Whether you preferred the word whimsical or distractible, there was little argument to be had over the fact that Asha pretty much just did whatever she wanted. What she wanted on that particular morning was to meander. Perhaps around the eastern lands. Perhaaps towards the border of one pack in particular. Perhaaaaps in the hopes of bumping into one specific wolf. Perhaps. Unfortunately for her, she was not lucky enough to catch any scent of her out and about, so logic led Asha to assume she was tucked away inside Abaven's borders. Inconvenient. Asha sat a pace back from the borderline and frowned. The Abraxas in her had half a mind to pay the border no heed and go fetch Cael on her own, but that would probably end in a fight. Malleus would chew her ass off if she instigated some bullshit for no good reason. Well to her it was a good enough reason, but she figured he might disagree. Stirring shit was typically a top priority, so on any other day it would have been a no brainer but today... Well. She huffed and grumbled. It was Cael's fault for being so damn amusing, anyways. It was rare enough that Asharya found another wolf not only as prone to mischief as she was, but also willing and able to put up with her bullshit. Asha wasn't always easy to get along with, but Caelestis held her own, always giving as good as she got. Against everything but bees, at least. It felt lame to ask permission for anything. It chafed at her, far more accustomed to taking what she wanted and pissing on borderlines after for good measure. But if she had anything to do about it this wouldn't be the last time she came calling, so might as well grease the way for herself from here on out. After grumbling out a few choice curses under her breath, she tipped her head back and let out a low howl. It was for Cael, mostly, and pretty quiet at that. She hoped the younger shewolf would hear it and come quickly, but any alpha worth their salt would probably heed it as well. Her cousin Archon had ruled here briefly, but since returning it to the control of the mortals she had no idea who was running the pack now. Hopefully they were chill with Asha temporarily stealing one of their members. She would probably return her eventually, so what was the big deal? This was stupid, she should have just waltzed in, grabbed Cael and split. Oh well, too late now. "Talk" "You" Think

ART BY HAGON <3

The call was so quiet, she wouldn’t have heard it if she hadn’t already been nearby. Her ears perked up, and her expression fell into one of quizzical contemplation. Who howled at the border, but did so just so as through they didn’t want to be heard. She considered calling Rhyme for back up, but decided against it for the moment. She would just go see what this was about… She made her way to the border after only a few moments, the path between them had been short, which was how she had heard the howl in the first place. She would see a wolf at the borders who was brightly lit in color, with eyes so blue they could have been the sea. There was something about her posture that stuck Shaye as being sneaky, and the Alpha would approach without delay. “This is the border of Abaven, and I am Shaye, the Alpha here.” she would be quick to set that in place as she regarded this wolf with curiosity. “Who did you call for at my border?” that part she had missed, and she hoped this wolf hadn’t been looking for Archon, the wolves that came here for him had been nothing but trouble for Shaye. Or maybe that was just her dislike of the Abraxas. "Talk" "You" Think

Sulking had sorta been her thing lately. Well, okay, mourning, but that sort of verbiage was depressing and Cael was working to be less sad, not more sad, so sulking was better. She'd known her parents were old but... having them both pass was heartbreaking and she had not been at all prepared for it. Suddenly, she had no family left. Well, according to her mom she had a couple sisters floating around out there as loners but... they barely even counted. Definitely didn't help since she had almost no friends in the pack, which meant when she was here she always felt bored or sad and it was pretty terrible.

Today she'd even skipped running, and was just laying in front of her den on her back, staring up at the sky mournfully when a quiet call hit her ears and for a moment her chest seized in momentary panic. The last quiet call she heard had been from her father, who'd... well, this wasn't Zephyr, or a pack member... it was Asha?

Rolling to a standing position, she tried to digest this information. What- why was she here? A flicker of a smile played at her lips when she recalled their last encounter. Was Asharya here for more fun? Hey, that was something Caelestis could get behind. Striking off towards the border, tail swinging in a soft wag and ears perked upright for once, she felt a little eager as she arrived, and promptly swallowed that excitement in favor of trepidation when she saw that Shaye had found Asha first. Catching the tail end of Shaye's question, Cael zipped forward and planted herself at Asharya's side. "Me! She was calling me!" the young woman exclaimed, hoping Shaye wasn't intending to give them a hard time and that Asharya hadn't had a chance to act like the trouble maker Caelestis knew her to be before she arrived on the scene.

"I, uhm, well, we met a while ago when I was out exploring an island, and uh," where exacctly did she go wit this? It wasn't like Cael could really vouch for Asharya since she barely knew her but... mostly the common sense part of her brain was being smothered by the return of the overwhelming delight she felt knowing that Asharya had liked hanging out with her so much that she wanted to do it again. Were, uh, were her cheeks getting warm?

Asha waited impatiently at the border, grumbling to herself about the whole business. She was not accustomed to asking permission for things. Asking permission was for those who didn't have a plan that would follow the word 'No.' Fighting her way through a border patrol just to ask Cael if she wanted to find something amusing to do with an otherwise boring day did not sound like a fun way to spice things up. Plus, odds seemed good the mortal shewolf would be kinda pissed if Asha took to chewing on her packmates. Whatever, it didn't even matter because before Asha could make up her mind a bad situation rapidly got worse. The brush rustled and Asha turned, hoping to find Caelestis or at least some border scout there to tell her off. Either of those situations would have been perfectly manageable. But no, the damn Alpha of Abaven had deigned to join her. Asha's face fell in a mixture of shock and disappointment, but she scrambled to recover as quick as she could. But fuck first impressions anyways, right? "Er, hey there. Right. Hi. I'm Asha, I was just-" And of course. Of course. That would be the moment Cael appeared. She zipped past Shaye and planted herself at Asha's side, on the free land beyond Abaven's border, loudly confirming that Asha had indeed been looking for her. A bit of strain left Asha in the form of a huff. She leaned sideways towards Cael and mumbled in her ear, "Couldn't have been five minutes quicker, hm?" At least the expression on her face was funny. She filed that away later for teasing. Asharya turned back to Shaye, desperate to get out of there before her big mouth got her into trouble. "Yup! Islands are great, right Cael? Minus the bees, anyways. Sooo let's go find some more. Islands, that is. As soon as possible." She figured things were sort of tense between the Abraxas and Abaven, so the sooner she split the better. She was pretty sure she'd never seen Shaye before in her life, but if the woman had crossed paths with her as a pup, well... Asha doubted there were many wolves she could be mistaken for. In Asha's mind, she was totally playing it cool. Not even the tiny voice in the back of her mind thought she was being even the slightest bit fishy. She just really wanted to bounce, thats all. Spending the day with Cael sounded great, why did it have to be balanced out like this? She hardeyed Cael, silently urging her to split ASAP. Spirits, why did this feel so awkward? Besides the whole business with her family, she really had hoped to be able to sneak Cael away without anyone being the wiser. Asha resolved that they had to work out a better system than this, if only she could escape this impromptu meeting sans shovel talk. "Talk" "You" Think

ART BY HAGON <3

The wolf reacted strongly to her presence, and she could see that she was disappointed that Shaye had turned up. Strange, considering she had called at her borders. To Shaye, it seemed further evidence that this wolf was after Archon, but before Shaye could say anything a form burst through and flew across to the rogue side of the border. That was Cael, and she was saying that this ‘Asha’ had called for her. Right, but the two of them looked shockingly guilty, especially the stranger. She narrowed her eyes, though she could see no reason why she would protest. This wolf wasn’t asking to cross her borders, and she did not decide who her pack members could or could not spend time with. Still… “Alright then.” she said, in response to their oddness. “Cael, if you need me, just howl, ok? I’ll be keeping an ear out for you.” she was looking at Asha when she said it, the words a warning. It was fine if Cael wanted to spend time with this fishy stranger, but the second she threatened or worried her member? Well, then she would have the might of Abaven to contend with. Shaye looked out for her own, that was set in stone and would never change. It was a fine line to work, not putting her nose in the business of her members, well also ensuring they were safe and well. She wondered where she could look to get more information on this Asha, to understand who her young member was spending time with…. “What did you say your last name was again?” she asked Asha, knowing full well the woman hadn’t given this information to her. Still, Shaye made it clear she wasn’t going to stop them, even taking a step back, her eyes on Cael, the promise of protection in the deep blues of the Alpha’s eyes. "Talk" "You" Think

Haaa, oh hell they were acting wayy too weird. Shaye was definitely picking up on it too, which made Cael feel weirder. Was her face looking as weird as she felt? Why did she even feel weird? Not like they were doing anything wrong, she was just going to go hang out with her, uh, acquaintance? They weren't really exactly 'friends' yet. Giving Shaye her best attempt at a super confident and very not suspicious or weird smile, Cael nodded and silently wished for death. "Absolutely, will do, but I'll be fine, no worries." 'holy shit why are you so weird, Cael?'

But of course the second she thought she was free and clear Shaye asked another question and suddenly her attention was back on Asha as she waited for the other girl's response so they could duck out of there already. It might be up to Asha to create the opening to leave, clearly Caelestis was useless here.

Being caught off guard was a weird experience. Asha was normally pretty good at rolling with the punches, but to have her day of chaos and perhaps a wee bit of lawlessness start out face-to-face with Abaven's alpha really did a number on her mojo. Plus, despite the fact that in all reality there wasn't much to be embarrassed about, she couldn't help but feel a bit flushed at being discovered. All thanks to Cael's poor timing. There was some potential here for a running gag about her just being the slow one, especially after the race that had decided their first meeting. Asha figured that would irk the other shewolf and filed it away for later. She forced herself to refocus. Okay, yeah, Shaye was definitely suspicious of something. Asha actually did figure that it was probably because she and Caelestis were acting weird as hell, but it still didn't help her budding anxiety at all. She coughed nervously, about to reply that Cael was right, they were going to get up to no mischief whatsoever that would ever need Cael's leader trailing after them in suspicion. Nope. Not even one bit. But before she could get the words out, Shaye hammered home the final blow. "What did you say your last name was again?” Shit. Whellp. Asha's mind went from running a mile a minute into overdrive. She knew that her cousin had ruled here briefly and returned power to the pack's old ruling family. The specifics were foggy beyond that. The only thing she really had to go on was her family's tendency to inspire... mixed feelings.. in those that they encounter. She had been gone for a long time, so who was she to say. Despite that worry that she might be about to get herself into a fight, she was proud of both her family and their legacy. Omitting a detail was one thing but she couldn't bring herself to lie about it. She sighed. "Asharya Abraxas. Malleus' cousin. I heard that my family and your pack have a history, but I'm just here to see if Cael wanted to go... Well, I really don't know, actually." She turned to Caelestis, bordering anxious but doing her best to smother that particularly loathsome emotion. "I passed some boar rooting for acorns on my way here. Figured we'd go piss one off or something." It really was the best she had, but it honestly sounded fun to her. Hopefully that would be enough to satisfy Shaye (though maybe the alpha had been right to offer help on standby... just in case...) and Cael wouldn't have an issue and they'd all go about their merry day. Hopefully. "Talk" "You" Think

ART BY HAGON <3

Cael was very quick to respond, promising that she would. Shaye had a feeling she wouldn’t be, but at least she knew. she knew she wasn’t alone, and that back up was only a howl away. The girl had had a rough time of it lately, and Shaye wouldn’t fault her for making a friend. In fact, she was certain the girl needed it. She seemed bouncy and strange, lost in the joy of whatever this was. So long as Cael was safe, and happy, Shaye approved of it. Of course, the girl would give her last name, and Shaye would be forced to completely hide her sigh. She also promised she was just here to see Cael, nothing to do with the histories of the pack. Her coat didn’t smell much like pack scent either, so the girl was likely a rogue. “Alright then, have fun girls. And Asharya? Your welcome to visit her in Abaven, too, just give me a howl to let me know your crossing. Bye Cael, be safe.” Shaye said, giving her tail a soft wag behind her, but she was already letting herself get lost in her thoughts. Abraxas wolves again. But, in truth, the pack needed to get use to the name, to think it without fear or anger. Maybe this was a good thing. Shaye would treat it as such, refusing to allow herself to grow prejudice towards a name. "Talk" "You" Think