Nzingha and her father were not waiting for long before a wolf approached them, and for a moment the Princess thought that it was Shae, coming to save her… but then she flared her nares and tasted the cologne of the approaching wolf, which was definitely male. Nzingha shook her head, closing her lids to block out her suns, and swallowed once – hard – trying to calm her nerves. Always Shae had said that she would visit, but Summer’s immediate distaste for the femme had made that particularly difficult. And so it had been months since last the eboness had laid eyes upon her mother, of sorts. Shae was by no means her blood mother, but she had raised Nzingha and Nzingha’s siblings. Shae had been extremely attentive to them, and in turn, each of the pups had fallen in love with her. Shae was their mother, their teacher, their lover. Their loyalty to her was unwavering, but Nzingha felt her feelings deeper – she was more cunning, her mind sharper. She felt the love that all of her siblings felt… but she also felt rage, and betrayal. Shae should have at least called for Nzingha by now to check on her, even if that meant not crossing into Summer’s territory to do so.

When at last her lids did open, the brute stood over her, his dual-colored orbs staring at her. ‘I am Horizon, Zeta of Munashii Gekko. Please state your titles and business with our pack.’ The brute was worried about something, perhaps that he was outnumbered… But that soon changed as a fae as different to Nzingha as could be walked approached. Where Nzingha was black, Artemis was white, Nzingha young, Artmeis mature, Orbs of sun versus orbs of the moon. All of it was separate and different. This was introduced herself by name, and then by an odd title – ‘sister’. She admitted that she was unranked, and Nzingha could not help but laugh, but thankfully she kept it in her head. ‘Why in the world would she claim such a title if it brings no rank or power?’ Nzingha shook her head once more and turned to face her father, knowing he would take control of the situation.

And that was exactly what Summer did – he introduced the pair of them and their situation. Nzingha sat tall, sat still, her eyes upon him until motion pulled her sight away to something behind them - it was Danger. He placed himself between herself and Summer before dipping his head to the wolves across the border, introducing himself. ‘Danger, I’m with them.’ There was a moment of silence before Nzingha exploded, a moment of silence in which her eyes poured over his frame. And what she saw scared her, and angered her. His frame, once full and muscled, had not only become skinny from inappetance, but also had atrophied. He clearly had hardly been eating, but it also looked like he wasn't even trying to. Sunken temples laid upon his facade where once there was a smooth skull, and even his sightless eyes were depressed within their globes, signalling his dehydration. His pelt was, perhaps, even worse. Dull hairs littered his body, his fur only half shed, patches of spring fur peaking through the dense and overbearing wintry one. In whole, his coat was in disarray. When the last time he groomed himself was… Could not even be guessed at, and he looked more like a wood nymph than a wolf, the way that pinecones, twigs, and other things were stuck in his pelt.

“... What in the fucking Fenris have you done to yourself you dolt!” Nzingha snarled at the brute and immediately took her incisors to his pelt, pulling out clumps of… Who knows what… And attempted him to groom him as quickly as she could for as long as he would allow her, whether that was the initial lunge that she made for his messy body, or whether he allowed her to fully groom him. However, her vocals never ceased. “You just had to go and up and disappear and be all Mr. Big Shot all ‘Oh look at me I’m Mr. Independent I can live on my own I don’t need no one’ and then you come back looking… The nerve of you! Here we are trying to join this perfectly nice pack, trying to find a new home but OH NO you have to show up like this all embarrassing like. What were you thinking?” Nzingha fell silent, mostly because she was out of breath, most of her words having been one continual mumble without any spaces between the words. She was oblivious to the fact that in that moment, she likely had everyone’s attention, what between her swearing, her lack of subtlety in her thoughts, and the way she openly was reprimanding the brute. But, finally, she ceased trying to groom him and stepped back. “Well now I’m just always going to worry about you if you leave so we have to hang out more, mmkay?” Her bright Suns turned back to the Munashii Gekko wolves, who were likely staring at her. “So are we accepted or not? I really want to explore!”

OOC-