Serenity had started moving outside the castle walls as of late since the sun had come back over the moon and things started to go into a normal routine. She had taken a physical toll from staying inside home and not going out as much. But more so her anxiety of the glowing mushrooms and creatures had driven her nearly mad and it was the biggest impact on her physical state. She was just well out of shape was all.

She ventured outward, looking for fresher meat to bring back to the stores. Now that not all the animals were infected it felt like the right thing to do. She stopped dead in her tracks as she caught on to a dangerous scent, a grizzly bear though she couldn't spot just where it was through the trees and the falls. Was it trailing her? Or did she have the upper hand?

"Serenity"

Rudyard had been roaming the gods garden and had been deciding if he wanted to take a stab at hunting small game like a rabbit but his pace slowed as a scent caught his attention.  Another one of the hallows wolves, there was no problem with that but his concern was the direction the path went.  Rudyard had followed it until he got to the edge of the garden and admittedly for a few minutes time stayed still to Rudyard.  He looked at the landscape and could only see where he’d washed ashore, could see where Oxx had stood above him and remember how it had felt.  Rudyard felt a shiver going down his spine, looking at the paw missing its toes.  Shaking his head he stepped past the garden and continued forward.  

No one was going to hear about the fear beating in his heart as he tracked the fellow wolf.  What if Oxx was still out here?  No more should be mutilated, none should risk death from the cruel wolf.  No scent of Oxx but Rudy did catch a different scent, far less dangerous but still a threat, another bear.  Had every bear in the lands come to the hallow borders?  The scent of their wolf and bear mingled.

Rudy quit worrying about fear and ran towards the scents.  Short ways ahead he saw a bear making his way through the trees towards Serenity.  Rudy gave a call to her a mix of bark and partial howl, “look out!” Fear was gone, his focus now on protecting someone else.  What it all came down to was knowing what needed to be done so he could act on it.
Rudy charged ahead of the bear so that he got in between it and Serenity, snarling to show his fangs.  He lunged towards it but then backpedaled quickly when an absurdly large paw swiped at him.   So long as the other wolf fought with Rudy he was confident they could handle the grizzly.

"Speech"

Before she could even catch on to the bear that was nearly on her like a coat, she heard a voice not so familiar to herself but the scent of The Hallows was enough to show. In a split second she twirled around, the young boy getting between her and the bear before it had a chance to attack. She couldn't deny admiring his bravery for protecting her as much as they didn't really know one another. She had seen him around the pack from on top the castle walls, but not as of late with what had happened to him. She hadn't heard about it herself. Was that a good or bad thing?

She didn't just sit around to watch the show, instead moving forward with intent to help him. She was out of shape from her own experience to the ooze which was completely unrelated to his adventures. But it didn't stop her from thrusting forward to do as he was for her. She too evaded the swipe of the grizzly and immediately jumped forward in a counter to bite it on the ribs, causing it's attention back on her. If they could just confuse and distract it a bit, maybe it would feel outnumbered and go about it's way.

"Serenity"

When Serenity attacked Rudy used the moment to pivot and get at a wider angle to get the bear closer to being between the two of them.  Rudy lunged in, claiming his teeth into a back leg around the thigh, jerking his head sideways to try and ripe the wound he caused to get deeper.  He caused a bit of blood to be spilled but then had to back up quickly as the large bear faced him.  Rudy’s puff of a tail remaining was raised up, ears pinned back as he snarled defiantly.

Rudy didn’t care if the bear ran off or if they killed it but so long as the bear stayed between the two wolves it would stay at the disadvantage.  Now it was just a game of which wolf did the bear want to get the most damage in. The bear tried to swipe a paw out at him and Rudy stepped back, the moment the paw went past he lunged back in, snapping his teeth into the thigh once more, jerking his head the wound tore open wider creating a much more satisfying amount of blood to start spilling out.

Rudyard Carpathius

As Rudy lunged forward with his own attack, the bear swung around towards the new threat of pain. Serenity backed off herself though only to get another good angle at the grizzly or at least see where their situation would lie.

Serenity was at least much quieter than Rudy, though didn't take offense to his own defense snarls. It wasn't towards her after all, and it was a bit of a booster to get the bear up and running. She stayed in her defensive stance for a moment as Rudy went in for another evade and counter. She too leapt in afterward, joining up beside him and attacking the same area which caused the bear to flop over and start to pull away from them, crawling on the ground and attempting to get out of their grasp so it could run away. She released, she didn't see much of a profit for the rest of the energy and maybe even more of a fight to kill it. But she couldn't help just feeling a little bad wondering if it's wounds would put it down. She wasn't expecting Rudy to pull through with a kill, not that she would be all that surprised really.

"Serenity"

Rudyard was surprised when Serenity decided to join in on attacking the same side of the bear but he understood a moment later when the bear showed it was ready to be done with the fight and flee.  Rudy backed off from the bear, keeping his defenses up and cautiously watching but sure enough, the bear was doing its best to get away.

Rudy continued watching it until it was too small to see the details.  It had been decent-sized injury but it was a giant bear.  Rudyard let out a sigh, “I think he'll live,” the words stated simply before looking to Serenity, “you ok?”  Rudy had really slacked off on keeping up with the wolves residing at the castle.  Good time to start getting to know names to go along with faces, “I’m Rudyard Carpathius.”

Horrible that it was his family that had created this pack and only now was he giving this wolf his name.  Kind of embarrassing but, he’d do better in the future.

Rudyard Carpathius