You never know who you might walk into

As the last of the stars faded into the morning sky, Stolas breathed a wistful sigh and carefully closed his grimoire. Another night spent in quiet solitude studying his star charts. It was the simple things that kept the fallen prince content. He did have to admit, the night skies of Auster were a new and interesting puzzle for him to solve, but that was fine by him. It just gave him more purpose to his studies! Rising to his paws in the middle of the quiet clearing, Stolas gathered up his book and began to make his way back into the labyrinth of gnarled branches and upturned roots. Songbirds were just beginning to sing their songs as the morning sun lit up the woods.

As a creature of the night, Stolas was less keen on being up past sunrise and was already thinking of how good it would feel to sink into his bed. But first, he had to find his way back to bed. Though he considered himself a decent enough navigator, even he got turned around in the thickest part of the woods, especially with the morning mist that had begun to flood the forest like a fog. Maybe someday he'd learn his way around—but it was not this day. Instead, Stolas found himself wandering randomly through the trees, looking for any familiar landmarks to get his bearing. He'd been so distracted surveying his surroundings that he didn't notice another wolf rounding a tree he was passing until he was almost colliding with her!

"Whoa! Look out!" Stolas stumbled to the side to avoid crashing into her, but ended up getting his paw caught beneath a root and tumbling head over paw until he came to land on his back on the forest floor with an oof! The world spun for a moment, the brute's perception of up and down all topsy-turvy. He hadn't even seen who he was about to run into. "My apologies! Are you all right?" he called out to the other wolf, still on the flat of his back and staring up into the canopy of treetops.

"Stolas"