The bright spring day finds the young girl frolicking in a field of wildflowers that had managed to find a sun-soaked spot in which to flourish. Blooms of all colors exploded like fireworks around her and she simply could not get enough of it. Her small frame leaps about, a black speck darting around the colorful playground. Her moves have a semblance of grace to them, her legs slender and her frame slight, but it is apparent this grace will take time to develop even as she tumbles over her too-quick feet. She does not cry out or lose heart over her tumble, rather she lands in a pile with high pitched laughter spilling out of her slender mouth.

Standing again she gives her small body a quick shake, eyes of gold and violet dancing around her glorious field until an unfamiliar call rings out through the trees. She stills, head tilting to the side in concentration while she listens to the message and gasps quietly to herself when she realizes it is meant for her, or rather her family which included her! Her father had said they had aunts and uncles, even grandparents in other parts of the land but they were too small to go and visit them. Now it seemed one of them had come here! Her entire small body wriggled in excitement as she hurriedly picked a few of the colorful blossoms before taking off at an odd sort of gait, burdened by the gifts she carried.

As she scurried past her family’s den she let out a few muffled yips to alert her siblings and parents, if they were around to hear, where she was going and hoping they might come with her. Small paws finally brought her around a grouping of trees to find a brilliantly white she-wolf waiting patiently right at the border of the forest lands. As she approached her excitement grew, so much that the constant wagging of her small tail and body made her almost walk sideways. Finally she drops the brilliantly painted flowers at her white-tipped paws and smiles a toothy grin at what could only be the most gorgeous wolf she had ever seen. “Wow…” she exclaimed breathily as her split eyes stared up at whomever this relation was, “you’re beautiful!.”

For a moment shyness threatens to quiet her, this being her first meeting with someone not of her immediate family or pack, but her eagerness to make friends won out as always. “I’m Astraea! You’re related to Daddy?” She had to be, mommy only has one brother who she barely spoke of. Her large eyes stared up at the woman eagerly as her tail kept up a constant wagging that extended to her entire back end.