She shouldn't have gone off on her own. "This was a bad idea... This was a reeeally bad idea." She knew her brother wouldn't want her to leave for any reason and she knew her mother would kill her if she knew why she had gone off on her own, so she hadn't told either of them. She took off in secret one night, waiting till her family was asleep to go off on her secret mission. She was going to find her father. Not Dempsey, not her adopted father. Her real father. The gray brute that she only remembered from that awful day that he hurt Nako and stole him away. But she had to know why he did it. Mother wouldn't talk about it and Lel didn't know any more than she did, so she had to go get information from the source, right? So she took off and started walking toward the south. In what little information she had gotten out of her mother she knew her father, named Bane, lived in a pack called Seracia, or at least he used to. She felt like she had been walking for weeks, which, as far as she knew, she could very well have been. She didn't know where she was going and she couldn't count the times she got lost. Jian had no idea how big Alacritis was. But now she felt like she was finally on the right path. She was padding along down the bank of a river, just making herself put one paw in front of the other and keep going. The tri-toned pup, now a half of a year old, was slowly developing lots of muscle in her legs from the long treck, along with loosing most of her baby fat. She had learned how to hunt, more or less, so she wasn't scrawny, she was just fit. Suddenly she caught a wolf's scent on the breeze and the scent rang all kinds of bells in her memories. Her ice blue gaze widened with surprise and she stopped in her tracks. Jian looked around, wondering if she was imagining things. "Um... Bane? Er, Father? Are you there?" she called after several moments, unintentionally holding her breath as she waited for a response. Speech Thought Others

Bane lounged about in his den, content for the most part, and warm, though the fact that he was by forced to live by himself still brought the occasional shiver some days during this season. And it wasn't from the cold. The dangling deerskin pinned over the entrance by a few stones did a good job of letting air in and keeping heat from mostly escaping. But Bane was alone, though busy during the more recent days with carving his mark onto the trees. He had his first good meal in a long while when a deer had taken a drink and let its guard down, the ensuing chase ending when he had tackled and drowned it under the fractured and loose ice of the river from their fall.

Almost drowned himself, the elder wolf rolling to his paws and giving his pelt a shake to free it of dirt, his nose brushing aside the deerskin. The days light shown in his one eye and he rapidly blinked to adjust the uncomfortable feeling. Bane eyed the antler stuck in the ground and gingerly picked it up, snow compressing as he laid down and began to chew a design. A few moments passed as he felt with his tongue and continued to gnaw a curve in the antler. The call of another reached him and Bane dropped his ceremonial stick to loose a low howl. Whoever that was, they knew his name, and if the wanted to talk they would have to come to him.

Jian's ears flicked at the sound of a howl in response to her words, her heart racing from nervous anxiety. She wanted to see him, but at the same time the only real memory she had of him was the day she saw him disappear with Nako. She didn't want that to happen to her so she approached him cautiously, emerging from the brush near his den slowly, her ice-blue eyes fixed on the gray brute. She stopped several feet away, looking him over with hesitant eyes. The place where his eye used to be bothered her, but not near as much as the antler he had in his paws. She swallowed, gathering up her courage, before she finally spoke again. "Hello... father." It was strange, thinking of him in that way, but he was, like it or not. She dared to take a few more steps toward him before stopping again, still keeping a good space between them, eyeing the antler in his paws suspiciously. "Um... I know we've never talked or anything, but I wanted to see you 'cause... well I was curious I guess. And I wanted to see if Nako was with you and... I don't know." She stumbled over her words before finally just stopping with a sigh. "Oh, I'm... I'm Jian. I wasn't sure if you knew." Speech Thought Others

Milky blue eyes glanced about the surrounding trees where the call had come from and Bane felt his pulse quicken. Who was the one who knew his name and called him father? That question was answered soon enough, and behold it was an Alena pup, Jian, Bane dropping his antler and rising to his worn paws. "My daughter, look at you... you've grown quite a bit since I last saw you in the nursing den haven't you?" She had called him father and the elder wolf let a smile crease his muzzle at the word as he took a few steps forward and stretched his neck out to sniff Jian's cheeks.

The Alena born female's voice quavered as she told Bane of her purpose being her. To talk? And see if Nako was around? Jian stopped with an exasperated sigh and Bane titled his head in worry.?"I know exactly who you are, and I'm afraid I can't take you to Nako. He is away with my mate in Seracia, and I'm stuck here." Bane closed the distance between them and gave his daughter a warm embrace with a wrapping of his neck around hers. "I have all the time in the world to answer whatever questions you might have Jian. Let us talk."

The tri-toned pup watched the wolf that was her father carefully, tracking his movements. Some of the tension fell from her shoulders when she saw the antler fall from his muzzle and he stood up. She struggled a little bit with the urge to back away from him when he moved toward her, but it didn't look very threatening... Maybe it was because she had grown since she had seen him last, but he seemed less... scary now. Even with the missing eye. Her dark ears drooped at the news that she couldn't see Nako, but she was happy to hear that he was still okay. She held still as he came forward to embrace her, even managing to return the gesture a little bit. He was a stranger to her, but in a weird way it felt like she had always known him. After his invitation to talk she let her icy-blue gaze find his remaining eye and she settled onto her haunches. Talking was good. It was a start. "Well... Maybe we can start with the Nako thing? I've been wondering why you did it and mother never wants to talk about it. For good reason I guess, but I've still wondered. Oh! And um... How did you meet mother? And how come you and mother aren't mates? Oh oh! And do you have other pups? Like with your mate in Seracia?" It was a wide range of questions, she knew that, but she had so many questions to ask! There was so many things that Alena never wanted to speak with her or Lel about, when she was around, but here she was, at the source of the information! She had to take advantage of it while she could. Speech Thought Others

Bane noted Jian's ear droop after he said that she couldn't see Nako and felt his own do the same. He knew exactly how it felt not being able to see your loved ones, or littermates in Jian's case. His neck wrapped a little tighter and then backed off to sit down, Bane's single eye catching her own as his daughter got in a comfortable position to question him. And question him she did, rapidly and without pause it seemed, Bane planning to answer just as fast.?A breath was taken as he organized her order of questions in his head and took to looking at the grey sky for a moment. Late winter storm brewing above.

He looked down at Jian. Questions. Right. That. Bane answering her first in a blunt and straight forward manner.?"I did it because I wanted what was mine and Alena had young to spare." Bane felt an amused grin upon answering that question and felt his cheeks get warm upon hearing the nature of answering the next. "Alena and I met at the hot-springs outside of our packs, tiring time we had together making you kids during that tryst." A mirthful laugh being given at his answer before growing serious and answering his pup's next question. "Because it was forbidden by Seracia to mate outside of the pack and with non packmates. I have a mate and two pups alongside Nako in Seracia, their still there."?The first droplet of rain hit his nose and he looked up again. Looks like he was right about the storm. Would it be awkward to ask Jian if she wanted to wait out the storm in his den? "You wanna come back to my den where we can talk without risked death through cold and wet conditions?"