In this momentary lapse of stress, Ulric tried to let himself enjoy the mild fall weather as he lazily walked through the Range as his mother had called it. For most of his life he had stayed within the borders of what used to be their pack so he was far less well traveled than his sister. If he made himself stop thinking about the fact that they didn’t have a real home and his father was gone he could almost be excited about the idea of traveling around with his family and getting to see some of the world.

He paused for a moment by the fence that he was walking along and looked back over his shoulder, a slight grin touching his muzzle as an idea crossed his mind. Why couldn’t he be excited about that? For the first time since they were small pups he was with his sister and they were free to do whatever they wanted… Well, within reason. He didn’t want to put any extra stress on their mother of course.

Ulric turned and trotted back the way he came until he caught a hint of Philly’s scent on the grass. He crouched a bit lower to the ground and started tracking her scent like he would if he was following the scent of a deer. Soon enough he saw her up ahead and he tried to get down as low as he could. It was hard for such a large wolf to hide like this, but he only needed to hide for a moment. He edged around to stay behind her as he crept up behind her, hoping that the wind didn’t change before he got close enough.

As soon as he was within jumping range Ulric leapt up behind her, grinning as he did so. “Ah hah!” he shouted, hoping to nudge her back with his forepaws before he bounced back out of her range. He dropped down into a play crouch with his tail wagging in the air. For the first time in a long time he actually felt his age and he had to admit that it was fun acting like a yearling.

Philly gazed down at No Face with a frown. She had yet to introduce the bat hawk to her brother, or even her mother. It felt wrong to be doing everything so secretly… and she was trying to figure out the way to break the news. Her mother and brother hadn’t said anything yet about her wandering… but surely they had noticed. Maybe she was taking all of this too serious… or not seriously enough. Philly didn’t know… everything was so hard… and she wanted things to be easier. Like when she was a pup. Sure she’d been with her uncle most of that time but at least she didn’t stress about things all the time.

The sudden shout and contact had Philly jumping, spinning towards her brother with hackles raised. No Face took to the sky too with a sharp cry, winging in the area above them as he eyed the other massive wolf. Once Philly saw who it was, however, she let her fur flatten, her eyes sparkling some seeing her brother in such a good mood. “Hahaha! Got me good, didn’t you?” But unlike her brother she didn’t drop into a play crouch, not yet anyway.

“Ulric, I… I need to tell you and mom but… It might be better to say it to you before the news is broken to her.” Philomena furrowed her brow. “Then, if you still want to, we can play.”

The hawk's shrill cry caught him off guard and he stumbled back a bit, blinking as his eyes followed the bird's move into the air. It wasn't exactly what he had expected to hear or see when he went to surprise his sister. Her words brought his attention back down to her face, his gaze curious to say the least. He smiled a little and nodded, still slightly proud that he was able to sneak up on her even though it didn't exactly get the reaction he thought it would. He stood up straight again when Philly started saying something about breaking news to him and their mom. The way she worded it made him kinda concerned and his mind immediately jumped to the worst possible news she could tell him. With the kind of luck that the two of them had been though in their moderately short lives it was easy to imagine the worst rather than just assume that it was something good. He tried not to let that show though and he just looked to her curiously, his head tipping to the side slightly. "What is it, Philly?" "Talk" "You"