tonight the foxes hunt the hounds...

Exploring was by far the best way to pass the time between the young pups. They were ungainly still, not wholly coordinated on too-big paws and large ears, but despite their gangly appearances the two girls moved fluidly down the mountain terrain they called home. Their parents had only recently begun to call Spirane home, but for their children the mountains were in the blood. No matter how far they roamed from here the towering peaks which scraped the clouds would always call to them. Such thoughts were too far in the future to be of a concern, for now the gold-capped girl simply followed her sister, silently considering her rebuttal to the fact that there were others like them out there. For a moment she closed her eyes, inhaling deeply the myriad of scents around them. Plants, other animals, and yes something distinctly ‘them’ and yet not them at the same time. “Yea I guess,” she huffed quietly, preparing some remark about being a know it all when the unfamiliar howl broke the air stopping her in her tracks.

Her icy blue eyes gave a good roll at her sister’s comment before she took off behind her on the trail, keeping a little closer than normal as they finished their decent. Her small, dark nose twitched, brow crinkling as they neared the unfamiliar scent and sounds ahead. Finally the dark wolf moved out of the brush, towering over them like their parents did and for a moment Bastille pressed her side in to her sister’s brindled coat, for Embla’s own protection of course. As another silver form appears she gives a slight yip of surprise, but settles as this one too seems friendly to them.

Obviously her sister was right and the excitement rolling off of her was almost tangible as the words poured out of her mouth. Bastille was intrigued but more cautious that her sister, this was a stranger and it didn’t seem right just meeting him alone in the woods like this. Puffing out her slender chest she swallowed her fear and stepped up, thin tail giving a few conciliatory wags. “Don’t mind Embla, she’s full of more questions than a bird has feathers mama says,” her high voice quipped with a toothy grin, “and I’m always in trouble.” That part was definitely true.

Once more there was a rustling of approach from another direction and Bastille’s nerves were about to the point of exasperation when three pups broke through. Immediately her demeanor changed, a smile growing on her muzzle and her tail picking up speed. Pups other than them! The idea was more exciting to her than the boring old adults Em concerned herself with, these were possible friends she could chew on more than her brothers! The three boys each seemed to so different and as the gray boy approached her suddenly she stilled, watching with curiosity behind her blue eyes as he dropped a mouse at her paws with a flourish and introduction. Her two-toned head tilted to the side at their names, trying to take them in before glancing back down to the mouse.

“I can catch my own mice you know,” she said in a strong, childish voice, yet still she reached down and pawed the mouse closer to her feet. Just because she didn’t like him and the way he kept staring at her didn’t mean she wouldn’t keep a snack. Quickly she stepped forward, touching her dark nose to Raegal’s in a greeting she had seen her parents exchange a few times before, not knowing that it might not be proper for someone you just met. “I'm Bastille, that's my sister Embla." As his brother started talking about ‘sea’ she glanced around to peek at the blondish colored brother. “What’s a sea?” she asked glancing from the boy to the two adults.