His ebony coat stood out from the snow that had begun to melt a tiny amount, but, there was still snow upon the landscape which made his paw pads crack and bleed from the frozen liquid. The young brute's emerald and topaz optics shifted over to what appears like a rundown ship or something, kind of like what his mother had talked to him about when he was back home.

He approached the ship, walking inside as the dust surrounded his ebony nostrils, causing him to sneeze multiple times. Aeolus had been alone on more than one account, and he was beginning to feel fed up for always being turned down from those who said he would look after him until he was old enough to leave. What was wrong with him? Did they find something or see something in him that he could not? Such questions caused him to growl angrily, more angry at himself for anyone else that had taken care of him. His paws clicked upon the wooden boards as some were loose and squeaky due to age. With a small sigh, he lied down on the ground and curled into a ball, the darkness inside engulfing him as if he were inside a shadow. He was broken, and he was not sure if he would even get out of this spiraling depression that ate away at his heart and mind.

Walk | Talk | Think  Pack life with her brothers was incredibly more exciting than pack life had been on her own. She watched them much of the time, particularly when she thought they had not noticed her, trying to see how it was they would try to fit in. She had only ever seen them within their little familial group outside the boundaries and restrictions of packs, only within the comfort of their familiarity with each other, and noting how they attempted to navigate the new waters with all these new wolves that they needed to befriend and impress in order to fit in was entertaining. The same was expected of her, but Bera felt she had a paw in water already because of her stay within Yfir not so very long ago.  She had taken to training right away, though by herself and in her own way as that was easiest. Getting to know the borders that she was going to eventually protect had been the first step, and the second had been to get herself back into the habit of rigorous exercise. Running was her starting point, but Bearcub did not stop when she hit the border of the pack lands. Instead, she kept going, racing and working and exerting herself past the point when she likely should have stopped. In her eyes, it was all for the better, and she could deal with the consequences so long as she ended up better for the effort.  Her large paws continued to eat up the snow, tossing it up behind her with the speed of her gait, and only stopped when she felt her body nearly give out on her. With a huge, heavy sigh, the brown yearling slowed, stumbling and then flopped into the snow, breathing heavily as she lay there. Maybe she should have stopped running sooner. Bera was not even sure where she had ended up, though what she could see did not look anything like the Red Forest. She needed to rest, to catch her breath. And then she was going to try to race all the way back to Regium before the rest of the day got away from her.

His eyes focused momentarily on the different things inside the structure. Every move me made caused the wooden floor boards to rattle and shake, causing them to squeak. The brute sighed and stood up, deciding that nothing was going to be coming here and walked out of the ship. His dual hued eyes of emerald and topaz shone in the light of the sun. But, when he walked off the ship, he happened to see a dark brown she-wolf that had to be the same age as him, appeared to be resting. When he looked over, he happened to see that both of her ears were stubs, wondering how that happened.

"Excuse me," he spoke, walking past her, not even bothering to say anything since he was worried that whomever he had met on his adventures would leave him, just like many wolves he had met before. Aeolus would make friends with them, even being adopted by them a couple times, but it always ended up that they left him behind. He was not even sure why. The dark colored male walked over to an oak tree and lied down in the snow, curling into a ball and giving a small sigh as a small cloud of mist formed then evaporated into the sky. 

Walk | Talk | Think  Bera breathed deeply, sucking in quick, full breaths of air as she attempted to catch her breath from all the running she had done. It had been a good exercise at least. She could feel that much in the current weak state of her legs, and the fact that despite feeling worn out in that moment that her mind felt energized and ready to keep going. The yearling flexed her paws within the snow, letting the cool flakes sift between her toes and cool the pads of her feet. Maybe just a little longer laying like this, she mused, and then she would try again to go as far as she could.  But over the sounds of her own breathing she heard the quiet tread of paws on snow, and the stubby remains of her ears shifted about trying to bring the sound to her more clearly. Her green eyes shifted to try and look at the wolf, and with scrambling motions she dragged herself up and off of her side and onto her stomach, getting herself righted enough to look at the other properly. Oh. It was only another youth like herself, not some big adult whose hiding place she may have stumbled upon. That was a relief, and so when all he muttered was a quiet, "Excuse me," she answered automatically with, "Sure," and watched as he proceeded on past her and kept on going.  Her green eyes stared after him curiously, her ear-less head leaning slightly to one side as she did so. Now here was a curious one. He had not even managed to look at her, and she was sure if he thought he could have gotten away without saying a word he might have just kept walking silently past her. To her surprise though, rather than continue walking away, he merely curled up at the base of a tree within the snow, all alone and looking rather pitiful for it. Bera pushed herself up into a proper sitting position, still looking at the boy as her brows drew downward into a gentle frown. The protective part of her, the side of her that urged her to do well in her warrior's training so as to better defend others, wanted to reach out to the boy, and unable to ignore the sense she got to her paws, a little shakily, and wandered a few steps closer with a gentle wag of her tail. "Hey there, is everything alright?" she asked, her naturally warm tones colored by concern and puzzlement as she stopped within the snow and peered at him perplexedly.

Aeolus was about to doze, when the sound of paws crunching against the fresh snow caused his lobes to flick slightly. He opened his eyes and gave a small sigh, she asked if he was alright, but he paid no heed to what she had told him. Even though she was pretty, he did not really wish to speak with her, even if she was trying to act concerned for him. It would all end up with someone being concerned for him, and then they would leave him and he would be alone again. His dual colored optics focused upon her emerald orbs. He lifted his cranium, "Am I alright? No, I am not. I have been abandoned more times than I can count. My parents and my old pack were killed off by a disease, I was adopted by this old wolf, and then he left me, and so many more times I have been adopted, and now I am alone again and have been forced to fend for myself. I have been alone ever since I was four months old, and now, I am a year old and have not even found someone to love me or even care if I die or not." He curled into a ball and sighed, closing his eyes.

He missed his parents as well as his pack. All he wished was for things to go back the way things used to be. But, ever since the disease that wiped down out his pack had happened, he was now alone and wished there was someone he could travel with and be with. Someone who would be at least a friend for him, but he was now alone. Tears were threatening to stream down his face, he did not even know if he should even be alive right now. All he wanted now was to die, for if this was to continue to happen, he felt somewhat useless.

Walk | Talk | Think  Her legs still felt weak and so Bearcub sat down, her tail beating once against the snow idly as she tried not to look like she had just run across the whole of the frozen north. Her mouth had morphed itself into the semblance of a smile when he turned his eyes upon her, which, she noted, were of two different colors. One was blue, like frozen ice, while the other green as springtime. They were odd to her, surely a curiosity, but of no consequence in the long run, though she wondered briefly if he knew of their differences.  Not even her smile or concern seemed enough to break through the dismal, gloomy cloud that appeared to have permanently stuck itself over the boy's head, and the brown yearling could feel her hopeful smile slip away under doubt. He spoke so pessimistically, weighed down immensely by the sadness that haunted his past. Bera was rather shocked by all of it, lost family not once but many times it sounded like, and here he was alone and defenseless and left to face the world on his own. It had certainly sucked the spirit right out of him.  "I'm sorry about all that," she muttered lamely, unsure what else she could possibly say in response to the hardships he had had to endure. But, not one to succumb to darkness and sadness so easily, she tried to inject a little of her own optimism, her own hope, into him. "You know, that's all in the past. If you make an effort, things can change."

Aeolus gave a small sigh, he was not sure if she was even right due to all the hardships that had surrounded his mind and life. He hung his head and could not even think about what he could possibly do to make things right. His eyes showed pain, and he was scared for when he got older, that he could possibly do anything to keep his family safe if he were to ever receive a mate and pups once he became older. The thought made his heart ache. "Listen, I appreciate the help, but the darkness has surrounded my heart more than once. No one has ever loved me, and no one ever will. And, even though you think that may not be true and that love is everywhere, my parents are dead, my adopted father left me to die, my adopted mother left me to die, and my adopted pack did not want to even bother wish me joining so I was kicked out. Now that I am a year, no one will want to adopt me or help me now."

Walk | Talk | Think  She tried to be optimistic, tried to be kind and considerate the way she had been with Eostre when she was in her frightful moods, but this boy's mind seemed even more sour than Arnporr's had been. He was unwilling to listen to her, unwilling to think that things might actually turn out better for him in the future, as if someone he was already cursed by the gods with terrible luck and forced to live with it for the rest of the his days. Bearcub's frown deepened slightly at his stubbornness, though she merely sighed herself. She might need a new tactic with this one.  "You're right," she answered, her voice stern as she lifted her head and chin upward with a stubborn tilt. "You won't get adopted now, and you don't need to. You can't be any younger than me, so you're old enough to make your own choices," she told him bluntly, leaving no room for argument as she kept on talking, "and you certainly won't get any help if you keep that sour attitude. No one's going to be able to help you if you won't even try to help yourself." There. She said it, and maybe even a little nicer than it had first sounded in her head. But she felt being truthful, painfully so, might have been the only way to get through to this stubborn boy and maybe make him see that he was now the cause of his own misery by not acting to make anything better.

Aeolus would hear her speak, tears beginning to drip to the snow. He just missed his family and just wished for someone to be with him, to help teach him. He hung her head and whimpered slightly in a sad and depressed state. He was happy for her to tell the truth to him because he did agree with what she did say, but he only wished he had someone to be with him whenever he felt like crap again. The sound of crows caused him to snap out of his head and he looked upward, giving a small growl as some landed in front of him. He went into a stalking stance and crouched low, hackles raised, and eyes focused on his target. Some of the crows were too busy cleaning their feathers to notice Aeolus, for when he was close enough, he leapt on top of one of the crows, shaking the life out of one of the birds and he walked over to Bera. He looked to the crow, then to her, soon dropping it to the ground and pushed the bird over with his snout.

"Here, I could tell you were tired, so I thought you might want it," he said, shifting his eyes away from meeting her own again. He had never had someone who told the truth the way she did, and he could feel his heart race when he looked at her, but he hoped she did not notice.

Walk | Talk | Think  Oops. Maybe she had overdone it a little bit. He was crying now, quietly to himself, and just a little she felt guilty. It had not been her intention to make him cry, only to drive home the point he had been refusing to accept up until now. But maybe the tears meant it had finally gotten through to him, maybe it meant he had finally heard her. She certainly hoped so. She did not want to have upset him over nothing.  He made no answer to her stern, direct words but instead became distracted with the noisiness of birds nearby. Bera's own ear stubs twitched as if trying to pinpoint the noise, her green gaze turning skyward as she too looked their way for a brief moment, only to have the dark colored boy get up and step away from her. She opened her mouth, about ready to ask him where he was going, curious and afraid she might have scared him by being too direct, but upon seeing how he reacted to the birds she understood then. He meant to catch one.  Staying quiet, Bearcub waited while he stalked forward, leaped, and pinned one of the squawking birds beneath his paws, a successful hunt conducted right before her eyes. For someone who seemed so convinced that he had nothing to offer, that he was worthless in the eyes of the world, he had a pretty good knack for hunting. Even more surprising was the fact that he picked the bird up and brought it to her, dropping it at her paws without meeting her eye and offering it to her since she had seemed a little worn out. Bera blinked, stunned, and answered a second after she had regained her composure with a simple, "Oh...Thank you." Maybe her news had done him some good after all.  But as she looked down at it, she felt reluctant to take a bite. She had a home, a pack, others who could help her keep herself fed. This boy had no one but himself, and he was trying to give his hard earned food away. "You should eat it, not me," she tried to convince him gently, hoing he would not be offended by her refusal to eat it, "I'm grateful you'd give it to me, but I think you could get more use out of it."

Aeolus shook his head. He wanted to be kind to her, especially since he had treated her like crap when they first met. He wanted to be a generous wolf like his parents were, and even though he was alone he could always try again. "Go ahead and eat, I can always hunt again." He retorted with a small smile on his face, but his eyes were not meeting her own. All he wanted was a friend, someone he could hang out with or something because he never really had one. His dual colored eyes watched the remaining crows fly away, and he gave a small sigh, "My name is Aeolus by the way."

Walk | Talk | Think  Bera had hoped the boy might see sense in her words, to understand that her place in the world was considerably more stable than his and therefore his meal held more value for him that it would for her, though not for the lack of effort that had gone into getting it. If he really was as alone as he made himself sound, it seemed like an awfully big gift for her to receive, and she hated the thought that he might have been missing out on a meal well caught just because she happened to come by and give him a pep that he decided needed some form of thanks for. it left her feeling guilty all over again.  But he was adamant, refusing outright and promising her that more could be caught if he wished for a bite to eat. Feeling torn, cornered even, Bearcub's green eyes shifted down to the bird again and with a sigh she placed a large paw on it, lowering her muzzle to pick away some of the feathers and clear herself a spot to take a bite. It was a decent little snack, not quite the same as what she might have been able to find in the caches of Regium, but it was too nice of a gesture for her to keep refusing it. She accepted his offered meal, and humbly ate a few quick bites.  She licked at her lips as the boy revealed his name, and her eyes roamed back up to peer at him as he said it, noticing how his gaze remained above and still on the birds. "I'm Bera," she stated, "though most everyone calls me Bearcub." The silly nickname had irked her at first, but after a while it had grown on her to the point that she even liked it now, answering to it when it was used just as if someone had called her Bera instead. "If you're alone, Aeolus, do you live here?" she questioned.