It was the furthest he had ever been from his home. He laid on his side on a sturdy rock that hung just over one of the bubbling black pits. His gaze was fixed in a deep glare as his head raised to look at the pit  the stink of burning tar having little effect on him after having gotten used to it a while ago. His mind was elsewhere; wondering if anyone in Abaven would find him all the way out there, wondering if they even noticed he was missing. He wondered how long his sisters had been missing before anyone noticed, and then he wondered how long Cloud had been gone before he noticed. His head dropped onto his forelegs with a dull ‘whup’, his burning glare now seething. Part of him almost wanted the rock to collapse under his weight. In his mind no one cared for him. Cloud didn’t care about him enough to stay, Vali didn’t care that he was surely more qualified to be Primo than Sparrow,  Sparrow didn’t care that unlike her he wanted to be Primo, Pyr didn’t care enough to stay and train him, and Bass…Bass never cared about him in the first place. Of that he was sure. He irritably knocked a stone off the rock with the back of his paw and watched it stick to the surface before slowly beginning to sink. He hated all of them. Hated Abaven. Hated Bass. Even hated Cloud. He hated them…and yet missed them all terribly. Speaking  Thinking  You

It hadn't been terribly hard to sneak away after her brother's meeting. She was rather upset that Mother hadn't told her she was leaving, but she supposed it was because she hadn't really been around much. She liked being out and about way more than she enjoyed being confined within the pack borders, and had even managed to travel far away. The place she had come to was strange and it smelled wretched. Something about the place made her want to go home, or just away in general. But, that was the part that thrilled her most.

It wasn't long before she spotted another wolf nearby, and despite her mother's warnings ringing in her ears, she marched her way up to him and smiled. Her russet tail waved behind her and she held a bright and friendly expression on her cream masked face. "Hi there! You look a little upset, would you like help cheering up?" She sat not far away and watched him for any signs of aggression, she hoped he would be relatively friendly, anyway.

He looked at her with the same glare he had previously had fixed on the tar pit and snorted. “No. Get lost.” He said gruffly before turning his head away to resume brooding. In truth being alone was the last thing he wanted but he was far too stubborn and full of his own angst to say so. He raised his head to glance over his shoulder to see if the girl was still there and then looked away quickly hopefully before she noticed. He kept his back turned toward her for a moment, feeling her eyes on him and picturing her stupid- happy expression. He let silence fill the space between them rather than tell her again to leave knowing full well that if she didn’t insist on staying he would call her back. He glanced at her again, this time trying to get a good look at her. She was pretty he supposed, not as pretty as the girl that had just joined Abaven but still. His heart clenched as he thought of Aranea and instantly a wave of guilt fell over him. He had liked her from the start, particularly because she had defended him when Sparrow had seen fit to treat him like a child. He’d abandoned her the same way Cloud had abandoned him, and it made him feel terrible. Speaking  Thinking  You

He turned that glare on her and she felt her red flag raise above her hips and her brow twitch up, it was all clearly subconscious movement and was quickly erased from her as he spoke. In response to her question, he retorted with a gruff, No. Get lost. The statement made her grin rather than any normal reaction, she supposed. Watching him turn back to the tarpit he was staring at, she let loose a giggle when he looked over at her again soon after. "Pretty sure I am already lost...sooo...too bad, you're stuck with me." She came closer, and sat by him. In an attempt to brighten him up a little, she turned a particularly grumpy stare at the tarpit he was staring at. The expression seemed hilariously misplaced on her masked face, but she kept her brows furrowed and her ears tilted forward. "I took off from home...My mom is gone, and apparently she thought my brother would be best to leave in charge. It's okay I guess, but she didn't even tell me she was leaving...So, here I am!" She looked at him without her previous grump, showing an amazing capacity for compartmentalizing her issues. She wondered what was eating at this boy, what could have him glaring at a pit of death as if it owed him something?

"Jaidah." ~ Walk. ~ Think.

CHARACTER & HTML © BIRD - LINEART © SHARAIZA

He tried to ignore the girl at first and turned away when she turned her- admittedly funny- glower toward the tar pit, but once she spoke he turned back to face her, his eyes wide in astonishment. He settled once she finished and thumped his tail against the rock pensively. “I left my home too.” He said. “The leader of my home pack left without telling anyone and someone else took over. he said knowing full well that he made Vali sound like a usurper. “I was supposed to take over after him but he never told anyone, now his stupid daughter is taking over in the Fall.” His voice grew into truculent growl as he spoke, his lip raising to show his teeth. He turned his narrowing glare to the tar pit, fury building behind his eyes. “It was supposed to be me! And now I’m supposed to be some stupid-“ He didn’t finish his sentence. He swatted a rock furiously with his large paws sending it flying before it landed with a dull ‘plop’ just short of the other end of the pit.  He rose and turned sharply, striding down the rock fuming and on the verge of tears. Speech Thought

Listening to what the boy had to say, Jaidah tilted her painted head. If someone had stepped up to help him, as the pack had done with Rory, things would have been different. But, this was the first contact with someone who was not related to Lirim in any way. She wasn't sure how other packs operated, but there was an idea forming in her mind. Watching the rock he had swatted as it sank beneath the inky surface of the tar pit. Looking back to the male with her fire and ice gaze, she watched him for a moment, debating whether or not to just let the grump go. Standing, Jaidah moved her cream colored paws and tagged along, her bright voice ringing out calmly. "Hey, I have an idea! You and I could practice fighting until you feel ready to take your home back! They can't just do that to you! I need to get better at it anyway, and...well, I can't help but feel you might need it too, with all this frustration and betrayal stuff..." Trailing off, Jaidah watched him to see if his spirits brightened any, he seemed really hurt and she wanted nothing more than to just hold him. It was weird considering they had just met, but no one deserved to be looked over like that.

He paused, thinking it over in his head. If he ever hoped to take what as rightfully his he would need to be prepared to fight. He highly suspected Sparrow would be too much of a coward to fight him one on one which meant she would ask her idiot brother to fight for her. Lark was larger than he was and had considerably more fighting experience. He looked over his shoulder at her, weighing his options. She wouldn’t be as skilled as Lark especially not when she was so much younger but he had no fighting experience to speak of whatsoever. “Alright.” He said firmly, turning broadside to face her. “But you start, I’ve never done this before.” He said, more than a little embarrassed to admit that for all his bravado he had never so much as growled at another wolf. Bass of course had been too useless to tell him anything about defenses or attacking but hopefully the girl would be a patient teacher. "Talk"  Thought "You"