Warmth and cuddles was what the girl woke up to this morning. Her brother and sister curled up beside her, except her brother's hind legs were sprawled across her abdomen. Slowly waking, she gazed out of the den, eyes slowly widening as the summer sun streamed across her pelt. It was warm, and she liked that. Not so much being pinned by her lump of a brother though, so carefully she wiggled her way out from under him and scooted into a seating position. A huge yawn took hold of her, but as soon as it stopped she stood and quietly made her way outside. Daddy wasn't in the den, maybe he was out getting breakfast? Once outside, she looked around but saw no sign of him. The sun was steadily rising, and she wondered how long he would be gone for.

While she decided to wait, she set to grooming herself to smooth out her clumped fur. She hated when it was messed up. She had to look her best at all times, after all. After a good while of making sure her fur was perfect, the girl stood and began to nose around the den. Her father's scent was still around, and she suddenly decided that maybe she could find him and help him hunt! Following his scent, she wandered further from the den, ears flicking as she caught the sounds of...well, she wasn't sure what they were really. Huge brown creatures that were always together. They were the biggest things she had seen, from far away of course. She had never been up close and personal with them yet, but she was curious.

When she came to the top of a small rise, she watched the herd grazing not too far off. Her quest to find her dad had now been forgotten as she watched the buffalo, tail wagging as she considered approaching them to see what they were. Maybe she could play with them? There were smaller ones, maybe she could play with those? Whining a bit, she stood there with a huge bout of indecision...

Artemis strolled through the knolls with an air of easy familiarity. She had spent much of her life in the south and western parts of this northern continent, and traipsing through the hills allowed her mind to wander back to better days. It was with a pang that she thought of the days of her youth, when her father had taken her from land to land, teaching her how to find her way home again. Well, so much for that. She chased the line of thought away, choosing instead to appreciate the beautiful morning. It was not yet too hot, but the air held the same muggy quality it had for the last several weeks. She did her best to ignore it. Ignoring it got significantly easier when she caught sight of a bright speck of orange in the distance. A youngling sat atop a nearby knoll, staring out at it's other side. Artemis was coming up on her back, and as she came closer the nebulous woman picked out the sound of trampling hooves. She scoffed gently. What was it with these knolls, strangely vibrant pups, and bison? She thought back to the teal and purple pup who had narrowly escaped the ire of a mother bison not long ago. She was close to this one's age... Kicking a bit of pep into her step, Artemis altered her course ever so slightly so that she was headed for the youth. Not wanting to startle it, she called out when she was perhaps fifteen body lengths away, "I wouldn't muck with them if I were you," she advised. After all, her tiny squishy body wouldn't hold up for more than a second under their hooves, peaceful as they might sometimes seem. Honestly, where were these kid's parents? "Are you lost, little one?" she asked, not looking forward to potentially escorting the thing home but she couldn't exactly leave her either. Her morality was sometimes a bit of a gray area, but when it came to pups... Well, call her a softie. She kept walking, trotting up to stand atop the same hill, but still a bit away from the young girl. The herd was impressive, just beginning to rouse for the day. No wonder the girl had been drawn to observe them, as Artemis too found herself temporarily lost in meditating over their movements, but perhaps that was more due to the hunter in her than sheer curiosity. "Talk" "You" Think

She was gonna do it! Okay...maybe not...but oh how she wanted to do it so bad! She practically danced in place as she fought with the decision to go and get a closer look, but part of her didn't want to go up close and personal either...at least, not by herself anyway. But her siblings were sleeping and she didn't know where her dad had gone off to, but she was bored and wanted something to do. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to go and get a closer look? She took a step forward, and then another, and another. But before she could move her remaining paw, her ears fell back to catch the sound of a voice coming from...somewhere. "I wouldn't muck with them if I were you," Her head tilted slightly as she stood still, eyes glancing side to side. "huh?" Who the heck? Was that the buffalo? No. It was another wolf! Confirmed when she sniffed the air. She turned her head sideways to glance at the new stranger that had appeared, the question that had popped from her tongue lingered in the air between them for a moment.

Her? Lost? What kind of question was that? Of course she wasn't lost! At least, she never was in her mind. She was always found. Yep. That was her logic of things. Shaking her head, she stared at the star clad creature. She couldn't say she was surprised to see such a wolf, really. As far as she was aware, her fathers family were all sorts of different colors! On top of that, her own sister was purple and her brother was red! "Um..No, I don't think so?" She did kinda question that. She wasn't born in Ardent, and the knolls were pretty different from where she had originally come from. So was she really lost? Not to mention she hadn't been able to track down her dad, and she was getting the itch to wander away from the boredom that kept her stuck here. Hmm..."Are you lost?" she would fire back the question, wondering where this girl had come from to begin with.

Artemis was glad to see that her arrival didn't seem to alarm the girl. Some pups could be flightly, and for good reason. She'd met some batshit crazy wolves in her day, after all. Luckily for this little one she was feeling mostly sane herself that day, and lucky for Artemis she didn't seem exactly keen to go get herself trampled. It was a win-win for them both! The azure femme tossed her head back and laughed when the girl asked in a strong tone, "Are you lost?" So she had spunk, huh? Good. Artemis thought about it for a moment, letting out an ever-so-slight hum as she did so. Was she? To be lost meant you had wandered from home, but she didn't have a home technically. "Hmm, I don't think I'm lost either. Here is just fine with me," she said with a nod and a smile. "Do you have a name?" She asked, curious. Artemis liked pups well enough, despite having no immediate plans to have any of her own, but she really did feel obligated to return the girl to her parents, wherever they were. She debated whether or not she ought to press the issue, but... quickly became distracted by the buffalo yet again, and decided she was in no rush to run off. "Talk" "You" Think

She eyed the blue hued, star clad stranger. The girl had to admit to herself (however reluctantly) that she was pretty. Almost as pretty as her. Was she royalty? Paradise firmly believed that she herself was royalty. Mostly due to her exotic looks. That meant something, right? They didn't look like the normal plain looking wolves that seemed to roam the lands around them, and the normal looking wolves definitely didn't get a second glance from her. When the much larger woman responded, Paradise hummed for a moment as if she were almost skeptical about the answer. After a moment, she finally decided the answer was acceptable. "Okay, then I'm definitely not lost either." She plopped her furry butt on the ground, looking up at her. She wondered then, where this woman came from. More importantly, were they related? They had to be, right? She was just as exotic looking as her family, and seemed to fit the many different descriptions that her father had told her about. Only one way to find out, right? "My name is Paradise. Paradise Elementas." She puffed her chest out, sitting up as straight as she possibly could. Which really, there was not much difference then before considering the blue wolf was a lot bigger than she was. "Are you an Elementas too? Daddy told me about my family, and you're just as pretty as I am. So you have to be my cousin! Or an aunt? Maybe my older sister!?" Oh boy! All these different possibilities! What if she really did have an older sister that her father had forgotten to tell her about!?

The young girl appeared to gain confidence from Artemis' answer, but she herself was not so put at ease. How exactly does my circumstance affect hers, exactly? Not that she was about to argue with a pup's logic. Whatever she said! Hey, you couldn't say Artemis hadn't tried to help the kid out! Her conscience was clear. She went on to introduce herself as Paradise Elementas, and she also seemed fairly concerned they were related somehow. Artemis chuckled. Her family had come from an isolated place far away, according to her own father. While she could say for certain, Artemis wasn't pretty sure the likelihood was low. "Pleasure's mine, Paradise," she said with a friendly grin. "My name's Artemis Aeris. My family is from far away, and my father said they all had starry coats like me, so I'm not sure. You're very pretty of course, but in a different way. You never know, though!" So bite her, the kid seemed excited, and she wasn't about to crush her dreams or anything. Artemis still wasn't convinced these weird little tykes actually did have a family out here to look after them, so what's the worst that could happen if she humored the girl a little bit? Below her a bison bellowed, and pulled her attention yet again. (Artemis, easily distracted? Noooo...) She turned in time to see two males squaring off over infringed grazing territory, for all she could tell. They snorted and thrashed at each other, charging and stamping, shaking the earth beneath their hooves. She winced, unable to help but imagine what it would feel like to be caught below. "That's why you don't bother with bison unless you know what you're doing, eh?" She said, looking at Paradise but jerking her head in the beasts' directions. "Talk" "You" Think

She gazed up at the stranger, who was no longer a stranger she supposed, after they introduced themselves. She nodded when Artemis told the young girl her name, eyes wide and unblinking as she went on to tell her about her families star-clad coats and whatnot. Brows furrowed slightly, unsure if she was satisfied with Artemis' answer, though when the blue woman told her she was pretty too, her tail set to wagging. "Thank you! You're very pretty too!" She exclaimed with delight, her pride and ego swelling up like a balloon. There really weren't a whole lot of wolves around to tell her that, so she took the compliment as eagerly as a hungry pup sought its mothers milk. If they were related, then she was convinced that the family had nothing but beautiful genes, and she was proud of that. It meant she'd never have ugly babies, which was a good thing right? And by ugly she meant normal, boring colored babies. They'd be beautiful like her! Yes...yes this thought pleased her greatly. Not that she was having babies soon, no. She was still a baby herself. She was focused, distracted as her gaze roamed over Artemis' coat that she was oblivious to what the bison were doing. It wasn't until the older woman spoke that she jerked up and looked towards the herd, ears perked high on her head as her eyes went wide. She had never seen them fight before, and she winced a bit when they butt heads. "Maybe the smaller ones aren't so mean though? I've always wanted to get a closer look, but ain't nobody around to go with me!" She huffed, frowning as she watched them. Her curiosity was pulling her, but she figured she should wait until the bison stopped fighting each other. What was the worst that could happen? Surely they'd be nice when they were in a better mood, right? "Talk" "You" Think