Skadi hauled herself up onto one of the boulders that separated the Knolls from the Forest. She was trying to get a better look at the woods her afi had labeled 'dangerous' and 'off limits' to pups her size because of the many ghouls that lived there. Naturally that made her want to check it out even more. But she was going to be good; she was supposed to be good. That was part of the deal. Since she'd promised she'd do her best that had put her in a bit of a bind. How could she be good and satisfy her curiosity at the same time? The conundrum had occupied her thoughts for awhile until Skuggi had pointed out that technically standing on the border wasn't crossing the line. Armed with that information of course Skadi had immediately run to the border to look inside.

From the ground she hadn't been able to see much but then she'd noticed Skuggi preening atop a pile of boulders and had the brilliant idea to climb up after the owl. And now here she was toeing the line but still being 100% good like she'd promised!

The tiny pup stood atop the boulder with her tail and ears held high as she gaze smugly into the woods. Just as she imagined the Forest was fascinating. It was dark and foreboding, and its lifeless ground clashed sharply with the sunny green Knolls that butted up against it. There was so much to see, but what she really wanted was to get a glimpse of something wicked. Her Afi had promised her ghouls and spooks. "Hello? Hellooo! Any ghouls around?" She then fell silent, her ears straining to capture the sounds of a reply. Was anyone around?

Sidero had tried her absolute very best to avoid anything to do with the nearby pack, even going so far as to enter this absolutely dreadful forest. It was murky and spooky and even if Sid didn’t already tremble like a leaf every waking moment, she would have begun trembling then. Saying that she was a scardy-cat was an understatement (though for good reason), and walking into this forest was like walking into her worst nightmare. But it was all to avoid her real worst fear: other wolves.

One might think that Sid would flock to join a pack. After all, she was tiny, had trouble walking and because she had trouble walking she had to scavenge, so she was hungry on the best of days and starving on the worst. But the last thing she wanted to do was join the very thing that had caused her these issues in the first place.

The woman padded along, her eyes wide and alert and her ears swiveling to make sure she didn’t miss anything. She could only assume there were plenty of predators around, waiting to catch their next prey so they could survive the impending winter. Sid, though boney, would probably provide a semi-decent meal.

Suddenly, a voice called into the air and the yearling froze, her trembling turning seismic and her tail pinning itself to her belly. Her breathing quickened, wondering if there were more voices where that came from and, therefore, more wolves. No, she couldn’t take it. She needed to get away. She turned in a fluffy, skittering in the opposite direction of the voice but she didn’t see the tree root sticking out underneath the fog that rolled along the ground. She tripped with a yelp, crashing to the ground gracelessly.

"Speech"

The silence as she waited was so loud Skadi could hear herself breathing. To combat this just in case ghouls had soft voices she decided to hold her breath. Her ears strained and her patience languished in the quiet as she waited, desperate for an answer. She'd thought about peeking into the Forest all morning; it would be a shame if all of that scheming had been for nothing! All she wanted was one monster. It didn't even have to be a big one! She'd be happy if it was a teeny little monster the size of one of the Range's skunks. She just wanted a monster.

She started to get dizzy from the lack of breathing and was forced to let out her breath in a noisy gust. Just then there was a clatter in the Forest that caused her heart to jump and her explosive sigh to turn into a tiny gasp. Was that a monster? Say it was so!

Skadi was off the boulder like a shot. There, on the other side of the border in a tangle of weird hair and limbs, was a monster! She frizzed up like a dandelion, arched her back and stiff-legged sidestepped towards the creature all the while careful to stay on her side of the border. Her bristled tail lashed from side to side and her ears were pinned back. She was as fearsome as she could manage, which truthfully wasn't much. "Oy! Monster!" She was so excited she forgot how to be clever so all Skadi could manage after that was a haughty, "What do you think you're doing?"

Crap, crap, crap she shouted in her head. Oh she’d done it now. Any hope she’d had of slipping away were promptly dashed with the cacophony that was her limbs flailing into the brush. She righted herself with a wince, her head aching where it had connected with the ground and she raised a paw to rub at it. When she finally looked up, she nearly peed herself. A wolf stared back down at her, obviously a pup but that didn’t mean much to Sid. Some of the meanest things done to her had been by pups, egged on by their parents who believed their children had just as much a right to use and abuse her as they did.

The child called her a monster, demanding to know what she was doing there and she whined, face pinning to the ground and her belly facing the sky with her tail tucked in a display of submission. “I-I-I’m s-sorry. I t-t-thought t-that this w-wasn’t p-p-pack land,” she pleaded, body spasming with fear. Why was she so stupid and always getting into trouble?

"Speech"

She stood there ready and waiting for a fight until the quivering mass unrolled to reveal a submissive wolf belly. Aw, it was just a rogue! Not cool! She'd called for a monster not this, this...wahtever this was. "Aw, you're not a monster, just some lady!" Skadi kicked at the ground dejectedly and then fixed the woman with an unhappy scowl that sound devolved into curiosity. An adult had never shown her their belly before. Until now she'd always had to be on her best behavior around them and this sort of thing just seemed like the sort of thing she could maybe get out of her siblings if she was super mean, but never a grown up. How could she not be intrigued? But it made sense in her head. She was after all a viking. The woman was right to be afraid of her.

Skadi puffed out her chest and stepped closer. "That's not packland. This," she poked the ground on her side of the border, "Is packland. This," this time she stepped onto the wide scent markers so she could reach out and tap the ground on the other side. "Is  rogue land. Where the witches and monsters live." As an after thought, she sniffed and added, "You'll probably get eaten over there." To be safe Skadi then stepped back fully onto Fireside land. "So I accept your apology, I guess. It's the right thing to do since it'd be bad if you died unforgiven."