Sufferin' snorkelblatz!

With his injuries having been healed at last, he was able to explore beyond the pack borders. Aurielle and Aramis were old enough that he felt as though no catastrophe would befall their young lives if he ventured beyond the walls for a day or so. Aurielle had begged to go with him, but he’d firmly refused, and she had been mollified by a promise that he’d take her to visit Lirim and their family there not long after his return.

He was exploring the north, and so far, the exploration had proven fruitful. He’d encountered pack borders that held the unmistakable scent of the male that had come to the borders a while back. It was a chance to take in the scents for himself, and get an idea of their numbers.

He’d circled the border carefully, taking note of the scents before passing on into a massive forest of great redwood trees. He smiled, memories of the stories his Grandmother told him running through his mind. This was the first place she and Cairo’s children had set paw on the continent, so many years ago, ragged and travel weary, and heartsick over the loss of the land they’d known.

Many of the trees grew in such a way that they provided shelter enough for several wolves at once, and he made his way carefully along, taking care to watch and listen, and to use his nose as he went. Shelter for wolves was also cover for an ambush.

However, he found instead the scent of a young male pup who bore the scent of the pack he’d passed. What was a pack pup so young doing beyond the borders? But the question was thrown to the side as a wild mountain cat scream came from ahead, and the terrified yelp of a child in danger. He surged forward, bounding through the trees, mindless of the floppy hind leg—at this gait, it wasn’t as much of an issue.

A brightly colored pup blurred toward him, carrying a creature upon his back, and Regulus barked sharply. “Around that tree, hurry!” He didn’t wait to see if the boy listened, instead leaping over the child to come face to face with the mountain lion… or at least... he was pretty sure the grumpy cat was a cougar. Fathomless sapphires locked with crimson cat eyes in an inky black face. The big cat seemed equally startled by the arrival of a huge red beast, and Regulus took the advantage it gave him to barrel forward with a snarl and snapping jaws.

Oddly enough, the cat didn’t fight back, merely let himself be bowled over, belly up. Maybe it was because he wasn’t the only large cat in the area. A white blur bounded into the clearing, snarling feminine tones spitting “Artashir, if I have to yell at you one more time to get a deer for dinner, and not a primate, I am going to—” She broke off at the sight of the giant red wolf and her mate, looking sheepish, pinned beneath him.

Well this was getting more bizarre by the second. The cougar he had pinned gave a growl, similar to the clearing of a throat. “Aello, I believe we found our liege… M’lord, if you could let me rise… I will not harm the monkey. Or the star child.”

Regulus considered for several long heartbeats. But the female hadn’t gone after the pup, or after himself… so he stepped away. He was familiar was cat body language, though that of a cougar was a little different from a small cat, but as the male rose and sat, the female coming to cautiously sit beside the male, he knew they wouldn’t pose a threat anymore, so he turned and looked about for the child, calling, Are you alright, young ones?”