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A walk in the woods..
















You're up, Raikha! ;D

Nessa smiled nervously up at her father, tail wagging, wide olive eyes staring into his in a picture of innocence. She might have been young, but she was old enough to know that the best thing to do when a parent was mad was to feign confusion and look as cute as possible. "Daddy... I couldn't find you..." She trailed off crouching down as her ears flattened back. It seemed to do the trick.

Yero let out a breath of air as he felt the anger leave his body. His daughter would be a manipulative she-wolf someday. "Nessa..." The male heaved his shoulders in a sigh. "Don't go sneaking off again. You scared the daylights out of me." Feeling guilty, for she had never meant to worry anyone, Nessa lowered her eyes to the ground, then stole a glance at Resana.

At last Yero's sanguine eyes swept over the delicate earthy-colored pup. "Who's this, now?" He asked the question openendedly, leaving it up for grabs in case Resana wanted to answer for herself. The previous boom was gone from his voice and it was now back to it's low and gentle state. The black wolf offered the new little female a smile, wondering where she came from. Had Nessa made her first friend?

Yero gave a small smile. The pup was as young as his little daughter but she had puffed her chest out and called him 'sir,' seemingly aging before him in the process. He appreciated the respect, but there was no need for formality here. "A pretty name. You can call me Yero, Resana," He wagged his plumed tail gently in an almost regal air of welcome. "I'm Nessa's father." The black wolf flicked a pitchy ear in question. "Where are your parents, my dear?"

"Daddy," Nessa rocked back on her haunches with a ubiquitous expression, unable to contain herself. "She can't even remember!" She gave a yip, glancing over at her friend again in case she'd gotten it wrong.

Yero's brow lowered as he gave thought to this. Was Resana lost or had she... suffered some incident? It was common for lost pups to roam the woods here. His own adopted mother Selia had suffered amnesia as a pup after a run in with two-legs. "Is this true?" He asked Resana with concern.

Nessa regarded Resana with wide olive eyes in envious admiration. Resana knew how to hunt? Nessa hadn't even heard of hunting until the older wolf Harle had brought it up in the field the other day. And what in the world was a frog? She'd heard the word before so she knew they must be around the riverside, but she couldn't recall ever seeing one.

"I see..." Yero pursed his lips, in thought. So Resana knew of two-legs. That was rarely a good sign. He didn't doubt that her fuzzy memory had something to do with something bad.

"Daddy, can Resana come see the river? Nessa's ears perked forward. "And the fish?"

"That might not be a bad idea." Yero rumbled ponderously. "Resana, would you like to stay with us until you find your pack?" Yero didn't want a pup out on her own, but he couldn't snatch her up if she thought her family might be close enough to find.

Nessa gave a high-pitched bark of excitement when Resana accepted the offer, scrub of a tail wagging. She couldn't wait to show the other her home.

Yero chuckled at Resana's question. "I was in a pack, but my mate and I left to bring up our family in the lands where we grew up together." He smiled, his ears tilting forward. "I guess we have.. what you could call a 'family pack'. Nothing official right now. Although..." The idea of a pack was an interesting idea. Yero hadn't fit in with the wolves in his mother's pack, but with his family and perhaps a couple friends.. it would be good for his children to have more contact with other wolves. But did Yero have what it took to be an alpha?

Nessa glanced up at her father, then back to Resana. A pack? She tilted her head slightly in naivety.

"You're welcome to stay for as long as you'd like, little one. But we should really be heading pack. It's almost nightfall and you two must be getting hungry."

"It's no trouble at all. " The midnight wolf dipped his muzzle towards the pup, crimson eyes locking on her own.

Nessa gave a yelp of surprise as a brown blur bowled her over. What! What was--Oh! Nessa fell into giggles as soon as she realized Resana had sprung on her. A playgrowl rising in her throat, she pawed at Resana's flank, rolling herself upright once again, bouncing in the other's direction.

Yero stifled a smile at the two pups playing and shook his head fondly. "Alright, you two, lets get going." He padded a few languid strides off towards a thinly worn deer-path, glancing over his shoulder to make sure that the two pups would follow.

"Resana! As soon as we get home you can eat the fish!" Nessa was practically prancing as she ambled a couple steps closer to her father's heel.

Nessa tilted her head as a bird flitted by, canting her muzzle to follow it's wandering path. As the twilight fell over the lands, the last bars of dying sunlight filtered through the trees, creating spangled patterns on the male and the pups. Nessa glanced toward Resana, tilting her ears back slightly. She wondered what the other was thinking about.

As the trickling sounds of water grew more pronounced, a whole new set of smells began to fill the air. The deep contrast of the thick smell of the wet earth, the clear smell of the running stream, the sweet scent of tall rivergrass...

Yero smiled at Resana's comment as they neared the ridge of a hill. "Almost there. You'll be able to see it from here."

Nessa pattered up beside her father's figure on the hilltop, beckoning with her muzzle for Resana to join her at her side. "That's my home!" The puppy said sheepishly, glancing out over the landscape.

A lazy river wound its way past the bottom of the hill, muddy waters twinkling in the fading light. The fish were just beginning to jump for their evening meals, splashing hear and there about the water's bubbly surface.

Nessa motioned to a thick patch of fuzzy cattails growing around a comfortable looking den, scuffing her front paw against the ground. "That's where we live." She wagged her tail gently.

Nessa grinned at Resana, and giggled when she mentioned 'aunts and uncles and grandparents'. "Grandparents? What are those?" She yipped, naive olive eyes filled with question. "Mommy lives here. And my brother Marzi and my sister Lia. But it's just us..." She tilted an ear back hesitantly.

"I'm sorry we're a little secluded." Yero apologized, realzing that Resana must have come from a pack, and perhaps even a large one at that. He glanced at the little brown wolf with deep red eyes, face impassive to the questions running through his mind. "But we'll get you fed for the night." The gentle-natured midnight wolf gave a slight smile.