Exploring hadn't been high on his to do list, but without Faite to track all day (and a pack to run now) he figured he could do whatever he wanted. It'd been a while since he'd actually thought about leaving the pack lands now that he was old enough and he figured he had enough time on his paws to do so. There was no one around to tell him it was a bad idea and the way he figured it was he wasn't going far anyways. Besides, he was close enough to home anyways that he'd be able to hear if anything came amiss. Lirim was a pretty peaceful pack anyways so besides a few intruders here and there they hadn't really had any problems. Most of the issues had arisen from pack members going missing. The desert had more life to it lately than he was accustomed to. Normally it was a few green patches here and there, like Lirim's two territories, and then sand, sand, and then more sand. He noticed, upon coming to the river bed, that there seemed to be more green than usual. Bi-colored gaze traveled along the edge of the river as he stared at the water and then glanced at the green grass growing by it. Now that he'd actually gotten out and about for once he wasn't quite sure what to do now. In hindsight he probably should have invited Kairi, but it was too late now. A soft huff escaped him as he plopped back on his haunches and looked around some. Yep, this was so fun. Nothing to do, nothing to look at, and no one to socialize with. Walk, "Talk" Think

Far and wide the little star wolf did travel, to lands of all kinds. Today in the latest installment of adventures with Iskra, the red woman found herself exploring the desert. When one first hears the word desert, they probably think boring. They have not been to the desert with Iskra, as going anywhere with this girl leaves little room for dull moments. While nothing particularly amazing was happening at the moment, she was quite entertained by batting at a spikey little tan lizard that was trying in vain to scuttle away from her. It was a feudal attempt made all the more pointless when she grabbed it by the tail and proceeded to prance around with her prize, tail held high like she was proud of something actually worth being proud of.

After prancing for a good while she spotted what seemed to be another wolf up ahead. It was hard to tell from this distance, she'd been tricked by mirages before. Very tricked. Ah, but that wasn't a story she told. Deciding she may as well go see if this was real or not, she made her way towards the wolfish shape, dropping her lizard so she could focus. As she got closers it became clear he was in fact real. Striding on over and coming to sit closer than most would deem an acceptable distance for a stranger to greet them from, Iskra smirked at the male, blue eyes shining with the usual signs of mischief waiting to be unleashed. "Enjoying the weather?"

Rory sat there for a few minutes longer before something odd caught his attention. His head swiveled as he caught movement out of the corner of his eye and he couldn't stop the involuntary head tilt as he looked at the abnormality. What the hell was that? As the creature loomed closer he could do nothing but stare at the brilliant red pelt that reminded him a lot of the night sky if it'd been painted red. She literally looked like a galaxy. He normally wasn't one to stare, it was rude after all, but he'd never seen a wolf like this. Even his uncle wasn't as brilliantly colored as her and Regulus was completely red. Finally he came to his senses as she padded right up to him seemingly without a care in the world. He glanced around to make sure he wasn't dreaming and even blinked a few times for good measure before his gaze returned to the beautiful woman before him. He shifted nervously as she sat closer than most strangers would ever dare sit. Her smirk made him feel even more uncomfortable and he let his weight shift on his front paws as he felt himself squirm underneath the weight of her gaze. "I um..." he paused for a moment as he was caught off guard by her question. "Yeah it's been unusually nice out." He finally managed to sputter out. "What about you?" Why did he feel so awkward all of a sudden? If his fur could have gone red from blushing he was sure it would have been redder than this girl's fur. Walk, "Talk" Think

It would be unlike her to do anything but thrive under such attention as that she was receiving from the boy, after all, what else would one expect from someone dripping with the kind of wild aura she seemed to radiate? Call her prideful or vain, those are probably the correct terms anyhow. Iskra wasn't one to turn down attention especially flattering attention. The slack-jawed stares were entertaining and inflated her ego to a degree. This particular instance was no different - she was more than happy to bask in the look she received as she sauntered her way closer. Some might get tired of these looks, but Iskra was nothing like those wolves. She was far too self-assured to become uncomfortable with extra attention.

Her lips drew back in an even toothier grin at the poor souls' fumbling attempts at finding words to speak. "Oh, I prefer my weather a little more extreme to be perfectly honest," she chuckled absently, gaze drifting to the side as if looking back on a relevant memory, "Nothing interesting ever happens during this sort of mild crap, ya know?" There was a sparkle in her eyes as she spoke, clearly betraying her love the more 'interesting' events in life. "No one tells stories about fighting the forces of evil or going on grand adventures on a sunny afternoon with a gentle breeze coming in from the north."

She hadn't even realized she'd begun walking, moving in a semi-circle from one side of the russet male to the other. Turning her glittering blue eyes back towards him, Isk studied the younger wolf for a few moments. He was pretty tall, not unlike members of her family, and his markings were alright. Those eyes were pretty neat, though, heterochromia was always a good look. Leave it to her to start with a physical inspection. As an after thought, she decided to do that whole introduction thing, "The name's Iskra Aeris. And who might you be, Mr. pack wolf?" At least her head wasn't so far in the clouds that she'd fail to notice something like the scent of a pack. Iskra still wasn't all that familiar with the packs here, not that she cared to be at the moment anyways. She had other, funner things to busy herself with.

Well it seemed like uncomfortable would be the one word to describe how he was feeling. Now that he'd openly gawked at her (and she didn't seem fazed by it at all, but why would she?) he was feeling pretty embarrassed by it. He'd learned early on that it was rude to stare and yet here he was. He supposed he should just be glad that she hadn't gotten offended. Of course his awkwardness only continued as the toothy grin spread across her face as she listened to him fumble for words. Ears flicked backwards against his skull for the briefest of moments before flicking forward once more to listen to her speak. His head tilted slightly to the side as she explained she liked her weather more extreme and at first he couldn't agree with her. Who didn't like a breezy summer day like this one? It wasn't too hot and the summer wasn't draining the life out of Boreas and all its inhabitants for once. It wasn't until she went on to explain that nothing entertaining ever happened that he understood. He found himself nodding absentmindedly as he thought about it in detail. "I suppose you're right." He agreed, but fell silent when she began walking in a semi-circle around him. He forced his haunches to remain against the ground as she stared at him. It almost felt as though her blue gaze was drilling holes in his back and he certainly started to feel self conscious. He definitely wasn't as pretty or abnormal as she was color wise. He was grateful when she began to speak again to introduce herself. "I'm Ruaidhrí Aedan Adravendi-Valentine. I guess my mom decided I needed a super long name." He gave her a soft joking smile. "Do your parents look like you?" He asked curiously. What if there was a whole family of star wolves he never even knew about? Walk, "Talk" Think

She shrugged a shoulder noncommittally at his short reply, as though hardly surprised that he would agree. Her attention was mainly gripped by how awkward the poor soul seemed to look, and so uncertain, too! Shaking her head and chuckling, the red woman found it all too funny. The boy was pretty good looking, too bad he seemed to be lacking in confidence, or at least he was when compared to her. Admittedly she was dripping with that self-assured sort of swagger, so it wasn't too surprising to her that she'd met someone else who couldn't compete.

Sitting down in front of him in an incredible act of self-restraint, Isk raised a brow as he shared his own name, "Bless you," she muttered halfway under her breath. That name sure was a mouthful and then some. Shifting gears at the speed of light the woman lit up t the question, more than happy to share any and all personal information he was interested in, "Oh yeah!" her voice was lud and bubbly as ever, "My whole family looks like this, though I'm the only red one. Mithras, my dad, he's one colorful guy. Not only was he massive, taller than you, he was all sorts of colors, violets and magentas, amber, gold, orange, some red, and on top of it all he was like me with that starry sky look goin' on. All of us are like that, just different colors. Mom's blue and so is my sister Artemis, who is also super tall. Leto's another colorful one, mostly black with all kinds of colors on her pelt. You know an Aeris when you see one. I was told that all of our extended family are similar." She shrugged, it was all old news to her, but she did like getting those shocked and amazed looks when she talked about her family. It meant she was holding someone's entire focus in her paws, which was a sensation Iskra could never get enough of. "Of course, they're not just interesting because of the pretty colors and starry markings, all my relatives have some pretty standout personalities too," she had to laugh at the thought. Some stood out in different ways than others, but the bottomless well of confidence and tendency to be a little chaotic held true for most of them.

After her little spiel about herself, Iskra turned the questions right back at Rory, "What's your family like? How is it, living in a pack?" It had been more than a little while since she'd experienced pack life since she never actually ended up joining the pack Artemis was in before it fell. A shame, but, she was still enjoying the loner life enough to not be too bothered.

Rory didn't think much of her head shaking and chuckling, though he didn't quite understand what she found so funny either. His nerves prevented him from asking though and instead Rory was content to move on to a different conversation than the weather. It seemed too cliche of a conversation to be having, especially with a pretty girl who enjoyed chaotic weather opposed to peaceful days. He felt slightly better when she finally sat down in front of him. At least she wasn't circling him like he'd seen the vultures do in the desert over old rotting carcasses. Granted she was way better looking than a vulture, but that was beside the point. At least with her sitting he felt less like she was judging him and more ready to talk. Ears flicked forward as she gained his whole attention as she answered her question. He wasn't very surprised to learn that there were more family members like her. Her father being colorful, her mother and sister was blue, and her other sister was black and other colors. His eyebrows raised upwards in surprise and he had to clamp his teeth shut to just stop the word "wow" coming out of his mouth. Jewell was colorful, sure, but if this girl's family all looked like she did ... well his thoughts were still redirecting to the word "wow." He didn't dare say it out loud though because that didn't sound impressive at all. Instead he focused on her question instead since that seemed a lot easier to handle. "I have a pretty big family. My mom's side is huge, but I haven't met most of them. I don't know if my dad has any family or not though." Now that he thought about it, Zell hadn't mentioned them at all if he remembered right. "I have four other siblings though, five if you count my adopted sister. Pack life is pretty great though. It's like living with one giant family." He explained, before his thoughts derailed as they flitted to his uncle Regulus. "You know, my uncle is super bright red. I met him once when I was younger. He's big like me, but his red isn't as pretty as yours and he doesn't have any nice markings." His teeth clamped firmly shut again as he realized he just inadvertently called her pretty. Whoops. It was a good thing wolves couldn't blush. Walk, "Talk" Think

Naturally she derived some sense of satisfaction from the slight signs of reaction in his face. First the boy had been amusing but now she was quite thoroughly entertained. The little raise of the brows had her holding in the urge to let her grin double in size. Oh, she did so love having a good audience when she spoke of things like her family. It was no fun to talk about them if she didn't get a good reaction. This guy was more than playing the part though and it left her feeling pretty good, head raising so she held it a little bit higher and sapphire orbs glimmering with life.

Flower petal red ears flicked forward so she focused on him as he responded to her prompting questions. Sounded like he had a decently sized family. Probably a decent sized pack to go along with it. She'd have to remember to keep her shenanigans away from their borders if she decided she liked this guy enough. Never hurt to keep from burning bridges too quickly, you never can tell when a healer might be needed, especially if you're Iskra. "Sounds like a sweet deal. My sister Artemis was in a pack recently... I almost joined you know," she sighed, glancing away. That whole situation had been unfortunate. Iskra had been so close to getting to hang around Art every day and she took to damn long to decide. That was in the past though - no sense in dwelling on it, right? "Guess I'm not suitd to it though, family or not," she shrugged, leaving it at that.

Thank goodness he let the next bit slip out because she needed to get her head out of the fog that was threatening to consume it. A sly smirk crept along her lips, growing ever wider as her eyes seemed to positively sparkle with amusement as though they could actually chuckle on their own. "I'm sorry, didn't catch that last bit," she purred, leaning in a bit closer and batting her eyelashes as sweetly as she possibly could, "Say it again?"

Figuring he'd do something silly with that kind of pressure put on him so suddenly she giggled merrily, bouncing to once side and kicked up a puff of dust when she landed. "You're not bad looking yourself you know. Why, dare I say, you have some pretty nice looking markings in fact."

I'll show you how a heart can never fail

Rory listened as she explained her sister had been in a pack and that she'd almost joined, but it was apparent in her tone that something had happened to prevent that. The male wanted to prod her for more information, but he kept his mouth shut for fear of being rude. He couldn't help but wonder what the fun of being a loner was. It was something he'd never gotten to experience having lived in a pack for all of his life. Granted he'd been born before Lirim had been created, but he didn't remember the days they'd spent in the estuary. All he could remember was the valley where Faite had staked her claim.

Rory's demeanor changed slightly as his eyes narrowed suspiciously at the smirk that spread across her face. His suspicious nature changed to speechless embarrassment as she teased him while learning in closer to him. He almost missed the batting of her eyes and he gulped nervously while he tried to lean back some away from her. It wasn't as though he didn't want to be around her, she really was quite attractive, but he wasn't quite sure how to deal with getting any sort of attention from a female.

His ears flicked backwards apprehensively as she giggled and then bounded around a bit before lavishing him with praises. Oh god, she thought he looked nice? He felt the heat rising to his cheeks and he couldn't help but glance awkwardly at the ground for a moment while his mouth hung open. No words seemed to come to his mind and he just sat there, dumbfounded, for a good moment.

"I uh, um, thank you!" He finally managed to spit out. He wasn't sure it was possible, but he felt even more ashamed just thinking about how he couldn't even come up with a coherent sentence. "I'm not that special though, I have a twin who looks exactly like me, she's just shorter." He blurted out, desperately trying to at least somewhat change the topic. Maybe if he could he'd start to feel like he didn't need to melt into a puddle to escape the embarrassment.

"Speech"

Iskra was truly a merciless woman, finding a bit too much amusement in the way she could make him squirm. Wicked smile pulling t her lips, the firey woman wasn't all that inclined to let off the pressure. This was just too fun, and what is Iskra without fun? Nothing, that's what! The star-covered girl snorted at his next words, shaking her head dismissively, "I dunno, I think twins are more special if you ask me. You don't exactly see 'em hopping out from every land you come across." she mused, the teasing edge leaving her voice for a bit as she genuinely turned her focus to considering if she'd even met two identical wolves before. Nope. But he wouldn't know how common they were, would he?

Boy, he really didn't get out much, did he?! Sliding into a half bow, Iskra eyed him for a bit before saying, "Tell you what, I'll make you a special one-time-only offer of a lifetime. Wanna go explore some of this land outside your pack boundaries with me? I could maaybe use a little company, if you think you're up to the task that is?" She was pretty sure she could make it an adventure to remember no matter what they came across. It'd be pretty neat to be part of some wild story this pack boy told his friends back home. Heh. Yeah, really wild if she had her way. Straightening, the woman pranced a few steps away, looking over her shoulder at him, tail swinging to and fro and body language beckoning him to follow her.

I'll show you how a heart can never fail

Rory tried to ignore the grin that had encompassed her face. Overall he was pretty unnerved with the entire situation and he wasn't quite sure what to do with himself. It was all too easy for him to focus on the conversation instead and hope that things got at least slightly less awkward. It was certainly a hell of a lot easier to think about how that, now that he thought about it when she'd brought it up, that twins were pretty special. He'd never exactly met another set of twins, much less ones who looked the same. Maybe Iskra was right after all?

Bi-colored gaze eyed her movements suspiciously for a brief moment as she slid into a play bow. Judging from her looks she was older than him and he hadn't romped around with anyone in a while. Not since his mother had passed him the pack and left to go find his cousins. Did she want to play then? He'd never played with an older wolf before besides his parents. Was that even something older wolves did? It was something he'd have to ask his father about when he got home.

His ears flicked forward curiously as she began to speak again, drawing him from his wayward thoughts. For once it was something that didn't make him get all flustered and bothered and all he could feel was relief. Now this was something he could relax about. "Yeah, that'd be great. Did you have anywhere in mind?"

"Speech"

Bothering silly boys who didn't know how to deal with her attention was really fun. It was probably kind of rotten to get this much amusement out of it, but she just couldn't help it! Of course once her mind turned to thoughts of exploring and roaming and getting into trouble, well... It was hard to think of anything else. Ah, what fun she could have.

Considering his question for a bit, Iskra eventually responded, "Well... We could look around here, see if there's anything cool to be found. Though to be honest I doubt it. OR! We could take a peek at a different land nearby and see what there is to see there." Suddenly, she sprung from her bow to leap towards Rory, aiming a light, playful nip at his shoulder, then quickly hopping away. Giggling, the red woman asked, "So what'll it be? I'll race ya wherever you wanna go."

ooc: Do you wanna end the thread here and do another one in another land? c:

I'll show you how a heart can never fail

Rory waited patiently for her response and he wasn't disappointed. He remained silent for a short time as he mulled over their options. Eventually his gaze traveled to the desert surrounding them and he couldn't help but agree that they probably wouldn't find anything interesting here. There were very few territories in the west, other this his pack lands and his uncles, that boasted the same beauty and splendor as territories in other sections of Boreas did. This place in particular made for a rather dry and boring place to explore so heading off somewhere else sounded spectacular to him.

"I agree, I doubt we'll find much here." He mused out loud.

He was surprised when she sprang at him and nipped his shoulder. He blinked in confusion for a moment before he gathered his wits about him. A toothy grin spread across his face at the prospect of a race. She'd probably win cause she was lighter, but he did have long legs. This was a fun idea. "There's a lake near here. Lets go there!" He said before sticking his tongue out at her and taking off in the direction of Traveler's Lake.

"Speech"

OOC: sure!


Nodding, Iskra was glad he agreed cause it was pretty empty and boring here and she'd probably die of boredom if they stayed here and she stopped teasing the boy. Yeah, leaving was a good idea. She was a genius. She couldn't help a little smirk at that thought. Iskra: super smart master of fun! Had a nice ring to it.

Ah, the looks of surprise she could elicit were always the best. Laughing merrily, she stood poised, ready to run. "Sounds fantastic!" she said, crouching a little so that when he took off running in this new direction she could spring up and leap after him, shorter legs working hard to send her racing hot on his heels. He may very well beat her there with those long legs, but she still wasn't going down easy!