Amaretto was back to square one. Her release from Legion had coincided with the eruption of a nearby mountain that covered the land in ash, cold and darkness. She couldn't make heads or tails of any of the trails she stumbled upon and while her odds of finding one that belonged to any of the Ademre were slim to begin with, the weather being what it was made it officially hopeless.

And yet somehow she wasn't without hope. She knew her siblings had to be somewhere in Boreas still and while it would be a lot of land to cover, if she had to, Amaretto knew she could visit every land if she had to. Someway, somehow she would be reunited with them again.

She refused to even entertain the idea that they had been lost to the eruption. While it was certainly a possibility, Amaretto wasn't about to consider it. She would find them.

To that end she now picked her way down an ash-covered outcropping. No doubt her family was headed somewhere safer which would make her job easier. The ash cloud seemed to go on as far as the eye could see, which likely meant that few places were untouched by it. That had to narrow things down.

Ramesh was bored of sludging through the muck like some boring giant. He missed his trees down in Auster, where he could travel the right way, from branch to branch. Not like this, where his little legs could barely shuffle him anywhere over the earth. He left the Valk encampment for a time to explore, and search for entertainment. The smelly raiders were stressed and tearse, and he needed a break from them for a time. One could only handle the presence of giants for so long, after all.

He found the shape of the tan girl, short for a giant, but certainly taller than the tree ninja, as she navigated the Grande in the ash.

The little Ninja was grumbling as he walked, moaning about the indecency of no trees, and crawling through the mud like a worm. He added in a few choice words he had picked up from the raiders, as he felt like they really described his mood. "Stupid no good raggeit of a volcano. Fokk it and this no good Faviti of a land with no fokking trees"

He fell silent as he approached her, looking up at her taller shape in curiosity. “Oh hey man, seen any trees around?” he asked her once he was within talking distance.

Amaretto's ears swiveled to the side as a voice was carried to her on the wind. She finished picking her way down the outcropping - the last thing she needed was another broken bone - and then looked up to see if she could see who was speaking. About that time Ramesh addressed her, calling her a man. The colloquialism was lost on her so the wording was further confused an already unusual sentence. She stared at him for a moment as she tried to sort out what he was asking her. Trees? Why was he asking about trees? And did she really look that mannish? "Um...no?" She glanced around as though looking for a tree. "Just water and uh, ash...man." It was slang, right? She'd find out here in a second if she'd used the word 'man' correctly. Her curiosity got the better of her. "Why trees?" "Speech"|"Ademre"

The tall but short woman looked at him in surprise as he spoke, and he could see her processing the question for a time. Ramesh rocked back on his heels and gave her a moment. He didn’t mind if she was a bit slow, his sister was like that too, fell out of trees too many times as a baby. Okay, no, that was mean, his sister was actually pretty smart. Sometimes. Maybe.

“Assman, whos Assman?” he asked, before giving her a cheeky grin. He was cranning his head to look up at her, a state he was sadly starting to get accustomed to, with all this gross walking he was stuck with.

She would ask him why, and he looked at her for a moment, and his expression told him she was being a little dim. “You know, for walking on and stuff” he said, and mimed walking on a branch with his paws

Her expression bordered on quizzical as she studied Ramesh and his outlandishly wide grin. She reined her incredulity in though and smoothed her features with practiced ease. What a strange little man. "Ash," she said before pausing a little too long; clearly over exaggerating the space between 'ash' and 'man' for his benefit. "Man." "Never mind," she tacked on after a beat. It didn't matter that much in the end, did it? And she had places to be. As for his explanation, it offer more confusion than clarity. Her mind tried to conjure up cleverer reasons than the truth. She tried to work out how trees might help him in the ash storm and came up first with snowboard-like solutions then toboggan-like ones.  "I see," she said tactfully, but in truth not really seeing like she claimed. It occurred to her suddenly that she was wasting this opportunity. "While looking for...trees...you didn't happen to see two black wolves with flame-like markings, did you?" "Speech"|"Ademre"

The woman had no humour. He looked at her and stifled a yawn as she corrected her language. Assman sounded way better than Ash… man, anyway. She didn’t look like she appreciated the strategic advantage of trees, but was content to move on and not ask him any more questions. Well, if she knew where trees where, he would have taught this land slogger a thing or two.

“Oh boy did I ever, Was one about your height, with big-’ol fangs in his gums? With the expressions and personality of a stone?” he said, bearing his own teeth in a mock expression of a growl as he displayed his gums. He then wiped his expression clean and took a few exaggerated steps forward like he was walking with swagger as he continued to describe the man. “He gave some ‘ol family heirloom stuff to the smelly Raider Queen and promised her some allegiance stuff I think” he explained. One of these days his big mouth was going to get him into trouble… that is, even more trouble than it already had.

His words heartened her. The description of her brother, though misinterpreted by the heathen, was spot on. Amaretto nodded solemnly, her heart pounding hard in her chest. Was she close? Heavens she hoped so! "That's my brother." Was that it? Did he have no more to say? "Where is he? Is he close by?" Who was this "smelly raider queen" Lament had pledged allegiance to? She had so many questions. Clearly something major had happened during her imprisonment in Legion. This knowledge frustrated her. Not having had a chance to connect with her siblings since she'd woken up on the battlefield meant there was still a lot she wasn't sure of. "Speech"|"Ademre"

“Oh! Your siblings?” He asked, curiously, peering up at her mild toned coat with interest. She didn’t look quite the same, but then Val looked a bit different from him - he got all the good looks and charm, and she got all the personality of a mouldy melon

“Hmm?” he said as she bombarded him with more questions. “Oh, Nah, not any more. He went away aways after the volcano did its thing, but he came back and reported to the Raider Queen so she could find him. Cause he owes her and all that. I heard one of his sisters got hurt so they are staying where they are for a bit” He said, and shrugged like it was no biggy to him. ‘Oh, hey! That means she’s your sister too, right? I’m sure she’s fine” he said comfortingly.

His face said it all. No really it did because the uncouth, southern heathen left nothing to the imagination; every thought in his head flit across his face before he moved on to the next one. Given the reserved nature of her people, Amaretto found Ramesh's display not unlike watching someone pick their nose and inspect the freshly mined goods. Still, the unspoken questioning of her familial connection irked her. It was by no means a new reaction. Amaretto had been teased since puphood about how her mother had to have found her somewhere because she clearly didn't belong. Though it shouldn't have still bothered it, it did. The strange little man and unknowingly stumbled across a tender spot. Her exasperation didn't last long; Ramesh managed to kick that out of her simply by mentioning that one of her sisters was hurt. Amaretto's eyes widened and she made no attempt to hide the reaction. Few things meant as much to her as her family. Little as she may have been, she was the savagely protective sort and she felt the harm inflicted on her siblings almost as acutely as if it was her pain. "My apologies," she said with a breath as she smoothed her expression. Such an ugly outburst. Even with the only witness being a comical heathen it was a gross display on her part. "Did he say where they were staying?" she asked in a low voice, her frustration well hidden. He was doing a lot of talking while revealing very little information. "I need to see that my sister is alright." "Speech"|"Ademre"

The ground slugger put on some expression at last and then seemed to apologize for it. She was a weird 'un no doubt about it. Ramesh, free with his expression, let everything slip by his face, to morbid curiosity at the thought of an injured wolf, to overly done sincerity as he offered the stranger some faint comfort.

When she asked if he knew where her siblings where staying, he gave a brisk nod. "Oh, uh, yeah man. I actually use to live near there. You need to head down South, until you hit the prickly bushes next to another pack, head south west past there or your going to get stuck on the wrong side of the cliff - been there and done that, it's not fun I tell you. Have you ever tried to navigate thorns before? Anyway, you wanna stick by the water or your going to enter pack terratory, find the big oak tree and your going the right way. If you hit the desert you done goofed somewhere along the way and your probably going to die of dehydration before you get anywhere. But yeah, so, head south and then you'll reach a land bridge. Once you get over there hes like... somewhere on that island." Ramesh said helpfully. "Tell you what, if you give me a lift I'll get you started in the right direction"

Well she got what she wanted. Unfortunately the delivery was so rushed and vague Amaretto was left grasping at key phrases and hoping they would make sense whenever they became relevant to her journey. On the outside she was nonplussed, but on the inside she was a bit alarmed as she tried to commit the directions to memory. It seemed she needn't have panicked; at the end of his rambling directions Ramesh tacked on an offer to get her started. Though it was a great offer - how could she refuse someone who knew the way? - Amaretto wasn't too keen on the idea. He would be interesting company to say the least. But what choice did she have? Her sister was injured, perhaps grievously so. She wanted to see her as soon as possible. There was, however, one problem she had to address... "I would really appreciate that...but..." She eyed him up and down. "You're a bit big for carrying, don't you think?" Yes there was a fair height difference between them, but it wasn't enough of one in her opinion and she wasn't comfortable with the idea of him straddling her back; something she was fairly certain he would have to do to fit. "How about a trade instead? I can hunt the whole time and you can keep the pelts and whatever else you like from my kills. Or I can craft you something. Jewelry, navigation tools, clothing..." "Speech"|"Ademre"

“Walking sucks more than sand up your butt crack - and I would know, I told you about the time I also died in the desert, right?” [/b] he grumbled, kicking at the dirt with a little paw as he considered. The lack of trees around here really sucked. He didn’t want to be slogging through the mud like some uncouth barbarian.

“Well, my sister does have this awesome set of antlers still connected to the coat. If you get help me get something cooler then what she has, you’ve got yourself a deal.” he decided, not one to turn away the offer of prizes easily. After all, he had come to this heathen Northern Island in the hopes of coming home with things to be proud of.

He sighed, looking around them as he tried to puzzle out the way South from here. He was pretty sure he had the right of it, so with utmost confidence in his stride, he would pick a direction and set out. “So, this time I was hanging out in a tree, minding my own business, and definitely not stalking your brother” Er, well, mostly, but yeah, anyway… “Something he said was really weird. Tell me, do you guys really not know how babies are made?” he asked, genuine curiosity with a hint of shock to flavour his words.

Amaretto's expression, though appropriately dry, took on a distasteful edge as Ramesh joked about butt cracks and sand. He was so odd, so ill-mannered. Though she couldn't quite place the origins of her feelings towards him, Amaretto found Ramesh's mannerisms fit a preconceived idea she'd had at one point about outsiders. He fit that belief and she found that oddly satisfying in a superior 'I knew it' kind of way.

That feeling of superiority died down and was replaced with relief as Ramesh agreed to help her if she made him something cooler than the gear his sister had. "I can do that so we are in agreement." It sounded like his sister had a cape or coat with antlers still attached. That was easy enough. She could do something "cooler" just by starting with a predator of some stripe.

"Do you guys really not know how babies are made?" At this her eyes narrowed. What an odd question. "Of course we know how babies are made," she said with a sniff. "Women ripen. Everyone knows this."