This was it, they were finally out and on the road as a real band! He had heard about Boreas some, but the only time he had been out of Auster was the brief trip to go to Ashen's festival with Indigo and the others. He didn't know how the northern continent would stack up to Auster, but he was still excited to be in a new place, seeing new things, and traveling with his purple-hued family. Nothing really compared to being with these wolves that he loved so much, even though he was at least a little sad to leave the castle and a couple of the wolves he had grown close to there behind. They would be back though, he was certain of it.

He ventured off from the group for a bit as they paused to rest, following the stream that ran through the dense forest to see if he could find any decent herbs to collect on their way through. The whole place seemed to be absolutely packed with thorns and briars and it made his progress slow as he carefully picked his way through to avoid them. At some point he swayed a little too close to a thorny bush as he was stepping over an equally thorny vine and it picked at his skin, scratching his shoulder. "Ow!" he muttered with a pout, stepping over to a small clearing to lick away the rivulets of blood peaking through his violet splattered fur along the front curve of his shoulder.

Segin Epsilon

Holy crap were things boring lately. Kaija needed some excitement in her life, but she didn't want to piss of her mom or siblings or even Aurielle. She'd seemed a little unsure the last time she'd gone on an adventure, if Kaija was being honest, and she wasn't sure she wanted to test her luck again. But she'd been younger then and now she was totally an adult. Well, at least she was a yearling, and that seemed pretty adult to her - even if mentally she wasn't all that mature. Physically she'd long since come into adulthood, filling out her oversized frame easily. However, her demeanor didn't precisely match her age; she was far from graceful, tramping through the briar patch with little abandon for what happened to be beneath her paws. Likewise she seemed blissfully unaware of just how much noise she was making as she continued on, humming and swearing every time she felt a thorn wedge its way into her coat.  This place was a mess.

She wasn't sure why she'd even come here, except for wanting to see something new. She wanted an adventure and this place had seemed promising, like some kind of maze that might hold something in the center. All the vegetation and vines made it tricky to really navigate, and before long it really was ending up feeling like she was trapped in a maze. Still, she wasn't the type to dwell on regrets and she knew she'd find a way through, however long it took her. Maybe she'd even see something cool in the process.

"Fuck you, stupid little vine," she mumbled under her breath as she got tangled up in a vine she'd been trying to duck beneath. Her tusked head swung sharply toward it and then away again, snagging the vine and trying to pull it free from her hindpaws. Ultimately she ended up getting more tangled, and - far from a patient wolf - Kaija ended up thrashing about wildly for a few moments while she tried to untangle herself. Only by some strange stroke of luck did she manage to free herself properly, loping away into a less dangerous area. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a stranger, just about the prettiest wolf she'd ever seen, and she gravitated toward him without a hint of shyness. "Did you hurt yourself too? Those stupid vines are pretty painful. Think I got stuck a few times here," she demonstrated, lifting one of her front paws and splaying out her toes to reveal a pawpad that was just slightly scratched up.

The sound of thumping and thrashing caught his attention and lifted his silver gaze toward the trees and brush across the clearing from him and he watched the tree line curiously until the sound stopped. Clearly something else was having a hard time with these vines and thorns as well! He got his answer of who it was struggling to get through the briars a few moments later when a large young woman emerged, her pretty coat a monochromatic mix of grays with hints of dark russet. Now that he saw her it made sense why she was having such a hard time - she was significantly taller and more stocky than himself so she probably wasn't able to snake her way through the thorn covered plants as well as he had been able to.

He smiled as she came up to him, asking about if he had gotten hurt as well. He nodded in response, examining her scratched up paw pads when she lifted them for him to see. "Yeah, I did. Just a little on my shoulder so far, but this place is just trouble waiting to happen," he joked with a chuckle. "I was looking to see if there were any good herbs to collect here, but I'm not sure if it's worth all this mess!" He gave his coat a shake, freeing it of some leaves and such that had gotten caught in his fur from climbing through this vine choked forest. Now that he was thinking about being done with this place he hoped he'd be able to find his way back to the rest of the band okay. It was like a maze getting through here in the first place.

"I'm Segin, by the way!" he told his new tusked acquaintance with a smile. He could smell a pack's scent on her, but since the only packs he had been in any sort of contact with so far were The Hallows and Ashen it wasn't one he recognized. "Do you live around here?" he asked curiously as he stepped over to the edge of the stream to get a drink.

Segin Epsilon

Her own adventure through the thicket hadn't been terrible, but she'd gotten a few scratches here and there. Truthfully only sheer luck had saved her from getting more tangled up and impatiently trying to tear through the vines and brambles. Her lack of patience would definitely be one of her downfalls one day, Kaija knew that, but she wasn't sure how to work on that - and truthfully didn't really care to either. After a moment of demonstrating her paw she lowered it, giving her coat a little shake too to free any loose debris from it. "Ouch! Is it bad?" Kaija wasn't the least bit shy and she leaned in close to look at it, sniffing to see if she could smell any blood. And she did smell blood, but just a little, not enough to frantically call for a healer or anything, which was good because she wasn't sure who would even come or if they'd be able to find their way to them easily.

But he wasn't that hurt, and neither was she. Just a bit dirty and scratched up. Kaija laughed at his words. "Yeah, I don't know if I'll come back here again. It's a mess," she emphasized the word, scrunching up her nose a bit as she gestured around wildly with her tusks. She wasn't sure about herbs and all that either. She didn't really care much about plants and all that, though she thought back on those weird glowy mushrooms she'd found and wondered if this place would have anything like that. Probably not, she decided, based on everything she'd seen so far.

"Kaija!" She chirped her name back at him, grinning a bit. "I live in Valhalla, a bit west of here. Dunno if I'll stay there forever though. Seeing the whole world sounds pretty cool, I think," Kaija commented, as if talking very casually about leaving your home was a totally normal thing. The thought came to her suddenly. She wasn't sure she'd like to leave her brothers though, that thought wasn't a great one. It wasn't like that was a decision she was making right now though, just a thought that struck her suddenly. "What about you? You live here? Or close? Segin it was, right?" She trailed after him easily, deciding to lean and take a drink herself. Her mind moved faster than her mouth sometimes and she had to reel back to make sure she'd heard his introduction correctly.

"No no, not that bad," he replied with a chuckle, giving the larger girl a smile as she leaned close to take a closer look at his shoulder. He certainly wasn't shy either and didn't mind others being in his space so he didn't shy away at all as she inspected the cut that had mostly stopped bleeding by now. He certainly wasn't worse for wear and there was more than enough herbs back at their camp for him to patch himself up when he got back. He laughed lightly when she agreed that this place was too much of a mess to return to. There were a lot of places he had been so far in his explorations that he wanted to revisit and take an even closer look at, but this was certainly not one of them!

He grinned while she gave him her name and explained how she currently lived in a pack west of here, but expressed a desire to go out and see the world. He gave her an encouraging nod in response, always more than eager to encourage an adventurous spirit. There was something about younger wolves that had such an energy and an innocence that he found so endearing. Maybe it was because he was never allowed to be so carefree in his childhood, but whatever the reason he loved seeing it in others. "Yep, Segin!" he confirmed with a laugh as she asked his name again after an energetic string of questions. "My friends and I are staying pretty close to here, but we're a traveling band so we go all over the place! I used to live in a pack in Auster, but we moved out on our own now so we can go travel around, collect herbs and valuables, and trade with other wolves."

Segin Epsilon

Though Kaija loved exploring she wasn't sure she was fond of lands like this. It'd been a long while since she'd seen her dad but she knew he was an adventurer, and he liked to explore places like mountains. He'd told her once of a view she could see, and had promised to take her - to the top of a mountain where you could see the entire world, or at least most of it. Kaija hoped she was grown up enough to go there with him soon. It was definitely a lot cooler than exploring this place, but she figured she might as well see what this place had in store now. Maybe it was just all this though, a mess of vines and vegetation, but at least she'd met a wolf that seemed pretty cool so far.

She beamed at him when he confirmed she'd gotten his name right. Of all the things Kaija was, she was definitely flighty, her mind hopping around so much that she often lost track of details others easily picked up. "Woah, that sounds cool. Kinda like my dad, but I don't think he really hangs out with a group, just on his own," she explained hurriedly. Sometimes she wondered if she should spend some time with him but she couldn't help but feel like she ought to be here, too - she felt pulled in two different directions and instead of figuring it out, she just had done.. nothing. Taken to wandering on her own a bit and seeing what kind of trouble she could get into. "Valuables, like treasure? What kind of treasure? What's the coolest thing you've ever seen, then?" Her eyes widened as she shifted her weight from one side of her body to the either, so curious about what he meant by valuables.

He nodded along as the energetic girl explained how her father traveled around too, just on his own instead of in a band. “I was like that too before I found the man that’s leading our band now. I have to say, it’s definitely more fun traveling around with a group than by myself!” He didn't feel like he needed to share how he had been forced into traveling as a loner because of the darker events in his life or how his experience doing that had probably been tainted by the heartbreak he had been working through at the time - she was far to bright and innocent to bother with those sorts of things. Of course, the fact that he loved the wolves he traveled with certainly helped, but either way he enjoying his time traveling far more than he had in the past.

He laughed lightly when Kaija questioned him about the treasures he had seen and he waved the girl off with a playful grin. "I'm afraid I haven't found anything all that exciting... not yet at least." He grinned and winked, adding, "We've only just started traveling recently so there's still plenty of time to find all kinds of things. I have seen some pretty cool places though so that's almost as good to me!" He hummed thoughtfully wondering if maybe there was at least an interesting location he had seen that he could leave her with since he had fallen short on the treasure department. "If you ever get to go exploring through Auster, there's a place made up of a thick cluster of trees, but the trees are absolutely covered in grape vines! The darker grapes - the reddish purple ones - are really sweet and delicious. Stay away from the green ones though, they're really tart and sour."

Segin Epsilon

Segin expressed out loud that he related to what she was saying, at least a bit. It was hard for her to imagine following someone like that, but traveling around and seeing the world did sound pretty cool to her. "So is he like your alpha? He makes all the rules and stuff?" She was curious what exactly he meant, and her tilted head only stressed her curiosity. She wondered if it was exactly like Valhalla, where Aurielle was the leader and ultimately made all the decisions and rules, or if it was different - the most obvious difference aside, of course. "I just wanna see the world, you know? Not just stay in one place forever. But I think I'd miss my family too much," Kaija mused out loud. She wasn't a terribly introspective wolf, but talking through things out loud - to a complete stranger, apparently - helped her work through her thoughts and feelings.

It was easy to push her thoughts aside to listen to whatever he had to say about treasures. Or.. lack thereof. "Someday, then," she grinned, sure that if he wanted to find something valuable that eventually he would. There was always a first time for everything! "Auster is way down south, right? I heard there's a big thing of sand that sparkles colors in the sunlight. Is that true? I'd like to see it but I don't think I like the sand that much. I haven't ever been to the ocean or anything either," Kaija admitted, spitting out her words in nearly a single breath. "Those grapes sound awfully good though. I've never seen anything like that before." She shifted her weight, still grinning at her newfound company and the little description he'd given her. She wondered if she'd ever find this place and decided it was definitely on her list of places to see someday, wherever it was.

Segin nodded, but gave a small shrug when she asked if Indigo was like their alpha, replying, "Kinda like that! It's a lot more relaxed than a pack though and there's less of us too. There's only six of us including me so we don't need a ton of rules, but he kinda makes the decisions on stuff." Hopefully that made sense. It was kind of hard to describe how a band was different from a big, structured pack other than the fact that they didn't stay in one place all the time, but that seemed to sum it up pretty well in his mind. He nodded in understanding when she spoke about wanting to see the world, but that she would miss her family. "Well, I'm sure if you wanted to travel some and then come back they wouldn't mind," he suggested. Not that he knew what her family was like, but as long as she came home at the end of her trip he couldn't imagine anyone having too much issue with that.

He nodded to confirm what she said about Auster being further south and then tipped his head curiously to what she mentioned about a big sand thing that sparkled with different colors. He chuckled and gave a shrug, replying, "Auster is a big place! I traveled around a lot before we came up to Boreas, but there's still a ton of stuff I haven't seen yet! I hope we get to go back so I can explore some more." While they were talking some clouds began to gather overhead and his ears perked when he heard a roll of thunder in the distance. He looked up at the sky with a little frown. It had been constantly raining or storming since autumn came around and today didn't seem like it'd be any different. "Well, I guess I better get back to the others before it starts pouring," he said, offering her another grin. He got to his paws with a quick shake of his fur, adding, "It was good talking to you, Kaija! Maybe I'll see you around again some time! Be safe getting out of here, alright?" With that he turned and went to start making his way out of the briar, careful to not get caught up in the thorns and brambles this time around.

Segin Epsilon

Segin explained a little bit more about what living in a band was like. It was smaller and more relaxed, and their leader made decisions but not a lot of rules. Now Kaija liked the sound of that. He sounding encouraging and she couldn't help but let her mind run at the thought of traveling the world, only to come back and check on her family. It sounded nice, at least in a very abstract way, but she still wasn't totally sure.. but she wanting to travel more and more, the longer the thought lived inside her head. Segin's words were only making it sound even more appealing, if she was being honest. But her thoughts were deterred by the sound of thunder, and Segin admitted he had to be going as well. Kaija nodded, understanding. She was too far off from Valhalla's lands to make it back before it rained but at least she could find somewhere to hunker down and ride out the storm. "Thanks for hanging out with me, Segin. You be safe too!" With that she turned to head back the way she'd came, trying not to get tangled up on the vines quite as much this time.

- exit Kaija -