Word Count: 444

"Talk" Walk They had done it. He and the two most important wolves in his life were now living in a new pack. If he was honest with himself, he was pretty relieved. The growing boy could live a more stable life. He didn't particularly like living as a loner, but they didn't have much of a choice while they were trying to figure out what to do. So he was glad that his uncle had dragged them to Abaven. He wondered how his sister was faring. What she thought about living here. He would look for her later; he was sure she was getting used to things just as he was. Ignis made his way through the territory and alongside the rapids that cut through the lands. He was big enough to where if he fell in, he wouldn't be swept away so easily. He wasn't at his full height yet, but still big nonetheless. His uncle had told him he would surely reach his full height by the time he was two years old, but for now, he just looked like an oversized kid. All lanky legs and disproportionate body parts. Ears and paws too big for his gangly frame. He had muscle, but not as much as his uncle did. The lean muscle also lay hidden beneath the shaggy fur that now framed him, and with winter approaching, it would only get thicker. Winter. He had to prepare for that, right? He didn't know what winter would be like. Though he was born last winter, he was too young to remember anything but cold, and he had never seen the snow. The volcano was too hot for snow and the maw? Maybe he had just been too young to remember any of it. He had been, after all, confined to the den for quite a long time along with his other siblings. They weren't allowed to venture out beyond the den alone in such dangerous territory. But he couldn't remember if spring had already been around when he finally did come out. It bugged him that he couldn't remember, but perhaps it was just a defense mechanism that his mind was doing. Forgetting the past so he could move on. Forget my father...forget my mother...forget the pack... Abaven was his home now. His past would be nothing more than erased memories. He sat at the edge of the water and looked across to the other side. He could see snow atop the distant mountains and wondered if it snowed here. He wasn't sure when winter would come exactly, but he figured he ought to start thinking about his plans for the coming season.

Not being herself and becoming this irritable, depressed wolf she hardly knew had been pulling her into a spiral for some time, and much as Cael would prefer to keep isolating herself it was probably not in her best interest in the long run. It just sucked to leave the den every morning knowing that if she accidentally went to visit her parents they would not be there. They were gone, she was alone, and Abaven felt strange without them.

No matter how much she wanted to continue to mourn forever though, there came a point when she began to feel a little disgusted with herself. Her parents didn't want her to act like this, and with the cold winter looming on the horizon she really ought to go start better pulling her weight. The first thing she could think of to do that was to work on doing some occasional border patrols. After all, Cael liked fighting almost as much as she liked to explore, so maybe she ought to indulge a bit more in that interest to start mixing things up a bit.

Her patrol hadn't taken her all that far when she spotted a patch of crimson up ahead by the water. Was that... a kid? The coloring might have thrown her off more if she hadn't met two similarly colored wolves before. Stalking closer, she waited until she was relatively close so she could be heard above the roaring water before she finally spoke. "Hey, don't go fallin' in. It's too cold to be fishin' anybody out of the water." Normally she wouldn't care if someone was that close to the water, but given how young he looked, Cael found herself a little nervous despite the initial urge to encourage foolish behavior, she didn't really enjoy the idea of having to explain to Shaye why she'd had to pull someone out of the rapids.

"Talk" Walk He sat alone with his thoughts for a while, studying the snow-capped mountains way out in the distance. He was caught by surprise when someone called out to him, the boy startling a bit as he turned his head to see who it was. There was a girl there, someone he'd never seen before. She was older than him, obviously, and just nearly as tall as he was. Granted he wasn't at his full height yet, but he was almost there. He stood and stepped away from the water, heeding her words but he was a bit confused by them. "Ah yeah, sorry. I wasn't planning on goin' for a swim or anything." He studied her for a moment, curious about who she was. He hadn't met anyone else from this pack asides from Shaye and Rhyme, so he was sure he looked like he was seeing some alien creature with the look on his face. Still, he was eager to meet someone new. He didn't interact much with the members of his father's pack, and mostly stuck with his immediate family. "My name is Ignis, who're you? Do ya live here?"

Nodding at his reply, Cael cast a quick glance at the churning rapids. Honestly she just didn't trust this apparently new wolf not to get overconfident and accidentally slip by getting to close to the edge. Once Caelestis had almost fallen in herself, and she really wasn't looking to relive that particular heart attack moment.

The boy, who went on to introduce himself as Ignis, was new enough that she hadn't known he was here, but had enough of the pack scent for her to not have immediately pegged him as a trespasser. Well, she also had a hard time believing that a trespasser's preferred entry point would be the most dangerous part of Abaven's lands anyway. "Caelestis." she chirped in reply, moving to stretch out her shoulders in a quick bow before giggling, "Course I do. I grew up here, more or less. And I'm probably the only resident navigator here. But! Today I'm doing a patrol. Care to walk with me?" Maybe something cool or interesting would happen. Probably nothing crazy, otherwise she wouldn't have invited the younger wolf. Now that the Abraxas weren't so much of a dark, looming shadow around the pack though it seemed safe enough.

"Talk" Walk Caelestis. He grinned when she told him her name, and made no effort to hide it. "That's a pretty cool name!" His tail wagged as he thought about it. Yeah, it was both pretty and cool. But he would keep the pretty part to himself for now. She would probably chew his ear off or push him into the water if he, a stranger, told her that. At least, his uncle always said to try and be careful around girls. Mostly because they were unpredictable and mysterious creatures. When she confirmed that she lived here and explained that she was "the resident navigator", he tilted his head with curiosity. That meant she traveled a lot, right? He thought that was pretty neat! He got even more excited when she invited him to go on a patrol with her! And he was all too eager to nod his head and bound towards her. "Yeah! We're new here, so I haven't gotten the chance to do a patrol or anything yet," Or make friends. Or explore all the pack lands. Or do anything exciting yet. He had been sticking around his uncle and sister and helping his uncle dig out a big 'ole den for them. But now he was glad he had the opportunity today to try and acquaint himself with the pack's borders, and see what else Abaven had to offer. He stopped a couple feet from her, tail wagging and eyes bright with a grin on his face. "Lead the way!"

"Thanks!" she chirped, only basking in the compliment a little bit. "Yours is cool too," she added, her smile widening to a grin. So far she liked the younger wolf and she hoped he did well in the pack. Hopefully he'd go on to make friends with more members, cause Cael wasn't really suited to be a good buddy. She spent way too much time wandering to keep up with being all that good of a friend... Sometimes she felt bad, but, most of the time she didn't so it was probably fine.

"Sweet, les go!" she replied, setting off without a moment of hesitation. "I'm sure following patrols will be good for you then, if you know all the edges of the territory then it gets a little easier to pick through and learn the rest of it."

Continuing on her path alongside the water, Cael kept far enough away from the edge of the bank that they could walk together without the slightest danger of either falling in. Maybe if was the fact that she suddenly had a younger wolf trailing along with her that made the girl take care for once to avoid potential risks. As she walked she kept and eye out, turning to look both inside and outside the border while keeping her nose to the wind. "Patrols are really important all of the time, but one of the things that's good to do especially in fall going into winter is to take extra time to pay attention to if there's prey around, how much, and what kinds. That helps the hunters if we can tell them when we notice stuff like a herd of deer coming around the territory," she babbled, pausing only to eye the space across the rapids where she thought she'd seen movement.

"Talk" Walk His tail wagged when she said his name sounded cool too. Man, he was starting to like her! He followed after her with all the enthusiasm in the world, crimson gaze watching what she did while he listened. His uncle had taught him a little bit about patrols. In theory at least. And the last time he had greeted a stranger at the border before his father had left, his father had gotten mad at him for doing that. It was his job though wasn't it!? To approach wolves at the border and beat them up if they trespassed or to find out who they were if they weren't mean? But no. He had apparently done something wrong and gotten scolded and told not to go near the borders, even though the someone at the time had apparently been an uncle of his. Of course, he didn't get the fact that he had been way younger at that point in time. He just wanted to help out around the pack instead of sitting around by the den all the time. He huffed quietly at that memory and shook it away. Now he could actually do a real patrol! He listened intently as Caelestis explained to him what he should be looking for while out doing a patrol. He trailed behind her for a moment, though almost bumped into her when she paused. He stopped himself just in time, following her gaze across the river. "What? Do you see somethin'? Is it a trespasser? Should we get an adult?" He stopped himself for a moment, realizing that she was an adult, right? "Er, I mean...do we need back up or...something?" Of course, he had no idea what she was looking at and wasn't even sure if he saw anything himself. He was just overexcited about doing his first patrol!

She mostly ignored Ignis for the moment as she watched the rustling with stiff posture, trying to make out what it was before she made a decision. When, after a what seemed like ages, the creature finally poked it's head out from the brush, she sighed and visibly relaxed. A white-muzzled fox stared back at them before turning and scampering away with a flick of it's bushy tail. "We're good," She finally laughed, turning to continue walking. "Although it is good to call for backup when you see something that could pose a threat, right away. Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. Always good to avoid or prevent dicey situations when you can."

Continuing their walk, she made sure to pay attention to both sides of the border. After they'd walked for a while and the pair reached a spot where the rapids were slowing and the width of the river narrowed, she took extra care to pay attention to anything that looked somehow... off. There was a stretch where she found absolutely nothing and was mostly satisfied, but eventually she found something troubling. Stopping, she turned to Ignis. "Here's an important lesson. Coming up to this spot, how strong were the scent markers?" she asked. The answer was, unfortunately, not as strong as the ones elsewhere. This was a thin spot. A less traveled section of border. "And what do you smell here?" gesturing in front of her, she pointed to where she'd found the stale but still worrying scent. Someone who didn't belong had ventured in. They seemed to have turned around quickly enough, but the intrusion itself was enough cause for her to feel a little concerned.