Making his way across the whole of the continent one land at a time was going to take ages. After a few weeks of nonstop travel he'd more or less gone in a very large circle, and from what he could tell there was still more land to cover further south. Today he found himself finally cresting the other side of the mountains, and while open land appeared to the left, Ignatius was more drawn to the dark rise looming ahead of him. He'd seen a volcano once before, in the far southeastern part of his homeland, but the land there was toxic. One couldn't stay near there for too long or you'd die a slow and horrible death. Or worse, live and just wish you'd died.

The black rocky sloped leading up to it were a bit difficult to navigate. The rock was more porous and sharp here than other places, and the area smelled of burning with hints of sulfur. Hadn't the girl he'd encountered mentioned that a pack used to live here? With his nose full of sulfur, Ig had a hard time understanding the appeal. If he were to lead a pack, he'd really prefer to choose lands that were a bit easier to live in.

How had things changed so quickly? They had left their island home with a bright future in front of them. Her sister was going to show her the world, and she would learn stories from every wolf she met, with some vague aspiration of becoming a storyteller herself one day.

Instead, she had gotten lost one night and had not found her way back to the lake they had camped at until a day later. There was no trace of her sisters parting, and well she had stayed a while, she knew there was nothing more for her here. Lyrae was barely into her second year of life, and was a mediocre hunter, hadn’t the faintest idea how to heal, and was essentially a useless wreck without her sister.

She had never intended to go at life alone, and with her belly aching from emptiness, and her heart limping from loneliness, the once bright and excitable girl was a drab mark on a grey world.

She scarcely knew where she was going, she had chased a hare up the mountain before it had eluded her, and she had been considering going down again when the scent of wolf caught her attention. She had no weariness of others, had never learnt to feel any. All she knew, was that she didn’t want to be alone anymore.

She followed his scent until she caught sight of the bright, russet wolf who stood out across the rocks like a flickering candle flame. Her lips parted in trepidation, a tight knot appearing in her chest. Could this wolf help her?

He moved cautiously over the unfamiliar terrain. One step at a time, that was the way to make progress over the sharp black rock that threatened to slice his paws if he made a wrong move. Again he questioned how anyone ever lived here. But on the other paw, he sort of understood. Intruders certainly couldn't outpace anyone who was experienced at navigating the terrain. There had to be more to the choice though, there weren't a lot of upsides to this place except maybe the ability to make fire quite easily if there were spots where the lava was close to the surface.

He was about to reach the end of the foothills when a soft clattering of rock alerted him to the presence of someone else. Her scent hadn't reached his nose yet, but after a moment of searching he found the brilliantly colored woman, looking awkward and uncertain. She... oddly enough reminded him of his siblings. But there weren't any other litters of mixed heritage back home, were there? If there were they were a well kept secret as far as he was concerned.

"Greetings," he called out after a minute of hesitation. The discomfort he read from the stranger's body language put him at ease enough to initiate the conversation. Maybe he just had a soft spot for those who didn't seem terribly confident. That, and he was terribly curious where this woman hailed from. It had seemed that colorful wolves weren't common here, he was glad to find someone who might not gawk at him as much as others had been known to.

Her unsteady pace over the rocks alerted the fiery wolf to her presence, and his gaze turned, seeking her, and finding her. She stilled, curiosity on her features as she let his eyes touch hers. He spoke first, his rich, warm voice rolling between them. She let a smile grace her lips, a hint of who she had been lighting up in her eyes, and flowing across her star-coated features.

She walked a little closer, covering the gap between them, through her eyes had been on him, this stranger, and not the difficult terrain she traversed. Her foot fell hard on loose stones, and they skittered out from under paw as her weight shifted to it. an “Oof” escaped her and she winced as her ankle turned. She shook it off, hobbled another step and stopped, eyes searching him. “Hello. My name is Lyrae Elementas.” she introduced herself, a touch of confidence in her voice as through she hadn’t just tripped before him. As through her eyes hadn’t roved his with a hope that verged softly on the outskirts of desperation. Please let the name Elementas mean something to him. Let him know how to help me find my family. she pleaded softly.

Their eyes met and he was suddenly struck by the celestial markings she bore. No one back in Arae had looked quite like this. He suddenly doubted the possibility that they came from the same place, though he wasn't ready to squash the flicker of hope just yet.

When she tripped on the rocks, Ig found himself unconsciously stepping forward, leaning towards her and instinctively want to help. But he held back. Maybe it was the predominantly blue face reminding him of the one thing from before he most certainly wanted to forget for a time. Saying that he didn't want to hurt her pride was a nice thought but likely untrue. Still, his expression gave a silent, 'you okay?' until she righted herself and offered her name.

With a dip of his regal head, Ig replied, "Pleasure to meet you Lyrae. I am Ignatius Agnivo." her surname meant about as much to him as he assumed his did to her, but still he kept a close eye on her for any sign of recognition. "May I ask what brings you out here? This isn't a terribly hospitable place." He wouldn't even be here himself if he wasn't just foolish enough to be curious about the volcano. Unless she was exploring he couldn't imagine why someone would want to hang around here.

He stepped forward as she tripped, and she could see the concern in his eyes. It allowed her to offer him a smile, despite the rough few days she’s been having of late. He didn’t react to her name, which was a disappointment, but he seemed like a genuinely nice guy. “The pleasure is mine, Ignatius.” she would reply politely. “Oh.” she mused with a start. It was the opposing colors in the markings on his eyes, similar yet different from another wolfs, and his coat the ying to her yang, with the reds of fires to her blues of a storm. “I think I might have met someone from your family briefly.” she admitted. It had been a brief encounter, but the beauty of the wolf had stuck with her. “Her right eye has a red marking shaped like a butterfly's wing, and to her left, a blue.” she flushed a little, she could be completely wrong

He had asked her what brought her here, and she pulled her mind back from the other strangely coloured wolf she had seen. “I was hunting, or at least, trying to. It got away from me and I found myself halfway up this mountain.” she admitted, offering him a faint smile, an echo of the bright, happy girl she had been only a few weeks ago.

Gladness that she seemed alright swept through him as they continued speaking. Far as he could tell she seemed pretty nice. A lot more reserved than the company he'd been keeping as of late. But of course he could never escape the shadow of said wild and apparently well traveled company. "Should I apologize on her behalf?" he laughed, only half joking. "That'd be my sister, Sephira. She's... a handful." That was putting it far too lightly, but hey, maybe Seph had been halfway decent when she met Lyrae? That might be asking too much.

"Ah," he said with a soft click of his tongue, glancing back out at the rocky slopes. Not ideal hunting grounds in any way. Mh, he did hate the thought that the girl was going hungry though. Ig clearly had gotten some of his mother's heart. "Well, perhaps either in this land or somewhere past it we can find something we can catch, if you don't mind the help and doing some sharing."

Her embarrassment turned into a grin as she laughed softly. Meeting his family member - sister, he explained, had been brief. Still, she could understand why his first impulse might be an amused, apologetic explanation. She had seemed like an interesting wolf, with a lot of personality bundled up under her beauty. “Nothing too terrible” she promised, her expressions relaxing as she became more comfortable, a little more like how she had been before. The impish smile that peeked out from beneath her stars was like a ray of moonlight.

She was surprised, and delighted, when he next offered for them to hunt together. Her stomach gave a rumbling gurgle of approve, or perhaps it was a demand. Her smile was even brighter as she looked at the firey wolf before her. She had been right, he was someone who could help her. “That would be lovely, actually.” she bounced on her paws, looking more like the young wolf she actually was. “I have to admit, my skills need some refining.”

Admittedly, Ignatius rather liked to see the younger woman's features brighten. She'd seemed nervous or scared before and it was nice to be able to put her at ease. He wasn't gonna say that but the fact remained. "Ha, well I'm glad no one was traumatized or permanently wounded?" Really that statement spoke for itself, more than anything he could add. Sometimes encounters with Seph could be... rough. He shuddered to think of some of the times where he'd run into those who'd had less than stellar interactions with the wild woman. Suffice to say it was sometimes better to not be related to her.

Lyrae's excitement only increased at his offer. Pleased, Ignatius didn't hesitate to begin leading the way. He'd seek out a better area for hunting, to start with. "Well, I wouldn't say I'm especially great at hunting, but I'm pretty sure between the two of us we can catch something," he replied with a shrug. Even if he wasn't terribly skilled, Ignatius had learned early on that to be successful you had to be tenacious. That, and a good strategy usually made all the difference.

He began by heading back along the outskirts of the hilly area's surrounding the volcano, searching for a good spot and keeping his nose to the wind. After a bit he was positive he could faintly smell some Pika nearby. Whether or not they'd be easy prey was yet to be determined, but surely there'd be enough of them that they'd have success eventually.

Did he really just ask her that? The brief meeting she had had with his sister had told her little about the other woman. In fact, this short meeting with Ignatius had already revealed more about his personality, and he seemed to be rather a nice wolf. How could the two be related if she was likely to seriously wound or traumatize another?

“Must be.. Interesting family get togethers, then.” she observed, somewhat questioningly. She wondered if there was any more strange members of his family, hiding in the wings. Of course, mentions of family reminded her of her own, and what she was missing. She came from a large family herself, but she only knew her sister. A woman she missed dearly.

When Ignatius began to walk, she was quick to follow him, moving lithly behind him, with a touch more confidence in her steps now that she was beginning to know this wolf. She had always been a curious, energetic pup, and there was still a lot of that, hidden behind the newer shyness. “Of course we can.” she agreed, already a lot more confident in their ability to catch something together then she had been in doing so alone. She was a little slower to catch the scent, but when she did, her little nose twitched. “Is that… mouse?” she asked, curiously.

His expression was probably some strange mix of pain and an almost sadistic sort of wry amusement. "Interesting is one word for it," he chuckled, doing his best to shrug off the attached memories that the idea of family tended to bring up. Aside from his littermates and mother, Ignatius had never been one to be overly fond of the rest of his kin, even before his life was turned upside down. On the rare occasions where the whole lot were gathered in one place - half siblings and all? That was the stuff of nightmares.

She trailed after him as he picked his way along, looking for ground that was a little less rough and seeking out good places for the prey to hide. Lyrae asked if it was a mouse and Ig shook his head. "Rodent, but not a mouse." He felt like he'd probably smelled something similar around the shops a time or two when he was young and the relative peace was at it's height. Continuing on, he followed the trail, watching carefully as the terrain changed slightly and the ground became packed with more dirt interspersed with larger rocks that looked like prime spots to dig burrows under. "Alright" he breathed softly, trying to work out a plan that would result in the most success.

From what he could tell a lot of the borrows were under rocks higher up the small hills, and from what he could tell there seemed to be a few of the large fuzzy rodents wandering around at the bottom away from their safe hideaways. Seemed like the best place to start was to begin by placing themselves between the prey and their escape. Motioning for Lyrae to follow, Ignatius kept low at the top of the rise, staying just on the far side where he could keep en eye on the prey while minimizing the amount of red fur that they could easily spot until he was ready to strike. His paws rolled across the ground, steps as silent as he could make them. A little group of five of the fuzzy rodent-looking things were wandering around down below, all plump and perfectly sized for a small meal.

"When you're ready, let's get as close as we can and see how many we can grab," he whispered, hoping he didn't tip off the little animals with the quiet words.