Lark was hungry.

Food wasn't particularly difficult for him to find at home, but he was in the mood for something different this time. Something larger. Lark Destruction's paws carried him away from lands familiar to him, north to a rather large thicket that he had yet to fully explore. Unlike the lands of Abaven, which were humid and moist from the river that flowed through, this place was much drier. His movements were careful as he weaved in and out of bushes, some taller than himself while others were tiny. The grasses were tall too, tickling his belly and causing the fur along his spine to stand slightly in alarm.

The scent of a pig had caught his attention. It was a perfect summer day; as perfect for hunting as it was for this pig to search for a meal as well. It wouldn't be difficult to find him, not at all. His nostrils flared as he arched his head to the ground, sniffing as he trailed after the scent. His tail twitched in excitement behind him as the yearling pushed on through the thicket, taking in the sights of this new land with interest.

(Anyone is welcome! Lark would love a hunting partner, whether of Abaven or not!)

Finally! She was a year old now! No longer a puppy and no longer tied to that boring old forest! She raced across the lands, exploring where she could and enjoying every minute of it. Her explorations would bring her to eastern lands, quite the contrast from her Western home, but she liked all the colors and the difference in temperature. Here, it felt more...springy, more green. Back around her willows, it was all icky desert and dry air. So not the place for a princess like her. Gangly legs walked among the thickets, the plants tickled her body but she was growing somewhat irritated at it. She scowled when she got some brambles stuck in her coat, grumbling when the bushes poked and prodded and pulled at her beautiful ebony coat. Irritated, she was more concentrated on trying to keep her looks from getting ruined, and in the process hadn't been paying attention to the scent of the other as she approached. Her measly thirty five inches didn't compare to his size, he was easily larger but she wouldn't give notice to that until her face smushed into his left side. Falling back on her haunches, she shook her had and glared at the man. Head tilted slightly upwards as she scowled and fumed. "Hey! Can't you see I'm walking here? Watch where you're going next time!" She shook her ruffled pelt, eyeing the boy as she took a good look at him. He was certainly tall and...cute. Though his coat was more on the muddied color side of things, she didn't mind. That meant she just looked prettier. "Speech"

The new pups had been born now, of course his mother wasn't quite back on her feet yet which meant that there was still plenty to do to help out with the pack. Even so, Aslan couldn't resist taking a few quiet moments for himself, slipping free of the lands for a while and a little chance to explore beyond those ever familiar borders. Every now and then he'd meet someone new on his travels, sometimes even old faces he hadn't seen for quite some time. He wouldn't recognise either of the two wolves he spotted now; Lark he hadn't really seen before, and if at all it was only a brief glance during a visit to Abaven when the boy was young, certainly not an official meeting. Azula however wasn't familiar at all to him at all, it was safe to say he hadn't seen her before. He'd watch as the pair collided, a safer distance away himself that he could stop and was not about to add to the crash. He wouldn't intervene as the girl informed the larger boy to watch where he was going, though it amused him a little; she was the one scolding yet was the one more at fault here.

The aquatic girl had been on a sort of hypervigilance, even if others didn’t notice it, since she had run away from her captors almost a year prior. It was because of this that she sometimes found herself off of pack lands, scouring the territories that wandered about to ensure that she was still safe where she was, though that was not what had caused her outing. She had just returned from the battlefield and was on her way back to Abaven lands. The girl with the white mask would sigh, inhaling and exhaling over and over until her heart didn’t feel like it was beating out of her chest. It was then that she caught a familiar scent and two stranger scents on the wind. Consider her curiosity piqued. She would follow what she determined to be Lark’s scent, still feeling the pain of bruising from her spar with Vivek on the battlefield, which was where she had been heading back from. “Hi Lark, who are your friends?” The curious yearling would ask with a small and albeit a little forced smile towards Aslan and Azula.

Stupidly, he hadn't been paying attention to his surroundings much. His attention was focused on the pig that he'd been stalking - so much so that he barely noticed the approach of another, only turning his head milliseconds before someone ran straight into the side of his face. His pace would slow to a halt as he pulled away from the stranger sharply. His fur bristled a bit as he eyed her, feeling a bit irritated that she'd not only run into him, but distracted him from his task at hand entirely. Who knew if he'd even be able to keep up with the pig's scent now?

He frowned at her words.  She wasn't much younger than him, but the way she'd walked into him made her seem much more childlike to him. "You're the one that ran into me," Lark would retort, a defensiveness creeping into his tones. "And you interrupted something too." Though he hadn't gone on any large hunts yet, he knew the basics of hunting.. and he knew being quiet was a bit part of it. Surely if the pig was anywhere near, it was gone now that she'd opened her mouth to complain!

His nose twitched as he tasted the air, noting another unfamiliar scent. Ignoring Azula for a moment, he would twist his head to find another standing in the distance. For some reason that he couldn't find, he was vaguely familiar. His frown deepened as he eyed Azula.  "You two trying to ambush me or something?" He wrinkled his nose; he was pretty sure he could defend himself if that was the case. He cast a questioning gaze in Aslan's direction.

Only at the sudden arrival of Calypsei would he relax. A sigh left his throat at her question. Why the hell had three wolves found him here? Perhaps he was not as good of a hunter as he had thought.. for a good hunter knew how to be both the hunter and the hunted, and he was making his presence pretty easily known here, it seemed. "I have no idea who these two are," he'd say matter-of-factly, slipping in to his serious tone. "But they aren't my friends. What are your names, anyway?" his inquisitive gaze would fall from Azula to Aslan as he waited for their answers.

ooc:  is it too late?  I'd love for Ullr to participate.

Mentally jotting down an important life lesson for later Ullr would remind himself that badgers were faster than they looked, particularly irate badgers that may have possibly, accidentally been urinated upon.  You live, you learn.   Ducking sharply into a thick… well thicket, Ullr paused, panting and listening.  Was it gone?  Cautiously he poked his head out of the grass just as the badger leapt.  OH, HELL!  Ullr squawked and scrambled backward before breaking in a dead run.  Badgers might be faster than the looked but they were nowhere near as fast as a wolf!  

He ran and ran, turning and twisting until he'd managed to get himself more or less lost in the thicket…. but at least he'd lost a badger and wolves were known for their stamina.  Reaching down to pick some burrs out of his fur Ullr paused at the sound of voices.  Odd… he hadn't caught any pack scents.  Curious the man immediately started following the voices til he came upon a group of four wolv--  WHAT ON EARTH WAS THAT!?  

Ullr's jaws fell open as he started at a bright… bright…. wolf? "Uhhh…. hi there."  Oh jeez, was he standing here gaping like a goldfish?  Ullr quickly cleared his throat and recomposed himself. "Sorry about that, I'm Ullr Vilison and I… can't say I've seen a wolf as brightly colored as you m'am."

"Speech"

The taller boy of course didn't respond too well to the smaller girl's accusations and would sharply notice Aslan lurking around as well. Brows would furrow at his jump to conclusions though before he could reply a rather brightly coloured female would appear on the scene, one that appeared to know the male who certainly seemed far cheerier than the current companions Aslan had apparently found himself. "Certainly not an ambush, I've no idea who she is either. I'm Aslan Destruction." Aslan quickly attempted to reassure the other male, Lark as he was apparently named. He'd give his own introduction as well and hope that the darker female might calm enough to politely give her own introduction rather than create any more tension between her and Lark. He didn't particularly want to get caught in the middle of such things. This was turning out to be quite the gathering though apparently, with another wolf soon appearing and feeling about as out of place as Aslan himself did. "Hello." He greeted the stranger in return, though decided against offering any form of agreement on the comment in regards to the bright blue coloured female.