Avantika hadn't seen her best friend in a while. He'd been in a coma, and she'd been lost in her work as always. But she missed talking to him. She remembered his relentless enthusiasm fondly. He'd grown angry after Resin's death, but so had everyone. There was a time she'd thought that little naive Rudy'd never grow up. Had he?

They had stuff to talk about, too. The good and the bad. A big part of the good was Audra, but there was also her promotion to Templar and the way that Art had talked about her recently. He'd know how much that meant to her. The bad was mostly related to Chimera. She could tell him about what that man had said to her. She could trust him.

She wanted to tell him everything. It was a rare impulse for her, but hey, Rudy was a rare kind of person.

She wandered about the castle, trying to find him.

"Speech"

Rudy was relatively close to his room, looking up beyond to the night sky.  The last few nights had left him restless, dreams that he could never retain more than the faintest memories undoubtedly waking him up at some point.  Eventually, he would go back to sleep but it took time and left his mind wandering at points in the day.  Familiar scents, almost seen faces but never quite enough to tell who.  Just bits and pieces to give his mind something to try and grasp with no success.

The large moon held its own secrets.  Something about it that called all the strangeness upon the land.  How Rudy hoped to see some of the things he’d heard talked about.  His eyes moved away from the moon as he spotted movement, “Hey, Tika,” he called out on spotting his adopted sister, “haven’t seen much of you lately.” Getting up he would move to close the distance between them, tail wagging in friendly greeting.

“How have you been doing?” How had she been doing?  He should have gone to see her more recently after waking from his coma.  A number of bad things had happened to family so why hadn’t he checked on her?  Someone would have told him if there had been a problem though, right?

Rudyard Carpathius

It took an embarrassingly long amount of time to remember to check Rudy's room. It was the first place she should have looked, instead of the... thousandth? It felt like that, anyway. She wasn't always the sharpest tooth in the wolf's mouth.

But she did, eventually, and voila! She found him, hanging around nearby. He was looking out at the night sky. She couldn't be sure it was really night, though. It was always dark now, so she just tried to sleep on a similar schedule to everyone else. She'd stuck to her routine more than she'd expected. But she liked it.

He called out and greeted her, wagging his tail. She couldn't help but smile a little wider. "It's been too long," she agreed. "I've been well. What about you?" No need to go into the details of all of the things she wanted to tell him yet. There'd be time for that.

"Speech"

“Getting stronger,” Rudy responded with a typical amount of positive attitude she might have once been used to.  “I think I’ll try hunting again soon.  I don’t think I can handle large game yet, but I think I can run long enough for simple things.” The coma had been too long, it had deprived him of the strength of a healthy well-muscled body.  The boy was hard-headed enough not to die from a tree and bear skull crushing into it, but the body still demanded food and exercise.

“Soon I’ll be in better shape for more serious training.  I have to get stronger as soon as possible.” Some point he and Art would go hunt down Oxx.  That wolf had to pay for his many sins to Rudy’s family.  Likely he had other wrongs to atone for considering his personality but that wasn’t Rudy’s concern now.  The wolf was a demon, a demon from their family line and it was their job to kill it. “I’ve been feeling so useless ya know?  Not hunting, not patrolling or even a hard day’s training.  So, feels good to know it's getting better.”

The boy gave Tika a grin, “Maybe next time I go on a patrol it should be with a sister, huh?” He had been going hunting at the time but it could have just as easily been a patrol.  Mostly it was just an offer for them to spend some time doing something together.  “I heard Gwyn saw a glowing rabbit.  I haven’t seen that yet but I’m sure hoping too.”

Rudyard Carpathius

Avantika was glad that Rudyard was getting stronger. A stubborn boy like him couldn't be kept down for long. It seemed silly to believe anything like that now, even for a second. He talked about trying to get in shape for serious training and that he needed to get stronger. He explained himself as feeling useless since he couldn't hunt or patrol or train for so long, but she had the faint impression that there was something else going on. Maybe it was nothing, but... "Good. But you better bring me along if you're going on any stupid adventures too soon," she teased. "I'm your older sister, after all." She had to protect everyone, but definitely Rudy.

He suggested they go on a patrol together. "You know I'm always up for patrolling," she replied. "And the glowing stuff isn't as exciting as you seem to think. It's pretty cool for a day or so, but then it starts feeling really weird." Maybe they'd be easier to hunt, but Avantika wasn't a hunter so she wouldn't know.

"Speech"

“I was just hunting,” Rudy drawled out at the talk of adventure.  Rudy wasn’t strong enough to beat her in a fight more than likely but they were just here nicely talking so, what would be expected?  Rudy hadn’t tried surprise attacks on anyone in ages and most of the time his target for such things had been Art. Hopping up on his back legs he plowed into Tika to knock her down.  His tail up high and wagging, “who taught you those fighting basics anyway?  You might be my older sister, but you’re also my sweet sister who I’ll always protect.”  Rudy gave her a lick to her cheek before hopping off.  

“We can protect each other though.  Just know if you’re in trouble you are my priority.” The words rang with truth, “but ya know, if you ever want to come hunting with me then I’d be happy to take you.  We could even go for larger game at some point.” She wasn’t really the type for mastering large hunts though so he really wasn’t all that sure she’d want to.  

“Patrols are boring, so company is always welcome.” At her mention of finding the glowing disconcerting he just grinned, “Oh, I don’t mind it all.  I like weird.”  He didn’t mention the discomfort the dreams brought on, he kept the two things separate regardless.  “It probably won’t last forever, so we might as well enjoy something new while its here.  Just think of all the secrets we might have not seen out there yet.  There could be other strange thing happenings that we are blind to and what an adventure if we found them.”  

Rudyard Carpathius

Out of the blue, Avantika was knocked down onto her back. She lifted all four paws up like a dead beetle and, after Rudy finished talking, used one to ruffle one of his ears before he got off and she rolled over and sat up. "Surprise attacks are for the weak, kiddo." She smirked. "You know you couldn't beat me in a fair fight." She hoped it sounded like nice, friendly cocky teasing, and not like she was being mean. It was a little bit of a challenge, too, whether he chose to accept it or not. She was always up for a bit of sparring, even if this maybe wasn't the right time for it.

'We can protect each other though. Just know if you're in trouble you are my priority.' She frowned slightly. She didn't want him to protect her. She wanted to protect him. It was her duty both as his sister and a Templar of the Hallows. He invited her out to go hunting. "Sorry, hunting isn't really my thing. I could go help maybe, but I wouldn't be any good." She had her interests, and killing things wasn't one of them, as important as she knew it was.

Of course, he thought that the changes were interesting and ripe for adventure. She grinned at his enthusiasm.

"Speaking of finding things," she began, smiling. "I met this girl recently--her name's Audra--and I kinda maybe think she might like me too!" She would describe her more if she was asked. Pretty, kind, gentle... she had found so many things to like already.

But she couldn't just talk about the good things. "But something else happened too, unrelated to that." She hesitated before asking, "Do you know about Fenmyre?"

"Speech"

Rudy smirked at the teasing challenge as he settled down, “Weak? Only if the weak are also smart.” Rudy responded cheerily. “If I lose to you that just proves how great I am at teaching.” He was happy to offer a retort for each one she threw at him.

Rudy hadn’t expected her to agree to hunt with him but no harm in having checked.  What was more interesting was when she mentioned finding a girl.  Tika had a girlfriend huh? Rudy settled down to a sitting position watching her with interest.  Certainly, he would ask about this Audra, “I’ll have to meet her at some point.” He should know everyone in the pack after all and more important anyone that Tika was attracted to.  It was only proper that he be a protective brother, right?

The topic changed again and Rudy’s brow knit a bit at Tika going from sounding and looking truly happy to something more uncertain.  “I know they are a band of wolves that aren’t overly far away.  I don’t know much of them as individuals.  What happened?” Rudy stood up long enough just to sit down next to her, a small bump of his muzzle to hers in a friendly gesture.
What had caused his sister to seem hesitant suddenly?

Rudyard Carpathius