If she is so hot and sticky all the time I wonder why it is she stays within her pack, this Iromar, that place of swamp and heat and bugs that bite. Maybe she stays within Iromar for the same reason that I stay within Spirane. It is my home, it is all I know and I think Mother and Father would surely be displeased if it was I went wondering off to another land and yet, still, I feel a need, a call, a drive to find this place I dream of. Maybe Raven feels the same, maybe she stays in Iromar because she likes it, or maybe she’s scared to leave because, well, the outside world can be scary. My Father would say something about the beauty of adventure and the opportunity to expand one’s mind. He left home before he was one, left and joined a Spartan pack- we can’t all be great navigators and I don’ think Mother would like it if I ran off to be a warrior either. I used to be a warrior….I think, at least, in my dreams I am and not just any warrior either. The main one. The defender of the pack, the head of the army. I was someone, I was something and I just can’t seem to remember. I frowned slightly, head of earth and gold tilting in some effort to make all my thoughts slide into the back of my brain and not take up all that room at the front, managing to focus on Raven once more.

“Why don’t you leave then? Are you scared?”

I didn’t tease at her, I just asked a question, an honest one, golden eyes looking towards her imploringly in this moment, wondering if maybe her answer would be the same as mine. She spoke once more, unwilling it would seem to accept my invitation and I suppose that was alright, but really, she wasn’t an adult either and if my pack would forgive me for making a mistake, why wouldn’t they forgive her? I have never seen our Alphess kill anybody, especially not for just wandering around although why her dying is not a bad thing I simply don’t know. How could it really be good? I shrugged, content enough to let it go for now, asking her instead about the flat land that was red, hoping maybe she knew about it or at least- knew if maybe it was real though the confusion on her dark features assured me that she probably didn’t know and once more I felt myself sigh. I needed to ask other wolves- older wolves I think and yet none of them are…right. I just can’t seem to find the right one. I moved to stand as she did, her tail waving slightly, an action I simply copied before I frowned a little more. Water? If she wasn’t going to come into the pack I could hardly take her to water, unless…she actually wanted me to go with her and into the outside lands, my gaze widening slightly at the mere thought.

“Do you mean….you want me to take you into the loner lands? To the river? I know where it is, I’ve been once before but, well, there were adults then. The only other water is in the pack, you’d have to come in for that. Up to you, really.”