Locking Horns With Heaven

Gryphon had spent some time wandering since the challenge. It was the first time in his life that he'd ever really been on his own. Always, as long as he could remember, they had had a pack to fall back on. His first memories were of Imperium, then Ivalice, then Talis. Never had he not had a home he could have gone back to. Now, because of that damned Abraxas family, he was alone. He wanted to simply blame the yearling who had challenged, but he couldn't lay it all on the boy - he had to admit to himself that they'd put up a bright, tempting target by having a blind alpha without a capable secondary to fight when needed. They'd prided themselves on being warriors, but they'd allowed themselves a weakness too easily exploited, and the Abraxas had been smart enough to exploit it. The challenge had scattered Talis, til he no longer knew who was where. It left a bitter taste in Gryphon's mouth.

He'd wandered north when others of his family did, but had gotten separated from them. He knew he wouldn't be staying up here long - his thin desert-wolf coat had never been suited to northern winters. No, if he stayed anywhere up here it would need to be in the west, and he rather doubted he'd be welcomed hanging around anywhere near the one pack who made their home so close to the deserts. Celestial, after all, had plenty of reason to mistrust a wolf who'd been part of Talis, and he was doubly damned as the brother of the wolf who'd led Talis against them.

He found himself in one of Imperium's old territories, wondering idly if Valentine still lived there, and if any of his old caches of treasures were still hidden anywhere. He'd been too young to carry off many of them when the family had left, but they'd probably been ransacked by jackdaws and packrats and the like in the years since then.

A nearby howl caught his attention, though he hesitated for a moment in natural wariness. He couldn't afford to pass up the chance though, for a loner in unfamiliar territory was unlikely to eat well on his own. So he loped along in the direction the call drew him, where three figures already mingled. The black-and-white male and similarly-marked female were alike enough to be siblings, and maybe were. The third though, a young female pup, was nothing like either of them. She was as brightly colored as Iskra and that trespassing pup of hers - he could only hope her personality leaned a bit more towards the responsible than either of them.

"I would assist you in exchange for a fair share of the prize," he offered to the group as a whole, though he looked askance to the girl, and tilted his head towards her. "Aren't you a little young to join a hunt for something as dangerous as a bison, though?"