Citadel knew he had been told. No, ordered to stay in the pack. His parents were going to go investigate, and he wasn’t allowed to follow. But he also knew that they had taken their companions with them for protection. Leaving no one to keep an eye on him and make sure he obeyed.

He had intended to do what they asked of him. Really. But eventually, his curiosity caught the better of him. He had to go see what was so important! What were they all doing? So he snuck to the pack borders. Trying to keep an eye for any sign of people following, and left the Armada. From there, he utilised his Raven for aerial support to find his way, and Rook’s superior knowledge of the surrounding territories. With them, and the snow leopard, he was able to find this bizarre new land.

"Speech"

Selene had slipped away just a moment after her brother did. She was tired of being left out of his shenanigans! Why was he always getting in trouble? Maybe she should keep an eye on him for Momma and Dad.

As they came upon the land she sidled on up beside him, as bold as if he had known she was there the whole time, but she had been careful not to announce herself throughout the trek. Of course, the first thing she saw was the giant towers! She had to climb one!

"Cit! What are these do think?" Already had three paws up one and heard the spooky wind rush through them. Ooo! Fun!

"Citadel"||"Selene"

Citadel startled at the sudden and unexpected appearance of his sister. He frowned towards her for a second, and then grinned. You know what, he was okay with this. He missed having his siblings along for his adventures. Just so long as she didn’t try to show him up this time.

“They’re obviously, uhhh…” yes, what exactly were they? “Giant Obelisks, like we have at home. They must have this territory's rules on them. Look, there is some scribbling on that one.” he said with some relief. As if this clearly demonstrated that he was right. It didn’t matter that he couldn’t understand the scribbling. Nor did he take a moment to consider what it might mean, if they were rules.

"Speech"

Giant Obelisks! Yes of course!
"We can climb these obelisks!" She said, already two rows higher than she was a moment ago. A gust of wind wooshed past her face and felt the big obelisks thrum with the sound of the wind.

"Whats they say Cit?" She called down, trying to see if she could make it up another layer. "Do you think they talking to each other with the winds? Why are there so many?" She asked in her usual exuberant way. It was getting harder to climb the higher she got. And as she looked down to her brother she bit the inside of her cheek gently at the idea of getting down. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. And Rook was definitely trying to tell her to get down.

"I just wanna see how far I can get and what the land looks like!" She called down to them.


"Citadel"||"Selene"

Selene was already scrambling up the Obelisk, nimble on her lithe paws. Citadel scowled, annoyed that he didn’t think of climbing first. The wolf extended the cat-like claws on his bear paws and turned to the obelisk besides the one his sister was climbing. He was strong, but heavier. Which made him slow as he began to heave himself upwards. “I can’t read it” he huffed in answer to her question. “Why don’t you look at them?” he muttered, pulling himself up a little higher.

He glanced down, and wondered what the ground would feel like if he fell. Probably best not to let that happen.

"Speech"

Oh! He couldn't read them? Weird! She narrowed her eyes to see if she could find anything noticeable about the area from her height. She scrunched her nose as she thought and couldn't figure out what was so weird about this place. She looked up and saw that the sky was still not clearing up from the red sunrise.

She huffed confused as she slowly made her way back down. Oh no... she couldn't reach! She stretched her eg down trying to grab the rung under her and it was too far!

"Cit!" She called out, now the howling wind in the spires was starting to scare her, it sounded like wolves screaming in pain...

"Cit.... I'm stuck." She admitted, her voice high as suddenly she felt way too small and way too high. She was only on the third rung up but for some reason, she couldn't find her way back down!

"Cit I'm scared!" She called to him, her voice starting to pitch higher.


"Citadel"||"Selene"

Even as the young boy was climbing up the spires, Selene started climbing down. He didn’t notice immediately, concentrating as he was on climbing. It wasn’t until she called out his name that he glanced suddenly upwards. There she was, not very high from him now, hanging onto the spire. Clearly she was very afraid, and the howling wind which barely ruffled him seemed to stir in her coat.

Citadel scrunched up his nose for a moment in thought, and then climbed his spire a little higher. Once he had a bit of height to it, he coiled his hind legs… and jumped. Hitting the Spike she clung to hard. He started to slip and yelped as he tried to dig his claws into the stone even while moving. When he was able to get a little purchase, he halted his descent. But man, it hurt. He came to a panting stop beside her, and turned to his tiny sister. “Alright, grab onto my neck, okay?”


"Citadel"||"Selene"

She clung to the spire, her snowy tail clinging to her body and her extra grippy paws wrapping around the rungs of the strange spike. She looked to see if Cit would help her and for a minute it looked like he wouldn't! What was she going to do?

She closed her eyes and tried to focus on calming her nerves but the sounds were making her shake! She gasped as she heard him suddenly on her own spire with a loud scrambling and a hiss of pain. Oh no! Did he get hurt? These weird spikey things were so hard and smelled so weird!

She nodded as he came closer and told her to grab his neck. He was so much bigger than her! She almost didn't realize how much he was still growing! Had she already stopped growing?

With a whine, she shifted and scrambled over his back. She was using her pads to hold onto his fur. But she couldn't help a few retractable claws digging in when she was unsteady. "Sorry-" She tried. How was he going to get them down?


"Citadel"||"Selene"

Selene was a pain in the ass of a little sister, but that didn't mean he would shirk his duties as big brother. He would look after her, and see that she was safe. He didn't want her to get hurt, and worry of her slipping was doing havoc to his thoughts as he waited for her to get a grip around his neck. “Hold on tighter than that!” He ordered her, even if her claws were painfully sharp in his neck. 


Huffing a little from smarting paws, and the effort of clinging to the spire with extra weight around his neck, he started to move. Climbing slowly down, one paw at a time. His heavy set bear paws offered him a better grip than a wolf's would have. Black bears were made for climbing, after all despite their heavy weight.

Her brother scolded her to hold on tighter! So she did! She clung to him! Her claws dug in and she braced herself for his next move. He started to move down! And hey! He was good at this! He had the reach and the strength to move them both down. As soon as he got within a safe distance and she felt she could make the jump she chimed in, "It's good! you climb good!" Should she try to jump on her own from here? Or let him take her all the way down? She was eager to move and started to let herself go when another moaning sound reverberated through the huge metal spike. She clung to her big brother again and held her breath until they reached the ground again.

When her paws where on solid ground she wrapped her legs around his neck and buried her face into his fur. "Thank you thankyou thankyou! You're a good brother!" Now what else could they do here?

"Do you think he's spikes have something underneath them?" She asked and bounded to the base of one of the spires. It had a weird scary flat face on it.


"Citadel"||"Selene"

When they were close to the ground, he felt his sister's grip in his coat shift as if she was going to jump. Distracted for a moment, and not sure how high up he was, he looked over his shoulder at her. The distraction caused his grip to slip, and they slid down the last little bit to the ground. Luckily, they had been close. But the spire had likely suffered from both their climbing and the last slip. He shook out his paw, it felt stiff and sore. Actually, that had been really… stressful. He’d never felt stressed before.

He startled in surprise when Selene was suddenly hugging him. They’d had a lot of fusses, mostly with him being annoyed at her. So sudden affection was a little unusual. He held very still as she wrapped her paws around him and buried her face in his neck. “I wouldn’t let anything happen to you. Your my sister.” He said, a little relieved when she let go.

When she turned her attention to the ground, he nodded his head rapidly. Anything that had her concentrating on down instead of up. “You know, I bet you're onto something. We should dig and find out.” He suggested


"Citadel"||"Selene"