What a wonderful opportunity! Everything seemed to be coming into place for me, falling into alignment in a way I could never have even hoped to have anticipated. I was surrounded by new friends in my forest home, and it was that. Home. When I had left my parents' pack, I wasn't sure that I would ever feel at home again. But Taviora was that and more. And Leafshadow was here, a level of completeness I didn't even realize I could feel until we had met. I was still slightly puzzled about what our connection to one another meant, but I would have the rest of my life to figure that out. After all, I didn't plan on leaving Taviora anytime soon, if ever. I'd found my place in the world. Now it was time for me to find my place within the pack. I'd made my desires known to my friend Amoxtli - now my alpha, no less - that I wanted to serve a greater purpose in the pack. Dreamcatcher had been an obvious choice for me, what with all the time I had spent as a pupsitter back in my birth pack. Ultimately I wanted to learn more about healing, but I could do that and look after the youngin's as well. Lo and behold, Namira was interested in working towards the same rank. And I was more than happy to work with her towards our common goal, for she was my friend and I would never dream to deprive her of the opportunity. Selfishness was not in my nature.

Together, we were responsible for gathering a few of the pack's pups and taking them on a trip to one of our allies, and teaching them a few things along the way. So around midmorning I called out, inviting any young pups who might like to join Namira and me on a little trip to come meet us in a clearing close to our southern borders. While I hadn't had the pleasure of meeting any of the pups just yet, I had met quite a few other adults during the meeting in which Coza had passed his alphaship on to his son. Hopefully they would trust me, or at least Namira who had been in the pack much longer, enough to let us take them on this little expedition. I grinned at Namira, my tail waving out behind me as a few pups came and joined us. When it seemed that everyone had arrived who would, I introduced myself. "'Lo there! M'name's Mikken, pleasure ta meet ya'll. Woul'ja like to go on a bit'uva trip to Spirane here?" The drawl of my foreign accent had always managed to earn a few giggles from Namira, and I glanced her way with a sideways grin, wondering if the pups would think me as funny as she did. I didn't mind. I liked my way of speakin' just fine.

When everyone was ready to go, we set off. It seemed to make the most sense to me, to take the kids to Spirane rather than trying to make the trip all the way to Iromar. They were still pretty young, and while I didn't doubt they would be strong enough to make the journey, it just made more sense to check out the nearby mountains instead. Now, Amoxtli had asked it of us to teach them a bit of general knowledge about the world, as this would be their first trip outside of the forest. So when we reached the borders I paused for a moment, sniffing out a particularly strong set of scent markers. One was Amoxtli's, at the base of a tall pine. And just a few feet beyond that was a large pile of rocks that born a feminine scent of strength. I didn't know the mountain alpha's name, but maybe Namira did. I motioned for the pups to check out each scent marker as I had. "These're the borders. M'sure ya know good ol' Amoxtli's scent, but 'member that when ya come 'cross a foreign marker like this'n, ya should always make sure ya got permission befur crossing." And then we were off again, and I was slowly jogging along to make sure that if the kids wanted to walk, they could, but if they wanted to romp along they could as well.

As we made our way further into the pack lands, up the steeper incline of the mountainous territory, I spoke about different flowers that I recognized and types of trees that grew here but not in our forest home. It was when the sun was high in the sky that I heard a call from a mountain wolf, inviting any and all pups to join him in a nearby meadow. I glanced to Namira with a smile, thinking this was the perfect opportunity. "Ya'll wanna meet sum mountain wolves?" I said with a pop of my eyebrows, glancing between the pups. And then I was setting off, a little quicker, towards the source of the call. Surely the pups in our company would be excited at the opportunity. I was looking forward to making the acquaintance of the adult heading up this little gathering too; maybe we could plan future things for the pups of our packs to do together!

Upon reaching the meadow, I slowed down to a walk, hopefully entering before the pups (assuming none of them rushed off ahead of me!) and calling out a greeting to the large black wolf who a few pups had gathered around. "Afternoon! Mind if we join ya?" My tail waved back and forth, low so that it brushed against my hind legs with each passing. Didn't want this fella to think I was any kind of threat to his pack or pups. "I'm Mikken," I said, before looking to the pups and encouraging them to introduce themselves. Braving new situations like this was important for confidence building, after all.