Ooc: no immediate family please, you can have your own threads :p

After the excitement had quieted down and she got a solid night sleep, Justice woke with the dawn to set out on a patrol. Partly as her duty to the pack, partly to reacquaint herself with the territories, and partly to stretch muscles that had stiffened overnight, she had made it a point to patrol the farthest border from the main densite, the lake territory. The way she figured, the plentiful water there might attract unwanted visitors. She had yet to learn quite who all was left to the pack, though she was hadn't really met many before she had gotten lost anyway. Besides, it was always different to know someone when you were a young pup than it was to be a yearling. In all the ways that - to her - actually mattered, she was an adult, and that really changed things. It changed the way she viewed her parents, her brothers, even the alpha. It was an odd, curious feeling to have lost so much of that time with them as a child. Would it effect a big difference between her, and Fable and Valor? She didn't know, but she was thoughtful about the changes as she trotted along the border, keeping watch, dark form alert but a confidence evident in every stride.

Baine trotted through Celestial's territories and made her way toward the border. She didn't really know where she was going or why, but she needed to do something to keep herself from mulling in her own sadness. She was tired of being sad. She thought about maybe going out on another adventure or maybe just wandering around the pack lands till she found someone to hang out with. Either option sounded good to her! Luckily she didn't have to pick since just as she got to the border she spotted a dark-colored girl that looked like she was doing a patrol. Baine didn't recognize her and Baine always meant to get more involved and help Regulus with the pack stuff so this was a perfect compromise! She trotted up to the other girl so that she could fall into step beside her as she offered her a smile. "Hi there! Do you mind if I join you?" "Talk" "You" Think

Justice glanced back as the wind carried a scent to her, not terribly familiar but definitely overlayed with pack scent. The wolf approaching was only vaguely known to Justice before she'd left, mostly because she was the only albino wolf in the pack so she was pretty recognizable as Baine, the alpha's younger sister. She pricked heavy ears towards the other female in interest. One would be hard pressed to find a pair much more different in the pack, for while they were the same height to the inch and both were more stocky than slim, that was where any resemblance ended. Justice was all hard muscle and shaggy fur, Baine soft curves and gently wavy pelt, the one dark as a foggy night and the other pale as roses and cream. "I don't mind at all," she told the older female, not even pausing as Baine fell into step with her. "I just figured I would patrol down here, since there doesn't seem to be many around anymore who are capable of it." The memory of her father's feebleness floated up momentarily to trouble her, but she set it aside to smile at the albino. "Baine, right? I'm Justice, Creed and Kavdaya's daughter." Then, slowly and thoughtfully, she brought up one of the things that had been on her mind, something she hadn't wanted to bother her parents or the alpha about. Her parents had problems of their own that she refused to add to, and surely the alpha wouldn't have time to answer a yearling's questions, but Baine was just another member of the pack, in Justice's eyes all but her equal. "I've been away for a while and... if you don't mind me asking... what happened here? I remember the pack being a lot more full when I was a pup."

Baine smiled as the other girl accepted her request to give her some company. She realized the night and day difference between the two of them and it made her giggle a bit. They looked as different as sunshine and shadows, but she hoped they wouldn't be so different in personality! She would love to make a new friend around here. Anything to keep her mind off of recent events was more than welcome. She did get a little sad when her new acquaintance mentioned the lack of activity in wolves to do patrols and such. Baine knew what she meant though and didn't take it to heart. It was just hard to hear since she had been around to get this pack off the ground and now she saw how quiet everything was now. Before she could ponder it any more though her mind got brought back to the present as Justice introduced herself. Baine nodded to confirm that she had guessed her name correctly before replying, "It's nice to meet you, Justice!" Baine still considered Creed to be one of her role models so it was cool to finally meet one of his children. Somehow her path hadn't really crossed with any of them before now besides at meetings and the like. To Justice's question her ears flicked and her expression grew a bit sad even though her smile remained on her muzzle. It wasn't a "woe is me" sadness. It was more of a rueful, regretful sadness. The pack had grown quiet and she knew she had been part of the problem. "Things have... just been hard lately," she explained vaguely as her gaze drifted from Justice for a moment to look out over the path ahead of them. "Ya know with my mom and dad passing away and the challenge Regulus fought in and a bunch of other stuff." There was a lot more to it than that, wasn't there? But it felt better to have something to point a finger at and point the blame toward. Baine was never one to dwell in sadness for long though and she was quick to pull a wider smile onto her face and she turned her pale gaze back toward Justice. "But I know Regulus is gonna get stuff rolling around here very soon! I think we've all had enough time to let everything calm down now, right?" "Talk" "You" Think

Justice's brow knotted as Baine sought to explain. She tried to understand, she really did, but the yearling shook her head in more confusion. Adult behavior made less sense to her now than it did as a pup. Maybe she misunderstood the older woman? "I don't understand. Wolves left the pack because of your parents dying and the challenge? I thought being loyal was important to this pack. Why didn't they stay and help Regulus instead of leaving?" She couldn't help the faint scorn that bit at her voice as she continued, even though she was only an adolescent and it was rude to speak that way to a grown adult. "Life's hard. I learned that pretty quick after I got lost. It's no excuse to give up and show their bellies, or run off with their tails tucked. They should have just worked harder." She stopped to add her scent to a border marker. The action made her chest swell with pride, and the pause cooled her temper a bit so that when she continued - both on the path and in the conversation - it was with a bit less sharpishness, and even a touch of curiosity in her voice and the angle she held her head. "Do you know what he's planning to do? Regulus, I mean. I'm hoping he'll assign mentors soon," she added, a little selfishly but she pushed aside the faint twinge of guilt by reminding herself that Fable and Valor hadn't had mentors either. "I don't know what I want to do for my path. I like fighting, but I like healing too. I don't think I want to pick one more than the other." She tilted her head at Baine. "What is it you do?"

Baine hadn't really thought about it until Justice asked about it. Why had wolves left when it got hard? Baine frowned and grew thoughtful while Justice paused to add a scent marker along the border. Pretty much everyone that was left here was family in some shape or form. Perhaps that's where the real loyalty was. Her family had never let her down. Sure, they all didn't spend as much time together as she wished they did and they were a bit more spread out now that Faite had her own pack, but she still could look to them whenever she needed them. Deciding there was no real answer for Justice's question Baine just shrugged sadly. She wished she knew why wolves had begun to leave, but she would rather focus on what they were going to do now to fix it. She was grateful for the slight change in topic when Justice asked about mentors and what Regulus was going to do. "I don't know everything he's planning, but I'm sure he'll assign mentors very soon!" she assured her new friend with a smile. "He told me we were going to go visit the other packs and have a meeting soon so I bet he'll talk about mentors at that meeting." She glanced over the path ahead of them for a moment to make sure she wasn't going to trip on something while she talked, but her gaze eventually came back to Justice again. "I'm an emissary! I'm like a messenger so I can go to other packs to tell them stuff or talk to them if we need to. I didn't really know what I wanted to do either, but I didn't really love fighting and I'm not neeeearly as good at healing as my big sister is and I didn't want to hunt all the time so I decided that being an emissary was good for me!" Really she just liked working closely with her brother and feeling helpful and emissary was the best way for her to do that. "Your dad was actually my mentor back in the day believe it or not." "Talk" "You" Think

Justice clamped down on her temper with a force of will and concentrated on marking the border to hide the spark of irritation when Baine just shrugged uncomfortably about the wolves who ran off because life was 'too hard'. If all the adults were this reluctant to even talk about the problem, no wonder there still was one! And it wasn't like Justice as an apprentice could do anything about it. Or at least, not any more than she already was doing about it, patrolling without being asked and such.

She kept a firm grip on her temper - after all, at least Baine was making an effort since she'd come out to join the patrol - and made herself grin when Baine said she thought he'd be assigning mentors soon. It wasn't really all that much of a stretch either. She was genuinely excited about finally getting an official mentor to really learn from. She wondered who her mentor or mentors would be (she still couldn't decide if she wanted to learn healing or fighting more, and she hoped that they'd get to have more than one teacher so she could learn both) but the train of thought came to a screeching halt when Baine said that Justice's dad had been her mentor.

"Da was an emissary?" she asked, blinking. She'd never really known what he did before he'd retired. She knew he'd been Surreal's second in command, and then Regulus' for a while, but not what he'd done before that. "So you just... bring messages to other packs?" she asked curiously. She couldn't really see her dad just carrying messages - she had thought he'd been a warrior or something. It was kind of strange to find out he'd just been a messenger. "What do you do when you don't have messages?" She cocked her head to the side thoughtfully. "I think I want to be a warrior, or a healer. I haven't decided which one. D'you think there's a rank I can be both in?" Her voice was faintly wistful, thinking of how wanting to be a Nomad had been the whole reason she'd tried to follow Regulus and her mother when they'd brought Surreal to the Nomads, and gotten lost for so long.

"Well, I believe he was the harbinger when he became my mentor, but essentially, yes!" she replied when Justice asked about her father's former role. Baine hoped she was remembering that correctly, but it sounded right. She knew Creed had been very high ranks in the past before he took a step back from it, but it was hard to remember exactly everything the older man had done. She smiled a little and hummed softly as she tried to think of a better description for the emissary's role. It sounded very simplified when it was boiled down to just the message carrier. Justice wasn't completely wrong in her assessment, but the job seemed more important to Baine than just that. "Well, there's not as much to do when there's not messages to be carried, but there's more to do than just in the job description," she replied thoughtfully. "Emissaries will go with the alpha on pack visits sometimes, they help the hunters and fighters on occasion. And help with patrols of course." Baine liked the idea of being able to do more than more rank once Justice put the idea in her head. For a long time Baine hadn't known exactly what she wanted to do either, but emissary ended up being the best fit. "I don't think there is as of now, but who knows what Regulus has planned!" she said hopefully, her tail wagging gently. "I know Regulus would love to have healers that are able to fight and vice versa though so I'm sure he'd be thrilled if you trained in both! "Talk" "You" Think