitive container of a slab of bark. Grasping the edge he dragged it to a clearing in the bushes and brambles. Eventually the surrounding area would be covered in berries and most likely bears as well, he knew, but right now it was all flowers and the most threatening thing to be found were the clever little bees buzzing everywhere.

Carefully tucking his stunted limbs beneath him, the dwarf settled in to enjoy the fermented berries and let them work their magic. He wished he could find a more reliable source for the elixir than simply stumbling upon them in the woods, but it is what it is. Closing his eyes, he savored the taste of what had once been raspberries caressing his tongue.

Well, that was an interesting turn of events. But at least he was free. No matter what, he was free. No matter what, Gryphon would still be his brother. And he was free. It was relieving, it was... it gave hiim something else to look forward to. What, he didn't know. He didn't really know what to do with his life. He was three years old, and yet hadn't really done anything. Hadn't really met anyone. He still didn't want to spend time with a lot of wolves. It just... didn't interest him. And yet, at the same time, he wanted some interaction with others. It was weird. And yet, it was so ingrained in him to avoid others, to be alone.. maybe that was why?

He shrugged it off. It didn't matter - he was free. It still hurt. It still stung. Everything that happened that day stung, as much as it bothered Lykos to admit it. It was... almost a weakness, to have that breakdown of emotion. And yet, it did indeed make him feel something. Not as much as actually being free of the chains of his family, though.

Parts of him still wished it never happened. That Imperium never fell. That he trained, learned, interacted, and had his family - his true family, the one he chose - around him. He actually wanted that again, but wasn't quite certain on how to make it pass. Or... if he even wanted to try. Be done with packs for a while, though in a way he'd been done the past year.

He paused when a weird scent hit his nostrils. It was a scent... of a wolf, but also of something that was... sweet? It was so sweet it made him wrinkle his nose and pause. It was actually... fruit? His ears perked as he swung his head around, searching for the source. He'd not smelled something like that since he was a few months old, in Imperium. He wasn't interested in eating them or anything - why would one do that? - but he was interested to see the source. It was so hot and dry here, and he'd figure that any fruits would have gone bad already.

As he traced his nose to it - with the wolf's scent also getting steadily stronger - he encountered a... pup? He blinked at the image before him, with the small wolf munching away at the berries. It wasn't a pup, and yet it was the size of a pup. He'd never seen a wolf so small before; he was pretty sure he was that size at a few months old. Of course, he was larger than most other wolves. This one seemed... shorter than most others.

"Greetings," he rumbled after a couple of seconds of observing the situation. Eh, guy was short. It was weird. He was really tall. For some, that was weird. He'd roll with it; short wolves could be equally as useful.

ooc: jumping in! sorry phenex is an ass haha Phenex moved effortlessly through the land. His gait was smooth and his steps measured. His legs held not the elegant length of others but a strong stoutness that carried him forward with ease. His dark paws blended in well with the fertile ground that he moved over. He was following a scent, one he had caught a whiff of at the Abraxas meeting place. Phenex had been hours short of actually making it to the meeting, though he had travelled for nearly a day nonstop when he felt Amon’s call. After he met with Amon that night Phenex investigated the meeting place, finding both familiar scents and not. One in particular was curious - a new scent attached a strange gate. He had tracked those paws through the sand for awhile, trying to make sense of what made it lope so oddly. Was this wolf injured? Surely not. If he was so injured then he would have been eliminated. Abraxas either worked through their injuries or died, there was no in-between. A healed injury then? That would make more sense. Their demigod blood made them more resistant than others. Maybe this male was stronger than Phenex himself, if he had survived through an injury that had left him so disfigured. Phenex’s curiosity burned hotly. It was what propelled him even now - not the sweet smell of berries or the new scent of a non-Abraxas. When he finally rounded a large bush and laid green eyes upon the pair he did a double take. His nostrils flared to check which wolf was which, which had Abraxas blood and which did not. As Phenex identified which was family and which was not he felt his lips curl. That was family? That monstrosity? That deformed frame had come from their demigod lines?! What terrible blood had one of his relatives mated with to create that, and why had it not been euthanized as soon as it left the womb. Even his nightmares had not dreamed up something as horrible as this. Phenex and this relative may share a similar coat pallet - their eyes were even mirrors of each other - but Phenex still felt revolted. With a blank face and a mildly haughty air Phenex also stepped forward. His eyes did not dart towards the non-Abraxas’ but kept to those eyes that looked so like his own. ”Greetings indeed,” he said, ”Fellow Abraxas’, I am Phenex, brother of Amon.” Phenex’s eyes raked down the other’s frame, lingering on the stopped and weak back, ”From whose loins did you emerge, deformed one?” Phenex never had well developed social skills and had an abrasive tendency to forgo any filters between his brain and his mouth.

By the time Seth was beginning to feel pleasantly distant from himself, his consumption was slowed by the appearance of not one, but two figures, the first close in height to the larger of Seth's family members, and the second rather smaller though still tall enough to loom over Seth himself. Seth watched them over his bowl of fermented fruit, his eyes half closed yet glittering. Not drunk enough to lend slackness to his face or give his eyes a glassy appearance, he had had enough to feel rather removed from the whole affair, and his dwarven body was relaxed as he regarded them both rather indolently.

"Good morning," he allowed after a moment of thought. "Need we be so formal? Come, sit. Don't make me crane my neck so just to look at you." He took another mouthful of berries and crushed them slowly against the roof of his mouth. Blissful. "I'm not certain you should be speaking of my mother's loins, as it were, but as to that she was Asura Abraxas, and she died for the sin of birthing me so you needn't look so put out over it." His smile may have been self-deprecating, but the false self-deprecation was hollow and brittle behind that smile, safely cushioned by the soporific effect of the alcohol to feel rather less than usual.

Eyes of soft new-leaf green rolled to the taller, older, and darker stranger in curiosity only partly feigned. "But you are no Abraxas. No cousin of mine, I'm certain of it. What name shall we call you then?"