Broad paws left deep prints in the soft sand as the hefty young male ran at full sprint along the basin. Exodus was glad he'd come here today. The spring rains had recently flooded the normally dried up river bed and the sand was soft and dotted with small puddles, yet the clouds had long passed and the skies were clear and bright. It was a great place to go for a run - he could work his body to keep up his physical condition, and his pads would stay cool. He could easily do the same at home on the moor, but sometimes the fog got him disoriented, and he couldn't run full out like he could here. The plains were okay to run on, but they were exposed to the sun and sometimes it was just too dry and hot to run for very long. It wasn't very good for building his endurance when he had to stop running just to cool down. Besides all that, Exodus wanted to explore the territories surrounding his home. He wanted to be familiar with it all, and keep an eye out for anything that could be of benefit to Celestial, or a threat to it.

Running fast and hard, he was startled when behind a large pile of rocks was a cactus peeking out.
Not wanting to deal with pads full of thorns and bristles, Exodus took a flying leap over the rocks and cactus, landing on the other side. The wet sand dug into his pads, leaving small scrapes. He paused in his run, panting as he looked at each paw in turn. The scrapes were minor, and certainly better than paw fulls of cactus thorns, but there was still an unpleasant sting. Shrugging, he figured he could ignore it if he kept going. So, he built himself up to a trot, about to press on a little harder when he saw the frame of another wolf not too far ahead. Might as well take a break, he reasoned with himself, slowing his pace once more. He didn't mind the opportunity to meet someone new, and maybe it would give his stinging paws a chance to rest.

"Hey there!" he called out, approaching the petite female with a slight bounce to his step, lowering his head as he neared her, "What brings you out here today?" It was clear that he was out of breath, but he was actually feeling pretty good and exhilarated from his run so far. His tongue lolled out to the side as he panted, waiting to hear what she would say. Besides coming here just to explore, he couldn't see much other use for the territory. It was fairly plain, and didn't seem to hold much of use.

She had come to the desert in the hopes of finding something interesting, but all she found was sand, mud, puddles and...cactus. She had never seen cactus before today, but she had quickly found out that they hurt! The small girl limped along, thorns in her front paws and forelegs, and she had even been unlucky enough to get them stuck all over her chest and a few embedded in her nose. Did she cry when it happened? Yes. Yes she did. She would learn from now on not to go running around in the desert without looking where she was going first, and now it would be a slow and painful journey back home to get help with the thorns. As she tried to find her way back, the girl heard a voice calling out to her, it was a male she didn't know, and he had found her. He greeted her cheerfully, and despite the pain and embarrassment she felt, she couldn't help but wag her tail and offered a pained smile. "Hi stranger! I uh...I was out exploring but...now I'm on my way home...I ran into a prickly plant..." She whimpered when she finished speaking, her nose hurt when her mouth moved, and it didn't feel good at all. "Speak"

When the small woman greeted him, it quickly became apparent that something was off about her. Her smile was not full like he'd expected. Her voice was strained. As she explained her situation and what had happened to her, it became obvious to him that she was in pain.
He wasn't the best at putting two and two together, so it was only when she mentioned her run-in with the cactus that he focused in closer on her, noticing the many thorns littering her coat. His brows pulled together in a concerned manner, wondering if he could help her at all.

"Oh, you poor girl," he spoke softly, looking her over as he examined the prickly thorns, "How did you manage this? You ought to be more careful."
His tone was lightly scolding, but most of all he was just worried about her well-being. She may have been a stranger to him, but that didn't mean he couldn't care. He'd never really been in this position before - in fact, he was usually the one getting rescued - but now that he thought he might be able to help out, he was more than willing.

"Do you want me to have a look at them?" he asked gently, tilting his head as his dark ears folded back, "Maybe I can get them out. At the very least, let me help you home" He didn't know where she was from, but he wasn't just going to bid her adieu and wish her luck. He had to make sure she got home safely, either with him at her side every limping step of the way, or by taking every last thorn out of her so she could move with ease once more.

She grinned sheepishly when the male scolded her, it wasn't the first time she'd been scolded so she was fairly use to it. She wouldn't lie as to how it happened, she simply hadn't been paying attention. "Well ya see...I was just kinda runnin' around like I usually do, and the prickly plant came out of nowhere and I mighta run right into it," The way she explained nearly sounded like it was no big deal, but when she tried to smile again she winced with obvious discomfort. "Ow..." She sat down, which was a heck of a lot more comfortable for her since she could take the weight off her forepaws. She was all too eager to accept his offer of help, her tail thumped vigorously against the sand as she nodded. "Oh could you!? It's quite a ways back to Lirim, and my brothers would prolly laugh at me if they saw me like this!" She scowled a bit, oh she could imagine her brothers faces if they did see her looking like a pin cushion! "Are you a healer? It's okay if you're not, I don't think I need much healing, I just need help getting the thorns out. I tried but I kept poking my tongue and I can't reach everywhere..." He ears flattened with further embarrassment, but as embarrassed as she was, at least it was someone not from her pack that had found her instead of her brothers. Or her dad...She could already imagine the look on his face if he saw her like this too! "Speak"

Exodus listened to the female as she explained how this had occurred. He tilted his head, ears tilting back slightly as his expression of concern mixed with amusement. The way she explained herself, it sounded like this wasn't the first time she'd carelessly gotten herself into a predicament. Well, if she wasn't too terribly upset, he might as well lighten up a bit. Sometimes he was a little too serious, but he couldn't really help who he was. "Well, to be honest, I narrowly avoided a cactus myself..." he said with a chuckle, hoping to make her feel a little better about what happened.

He stepped forward when she accepted his offer to help, and began to examine all of the areas where the prickles were. They were in her face, her chest, her forelegs and even her paws. He glanced up at her from examining her paws, as she asked if he was a healer. "I'm no healer, but I've learned a thing or two from my brother; he's really good," Exodus stated, his tail waving, "This shouldn't be too hard. But it might take a while." There were a LOT of thorns, and some of them were small and difficult to see through her coat. Internally, he groaned at the tediousness of the task, but he wasn't going to let her down.

"How about I start with the paws?" he suggested, "That way it'll be comfortable to put your paws down. Don't mind me." The young man had to duck down quite far, leaning in toward a forepaw as he did his best to try to begin plucking out the thorns. He'd never really been this close to someone he didn't know, and he hoped she wouldn't feel uncomfortable. With his front teeth, he gently grasped the ends of some thorns, pulling them as carefully as possible. He was glad to pull them from her skin, and he sat up, leaning away from her for a moment to drop the thorns in the sand. Then his gaze met hers for a moment, realizing he hadn't introduced himself. "Oh, by the way, I'm Exodus Ancora," he said proudly, "I'm a Legionary in Celestial." And then he bent down again, reaching carefully for another few thorns. This was going to take a while.

Oooohhh...so that's what they were called! She had run right into a cactus! Well, now she knew to avoid them at all costs. Or at least, not get so up close and personal. She offered a sheepish grin, if only she had been lucky enough to miss the one she had run into. Oh well, you lived and you learned. He got closer to her, his voice soothing and distracting her from the pain that seemed to be pinpointing every single muscle. So she learned he wasn't a healer, which was okay. She didn't think she really needed one to get these thorns out, and she doubted she'd suddenly squirt blood out every little spot the thorns were at...and when she imagined that, she frightened herself for a quick moment before trying to hold back a giggle at the image in her head. "It's alright, I can't really go anywhere fast enough right now so I'm okay with a while," She joked, her tail lightly thumping the sand. He suggested starting with her paws, and she nodded slowly. She leaned back, stretching her forepaws out a little bit more and just enough to where it wouldn't hurt too much. She watched him work, noticing that the young male had green markings beneath his eyes. Her ears perked, clearly interested in what she was seeing. Asides from Jewell, she had never really seen anyone else with colored markings like that. It was fascinating, and the color complimented the rest of his coat quite well. Whereas Jewell, well...she was super colorful, but Kairi felt there was too much going on there. She knew it wasn't Jewell's fault that she was born that way, but perhaps she was also used to the softer, simpler colors of average looking wolves like her and her family. She sat calmly, wincing and flinching slightly as thorns were pulled from her skin. He was a fair bit taller than her, by a few inches anyway. But he was also shorter than her father, who so far, was the biggest wolf she knew. As he was bent over in close proximity, she took the opportunity to look him over--mostly because she was nosy-- and partly because she was always interested in the patterns of others and how they differed from her. She was a twin, she and her brother looked exactly the same with the only difference being their eyes. Hers were left eye yellow, right eye blue while Rory's were left eye blue, right eye yellow. Also he was big too, and now that she thought about it, he was just as big as their father. She was really focused on looking at the boy, that he surprised her when he raised himself up to look at her. She gasped in surprise, eyes growing wide as she quickly tried to avert her gaze and make it look like she hadn't just been staring at him the whole time. Her heart hammered against her chest, almost painfully hard when he introduced himself, his rank, and the pack he was from. It took her a moment to find her words, but when she did, she nearly fumbled over her words. "Mmmyy name's Kairi, uh...I'm a..." What rank was she again? She didn't think her rank was all that important...She didn't have any talents, and hadn't really found much of a calling yet. From what she remembered, her rank had something to do with creativity...the only creativity she had was her imagination, she did a lot of wandering, treasure hunting, and daydreaming...but beyond that? Nothing."I'm a Levada, from Lirim." She finally managed to look at him again when he went back to his work. She sighed quietly, why did she get to flustered all of a sudden? Maybe she needed to get out more... "Speak"

A smile lit on his face as he looked to her again, realizing she must have been looking over him for some time - her surprised reaction and flustered words were clear indication she'd been caught staring. Her reaction was so cute it had him chuckling light-heartedly, though he was quiet and perked with interest when she was finally able to stutter her name. He didn't mind at all that she'd been staring at him. Even if it was just out of curiosity, he hadn't ever really had anyone take any interest in him, and couldn't deny that he liked the attention. "Nice to meet you, Kairi," he said in a low, sincere tone. He offered her a smile before he leaned towards her face, moving to pluck the thorns from her nose and muzzle. When he pulled back, he grinned, his multi-coloured gaze seeking out hers.

By now he'd pulled out a good portion of the thorns. There was still work to be done, but he'd made a lot of progress. "How do your paws feel now?" he asked, hoping that she was beginning to feel better, and also wondering if he'd missed anything. He reached toward her chest and pulled out some of the obvious ones, then ran his sensitive nose over her coat as he searched for anything prickly that he couldn't spot visually. He felt the sting on his nose as he ran his snout over some more pricklies, and removed them quickly. He then sat up straight, looking to her face once more.
"Maybe try moving around," Exodus suggested, scooting back a bit and tilting his head as he watched her, "Some of those thorns are pretty tricky, there could still be some hiding."

He hoped not, but it was certainly possible. Exodus was a somewhat impatient creature, and attention to detail was not exactly his strongest point. It was easy for him to skim over details when he just wanted to get the end results. But in this case, he was more than willing to go back and work out anything he'd missed, not wanting to leave Kairi to deal with any discomfort on her own.

Oh Lord she felt embarrassed, which was quite unusual for her. She was almost never embarrassed, but today she was. Maybe because she was sitting in front of a new face, particularly a boy her age with interesting green markings that was really, really close to her. It took all her willpower not to giggle or move as his breath and nose occasionally tickled her. Why did she have to be such a klutz!? "Nice to meet you, Kairi," She perked up, tail lightly thumping against the sand "Yeah, me too!" She smiled back, "I mean, you that is, it's nice to meet you too!" She wanted to look away due to embarrassment, but then he leaned in towards her face and her eyes grew wide. What was he doing!? Was he...was he going to kiss her!? She had forgotten about the thorns stuck in her nose and muzzle, her eyes growing a little wider as she slowly and unnoticeably held her breath. But then she felt the thorns being plucked from her face, the girl wincing for a moment until he finished and pulled back. She sat there, practically staring into space for a second until she realized she was letting her imagination run rampant. She exhaled finally...He was just plucking thorns from her! And they just met! But still, she had never had anyone but her own family this close to her before, so it was completely new to her. Along with the constant wave of embarrassment. She turned away after he went back to work on her chest, her ears flattening against her head. Smooth one ya dork! He's gonna think you're stupid! Rolling her eyes at herself, she pouted and hoped that she could get a grip on herself, and soon! "My paws are feelin' much better!" She exclaimed, When he ran his nose over her chest in search of more thorns, she couldn't help but giggle and smile. At last, it would seem that he was done. She hoped...She wasn't sure how much longer she could sit still for him at this rate! She looked at him, listening to his suggestion. Standing up and shaking out her coat, she tested her paws on the sand. There was the faintest bit of irritation, but it was probably just sand and the feeling of where the thorns were before. Turning a circle with her tail wagging a mile a minute, she faced him and gave a huge smile. "Thanks Exodus! I feel a lot better!" "Speak"