Citadel was experiencing more freedom in the Hallows. If his parents had any idea how much, he'd be grounded until he was an old man. But they were too busy to notice what he was doing. Enjoying eachothers company, or whatever it was that adults did when they got married. It was bittersweet. But he'd take advantage of it while he could. 

It was late in the afternoon when he slipped out of the Hallows, exploring the land just beside the castle wolves lands. He was quiet and subtle slipping over the border. He didn't want any Hallows wolves sobbing him in. Here there were great fossils in the rolling grasses. He set to sniffing about for anything interesting to find.

He knew it was only a matter of time before granddad patrolled the borders and caught his scent leaving but the boy planned to make the most of it. Bounding across the bifrost and taking a sneaky shortcut through the starlit plains, he was too focused on seeing how far he could get to notice the seagull circling overhead.

Giggling to himself, he cleared even the Hallows borders and caught a strange scent that didn't quite seem to belong to the pack it slunk away from. Nose to the ground the boy tracked it until he almost ran clean up the backside of the hugest pup he had ever seen! Stumbling back and tripping over an exposed bone with an oof, Rip showed his belly to the stranger, tail wagging between his legs as his paws tucked up close to his chest. "Oi, whatcherdoin'?" He asked with barely contained curiosity.

"speech"

He wasn't expecting the presence of another wolf. He startled in surprise when another boy, older than he was, appeared. This wolf was brightly coloured, with a personality to match. Citadel blinked in surprise, his brain still catching up from the near miss where the other wolf had almost tripped over him.


“I'm exploring” he said after a brief delay, leaning down to examine the bone the other had tripped over. “Look at the size of this bone. Bet whatever made it was bigger than my dad!” He said, picking it up and lightly tossing it on the other wolf's stomach. He wasn't expecting a playmate, but now that one was here it was just another opportunity he didn't want to lose.