Outlaw was all about fun.  Even in his training to become a healer or his ability to come up with crafting things it was still all part of the fun game of life.  The dog was over a year old but had the high spirit and joy so often found in puppies.  His favorite game as of late was treasure hunting.  It had turned out healing had a bit of treasure-hunt in it since you had to go find the herbs.  The notion had occurred to him two days back that the pups might enjoy treasure hunting as well. Outlaw had spent that day collecting some rocks and flowers for the project.  The flowers were dumped in a curved make-shift bowl of wood that sat nicely in one of the hotter pools of water and with time the water inside the bowl turn on the shade of the flowers.  Outlaw had made a die that he then took and used to coat several rocks about the size of skipping stones.  They had a lot of pups so that meant a lot of stones to make!  The simple task he had imagined took all day but he ended up dying a good 50 stones.  Let no team feel there weren’t enough rocks to find.   The rest of the day he spent wandering around the pack turf finding areas to hide his pale purple rocks.  They were never just dumped on the ground but cautiously hid in a bush, buried under the dirt with the only sign being the dirt freshly moved about, up in the lower limbs of a tree and other such spots.  None of them were put in the water as he’d heard how the pups were not to risk that for now. Outlaw hoped the game would take the pups a while so he didn’t bother calling them till the next morning.  The dog let out a howl calling for any pups who wanted to play a game.  There were a load of pups in the pack! How many would come for his game?   Speech:"Life is but a game " Think

In typical fashion for the young would-be warrior, Artorias had been bouncing back and forth in one of the glades around the falls, swinging his newly acquired stick around like a club. He growled as he slew wave after wave of imaginary enemies around him, only occasionally falling over his own feet in the process. There was a steep learning curve when it came to fighting, and even more so when it came to using something in a fight. Jumping and biting at other wolves was easy. Hitting them with a stick was harder. And so he had been training as much as he could, fantasizing about fighting off a horde of invading wolves and protecting his home, when the call came out. His ears pricked up, head turning in the direction of the call. Mom and Mama had taught him to always answer an adult's call, and so he obeyed their instructions, not wanting to be caught breaking the rules again like when he and Rudyard had snuck out into unclaimed territory.

Artorias came trotting up to where Outlaw had called the gathering. His amber eyes shone brightly as he approached the gray and black dog, barking happily from around the stick still clutched in his jaws. He knew Outlaw; he had been there as their attending medic during their fight training with Dunkan. The funny thing about the dog that the boy remembered was how playful and puppy-like he had been during their first meeting. Did this mean Outlaw was going to do something fun with them? Was this another kind of lesson for them today? Artorias dropped the stick when he got closer, sitting down before the dog and wagging his tail against the grassy ground. "Hi, Outlaw! Did you call for us?"

"Speech" | Thoughts

One big happy family

Artorias has two ravens named Corbin and Eira and a fox named Argent. Assume they are within calling distance at all times.
As his mate, Briar may enter Artorias' threads unless marked Private.
____________________

Bowen had been organizing things when the call for puppies came. She didn't recognize the voice, but that was no surprise. The girl hadn't been terribly social since her unveiling. She knew Sota and she knew Emile. Other than that... she knew her mom's and her siblings. Was she even allowed to go to the place where the call came from? Viridian eyes caught movement and she watched Artorias tromp off purposefully towards the call. The caramel cream girl bit her lower lip between tiny teeth. What if something happened to him while he was out on his own? Oh bother... Hiding her pile of collected stones beneath first a pile of dirt, then a pile of leaves,  the small child moved along after her brother. Of the lot of them,  Bowen was the smallest. The most dainty. Her tiny legs pumped as she hurried after her much larger brother. By the time she caught up,  he was already talking to a strange wolf. Bowen gave her dainty skull a tilt.  "Who are you? And what is that?" She motioned to the strange thing sitting on the canines head. "Bowen Arrow"

Jane was taking an adventure outside of her den once more, she felt excited, happy as she wondered if she could get friends. Yes, she wanted all the friends but so far she only knew her sibling but no one else. And when she heard the call eyes of blue opened wide and like a rocket, she darted herself forward with a big smile on her lips. And as she found the group she saw pups, more pups! She felt her heart pound fast and there she walked forward wagging her tail. "Hiiii" She greeted seating nearby. "I am Jane! Jane Adravendi!" She looked also to the dog. "Wanna be my friend?!!! And you all too???!!" She smiled at them. "What are we doin' today?" She asked smiling. "speak"

Emile had been busy really looking at a leaf on a shrub near the den, he'd seen his mother gathering plants before and he was incredibly curious as to their usage or how his mother knew which plants to gather, as far as he could tell there wasn't much difference between this shrub and half the leaves she'd grabbed and stored in their den. His ears twitched as the howl rang out and the boy lifted his gaze to spot Jane making a mad dash towards the caller. The boy's curiosity was piqued and he trotted after his sister's trail, his tail starting to wag slightly as he drew towards the group and noticed both his sister and Bowen. He moved in towards the group. "Hhhhhhhhey Bowen." He said, a small smile on his face. He'd already heard the barrage of questions the dog that seemed to have called them had faced already so he'd take that chance to not have to say anything else. "Speech"

Art by Kolokolchek

Outlaw recalled the first pup who showed up from that fight training he had gone to watch.  An optimistic future fighter that had seemed pleasant versus some overly serious wolves.  There was something about wolves who loved to fight that could make them less social and grouchy and seemed an odd thing to the exceedingly outgoing dog.  “Hello,” a pause as there had been a number of wolf pups at the training session and he’d tried to memorize all their names around the same time, “Aaartorias?” Admittedly the name had dragged out as he had struggled to remember it but hey, at least he got it after a moment?  “I did!  I thought all of you might enjoy a game!”   Outlaw would go into more detail once all the pups had gathered and sure enough a considerably smaller wolf pup showed up next.  She was pretty and he didn’t recall her at the training lesson so maybe she wasn’t interested in fighting either?  Her second question surprised Outlaw for a second.  Shouldn’t everyone know what a hat was? To the dog who had grown up around all manner of oddities it seemed a natural enough thing.  “I’m Outlaw, and this is my hat!” Outlaws tail was of course wagging, it rarely seemed to stop wagging.  Why shouldn’t he be happy and why not express it? The world was a fun and wonderful place!   “Hi Jane!” Outlaw offered merrily as she gave out her name, “and sure, I want to be your friend.  I want to be a good friend with all of you really!” He was about to explain what they were doing once more but paused as Emile was showing up just a moment later.  Outlaw glanced about to see if anyone else was coming.  There were a lot more pups in the pack right now but, maybe the others had other things to do?  This was just a game after all and they might have other games or lessons or something so for now he’d go with the assumption this was it. “Oook!  Guess this is it, so I’ll share now about what I thought we’d do.” His gaze swept to meet each pup’s eyes.  “There’s a game I love, I thought you guys might enjoy also.  It’s called ‘treasure hunting’.  So the game is to see who can find the most rocks.  I thought you might want to team up in pairs for the search.  So it’s a game that requires both observation and figuring out a good strategy when working with a partner.”  He paused to let the first part sink in for a few seconds then added, “I hid a good 50 stones yesterday and all of them were dyed a purple shade so you can tell them apart from normal ones.  Don’t bother trying to follow a scent trail cause of it being a while since I did it and I was sure to roam all over the place afterward and not just where I hid them.”  Outlaw was pretty proud of himself for thinking that part through.  “Oh, and you can keep the rocks if you want too.  Probably don’t need all 50 but if you want a purple rock afterwards its all yours.” Speech:"Life is but a game " Think

The black and blue-furred boy beamed with a wide smile up at the hybrid dog when he successfully recalled his name after a momentary drawl on it. "Yep! That's me!" Artorias remarked as he came to sit and wait for the others to join. He liked Outlaw. Although the canine was different from all the other wolves in the pack, it was his differences that made him special, and his youthful personality made every situation bright and fun. Plus he had that weird hat, and every time he saw it, Artorias would try to guess why it was shaped that way and where he had gotten it from. More puppies soon joined the gang, each one looking bright-eyed and bushy tailed and ready for some games! Bowen had joined—the boy was happy to see his usually reserved sister getting involved!—and a couple of the Adravendi kids too. Outlaw called them to attention after a few minutes of introductions, and Artorias sat up straight, eyes locked to their charismatic host.

Outlaw proceeded to explain the game and the rules to them. A treasure hunt, eh? That sounded right up Bo's alley! Artorias stole a quick look at his little sister with a smirk to see if she was an enthralled as he suspected she might be. So there were fifty purple rocks that needed to be collected. Artorias nodded his head; challenge accepted! Of course, that was an awful lot of rocks to try to find, especially when they didn't even know how big or noticeable these things were going to be. However, Art knew of Bowen's uncanny special talent for finding rare and unique items, so as soon as Outlaw mentioned partnering up, the boy scooted closer to the russet-toned girl. Why not make the game a little friendly competition? Family against family? What could be more fun? Once Outlaw had finished explaining the rules and the prize, Artorias turned to Bowen with a wide grin. "Wanna go searching together, Bo? I bet we can find waaaaaay more together!"

"Speech" | Thoughts

One big happy family

Artorias has two ravens named Corbin and Eira and a fox named Argent. Assume they are within calling distance at all times.
As his mate, Briar may enter Artorias' threads unless marked Private.
____________________

Bo sat by Artorias and Emile came to sit by her. The small girls tail wagged furiously and she tucked her ears as he friend came close. "Hi, Emile!" She was so excited to see the boy. Another girl came and Bowen peeked around Emile to see her. She introduced herself as Jane and Bowen's body threatened to lift off as her tail became nothing but a blur. "Hi, Jane! I'm Bowen and this is my brother Artorias!" She felt the need to introduce them both. New friends! They were making new friends! The dog introduced himself and said that the thing on his head was a hat. "Wooooooow!" Bowen's green eyes went wide as she looked at the wide thing on the dogs head. It was so cool! She wanted a hat too! As she was looking, Outlaw explained his game. All they needed to do was find rocks? Bowen was really good at finding rocks. It was her spesh....speshnalty. Torias asked if she wanted to team up with him and the tiny pup beamed up at her larger brother. "Yes!"She knew that they would find a ton of rocks together. She and Torias made a good team. Turning to Emile and Jane, the cinnamon girl smiled. "Good luck!" Still happy wagging, Bowen started off to look for rocks, looking towards Artorias to make sure that he was coming too. "Bowen Arrow"

Jane was happy that the man would be her friend, she wanted all the friends in this world. Or course that was impossible but within her childish mind, the word impossible didn't exist yet. And there she saw her brother Emile. "Emile!" She greeted happily as always. She could be called annoying or way too energetic but she didn't care. "Hey Bowen! Wanna be my friend?!!" She asked once again without hesitation in her voice. Then Outlaw spoke explaining today's activity. Treasure hunt? She would definitely go for it. And looking at her brother she smiled. "Emile wanna come with me???" Her tail wagging behind her. No one else was here to join her so Emile was the only one she could join forces with. "Speech"

Emile felt a thrill of excitement go through him as Outlaw explained what they were doing, he glanced happily at Bowen, knowing she loved treasure hunts. His tail was practically helicoptering and he was dancing from paw to paw. Before the boy got a chance to respond the blue boy was asking Bowen to be on his team, he tried not to be too disappointed about having his friend snagged out from under him but turned to look at his sister with a wide grin on his face, tongue hanging out of the side of his mouth. "S-ssssssure!" He said, happy enough to be getting to play with his sister. "Speech"

Art by Kolokolchek