Alaria sauntered through the forest, head and tail held high. For once, she was in a particularly decent mood. The comfortably warm Spring air warmed Ria to her core, while the light breeze ruffled her black and white pelt. The moist soil felt like heaven underneath the rough black pads that capped the femme's paws. The powerful smells of the forest surrounded the young fae; the spicy scent of pine, the musky scent of dead and decaying things. With a swift change, the breeze began blowing from a new direction, carrying with it the mouth-watering scent of rabbit. As Alaria inhaled the intoxicatingly warm smell, a rumble echoed from inside of her belly. Well, that settles it.. Alaria thought. Lowering her body into a crouch, Alaria slunk along the forest floor, following the trail of her next meal. Muscles, sinews, and ligaments worked in perfect coordination, flowing across bone to move Alaria in a manner of grace and elegance. A watchful predator, she stalked, weaving her way through the undergrowth moving on silent paws. Ears held high to detect the slightest sound, Alaria hunted. Moments later, she caught a much more powerful scent of the rabbit. It was close. Ria peered around a thick oak tree and spotted the medium sized rabbit foraging through bushes. Taking advantage of the fact that her prey still did not know that Alaria was near, she crept closer.. and closer. When she was mere feet away from the prey, she paused, and in that moment, the small animal turned around abruptly and caught a glimpse of Ria. Immediately the rabbit launched itself into the air and took off. Snarling, Alaria raced after it. Paws pounding on the ground, Ria ran after the terrified rabbit. Her ears pinned back, laying flat against her skull, and her snout wrinkled up to expose glistening white fangs, Alaria was the picture of deadliness. She closed in rapidly on her prey, and with one final leap, the rabbit was in her jaws. Ria snapped her jaws closed around the animal's jugular and shook her head sharply to one side. The jugular vein spurted hot crimson blood into Alaria's mouth at the same time as the neck snapped, and Ria's vision grew cloudy with a haze of red. She stood stock still for a moment, breathing heavily through her nose, as she waited for the blood lust to calm. Soon enough, it did, and Ria dropped the carcass to the ground. Eagerly, she bent down and began ripping chunks of flesh from the rabbit's still-warm corpse. In the quiet solitude of the forest, Ria enjoyed her meal, alone with her thoughts. I never meant to be so cold

The small, timber-hued fea was surprised to see where she was when she looked up from her paws. She had been wandering aimlessly, taking a short break from the back life to stretch her legs. Meili truly loved her new home and she really liked getting to see Gael pretty much every day, but every once in awhile she just got the urge to return to her loner ways and be constantly moving and exploring. Old habits died hard, she guessed. This was one place that the Valhallen hadn't intended to visit, however. She had been lost in a daze of her own thoughts and had drifted into the fog covered forest. Heavy mist seemed to cling to the ground here and a permanent gloom hung around the area. The scent of mold, decay, and dead reached her nose, sending a light shiver though the teal-eyed wolf. Pressing on, she carefully maneuvered through the thick brush, her small form slipping easily past the trees and undergrowth. Her cream colored paws lightly touched the ground, carrying her along almost silently. She was trying to move swiftly she she could leave this place as soon as possible, but it was slow moving in this thick vegetation. Suddenly she heard paws pounding against the ground and all at once a flash of black and white fur tore across her path. She froze in place, her teal eyes going wide with surprise. She turned her gaze and watched as the wolf, apparently a hunter, caught up to the rabbit they had been chasing. With a quick jerk they killed their prey and, with little hesitation, immediately dug into their meal. Meili blinked, debating on whether or not to approach the wolf. She lifted her nose to smell out the wolf's scent. It was feminine and did not smell of a pack. A loner huh? It was comforting to see another live out here in the Soulless Forest so the small fea decided to risk bothering the fea. If nothing else then maybe she could ask the two-toned fea for directions out of this place. She slowly padded over to the wolf, trying to give her plenty of time to finish her rabbit before Meili intruded. Clearing her throat to make her presence known, Meili gave the fea a nod, her gentle voice reaching out to the wolf in front of her as she said, "Hello there. I'm Meili," greeting the fea simply. "Speech."

Alaria relished the taste of hot blood and flesh on her tongue. The pieces of rabbit slid smoothly down her gullet, filling the empty chasm that was her stomach. Ria finished her meal swiftly and abandoned the skeleton, not bothering trying to get the marrow out of the bones. They were too small and fragile anyways, and would just splinter in her mouth. Alaria sank down on her haunches and proceeded to begin cleaning herself, as her trek through the woods and her mad dash for the rabbit had filled her usually luscious pelt with dirt and debris. Ria's soft pink tongue lapped at her black and white fur, dragging out all of the twigs and leaves. Soon enough she was feeling clean again. Alaria pulled herself to her paws and shook herself off, her fur feeling soft and smooth once again. As Alaria prepared to take off, heading in another random direction to find more random adventures, the wind shifted once again and she caught the strong, unmistakable scent of wolf. Alaria's hackles went straight up, and her ears snapped back to pin against her head. The beginnings of a snarl lifted Ria's black lips to bare teeth. She didn't recognize this scent, didn't know if it was a threat or a friend. Ria turned slowly, trying not to look like an enemy, but at the same time trying not to look too overtly friendly. As her elegant head swung around, Ria's piercing amber eyes caught sight of a gray and tan femme with shockingly teal eyes standing before her. The fae was not in any way threatening. In fact, Ria was much larger than her and would most likely be able to handle this other femme quickly and efficiently if it came down to a fight, but Alaria did not think that it would. Alaria tried to calm her body's natural response to being sneaked up on, but it was hard. The fur along her spine refused to lay flat, and her shoulders remained in their hunched position, but her ears slowly returned to their naturally erect position and the snarl faded from her muzzle. Then the femme spoke. "Hello there. I'm Meili." Alaria was far from used to contact from other wolves, let alone friendly contact. Alaria plopped down on her haunches and tilted her head to one side, almost puzzled, all signs of aggression gone. "Um.. Hi. I'm Alaria." It had been so long since Ria had come in contact with another wolf that she forgot to be sarcastic, and that was the biggest surprise to her. Alaria raked her gaze up and down the other female, taking her in. At the first glance, she had seen that the other wolf was small, but now that she looked closer, it was even more apparent. Meili was tiny, a fragile thing that looked all too breakable. Ria pondered Meili, staring into her aquamarine eyes as she waited for the other fae to respond. I never meant to be so cold

The small fea was undaunted by the larger fea's size. What Meili lacked in size she made up for in spirit and not even the fea's raised hackles could scare her off. A smile crossed her muzzle yet again as the new acquaintance introduced herself as Alaria. It's very nice to meet you!" she replied, her naturally kind voice keeping a happy, chipper edge to it. She was just happy to not be alone in this creepy forest, stranger or not. Meili noticed the rabbit skeleton off to the side, stripped clean of its flesh. "That was a good catch, by the way. I saw you run by after it back there." Meili had just recently discovered her passion for hunting when she joined Valhalla. Chrys and Ash had helped her figure out what she could do to help out the pack and she had slowly been honing her skills as a hunter ever since. She smiled and asked, changing the subject, "I was kind of wondering if you which way to go to get out of this forest? I'm trying to go west to get back to Valhalla. I was wandering and wasn't really paying attention to where I was going and now I'm all turned around." Her teal gaze rested curiously on the monochromatic fea as she waited to see if Alaria could help her. "Speech."