Ah, Blossom Forest. The old stomping ground. His white lips emitted a nostalgic sigh. He wasn’t exactly sentimental, but any wolf confronted with so many memories would have a similar longing for simpler times. Were they really simple, though? Two fathers responsible for siring the litter and a mother and siblings who never stuck around. Sure. Simple. He shook the thoughts loose from his mind as easy as dust from his shoulders. He was used to repressing things.

Leo’s long legs moved him easily through a random patch of thick forest. He was sticking to the unclaimed lands, heading south through Blossom. If you asked him he would have said he was wandering aimlessly, but perhaps old habit would have it, the direction he took would eventually have led him to Malignant Felicity. Heading west of the section of trees he currently traveled within would land him in Prey Plateau, and the thought actually did cross his mind. He wasn’t starving but he could eat. He shrugged it off for now. He found that he typically hunted more skillfully the hungrier he was. He could take down some seriously impressive prey at times, but it was usually when he was hurting from hunger. Every once in a while he would pick up stray scents from wolves that had walked along the same path, or crossed over it, that he was currently going. None of them were familiar to him. To be fair, the last time he had been a regular sight in these lands he was a lanky teen. He probably wouldn’t be a familiar scent to anyone left here either.

His proud, broad frame exited from the forest to its southern side, out into a field. His eyes were not a pair that you saw everyday. They were amber colored and flaked with maple colored flecks, passed down from his mother. Those unique orbs looked out onto an equally unique area that lay in front of him. It was a very large field, which wasn’t too unusual out in the wild areas of the world, but what made this one special was that it was split down the center. One half was vibrant with color and life and smells. The other was a dead, ashen wasteland. The two halves were so contrasting. They coexisted, and without both sides the field wouldn’t be what it was. It would just be another field. Looking out at the field, he felt like he was looking at nature’s reflection of himself. He was charming and handsome and charismatic on the outside. But there was a darkness below the surface that lived and thrived in his bones. Just like this field, both parts of himself coexisted. Without those parts of himself, he wouldn’t be what he was. He would just be another wolf.

The part of the field that lay before him was the edge of the burnt half. The half of the field that was still full of life was on the far side away from him. He hesitated continuing forward. The burnt land would certainly stain his pristine white fur, and there was no substantial body of water around - not even a pond or large puddle - where he could wash after. All boys go through a phase of narcissism, this was true, but Leo had never managed to completely grow out of it. If ladies were allowed to be so concerned with their own beauty, why couldn’t he? He began walking around the field, keeping to the edge just past any of the ash. After a few minutes, sudden movement at the far end of the field caught his attention. He stopped walking and squinted to better focus on what it was. His first guess was a fox. The creature was smaller in build and the way it leaped about showed it was very light on its feet. Foxes were known for nimble movements like that. The black-masked gent watched until the creature tired itself and laid down right there in the middle of the living half of the field. hm… if it was a fox, it was a bold one. Unlike wolves who typically felt in control of their surroundings - at least enough to feel secure lying down in an unguarded field – foxes usually finished their hunt or their play and then scurried back to a hole.

At this point, curiosity got the better of him. He didn’t even try to fight it, thinking that it would be wiser to leave the creature alone or a waste of time to go discover the fox he was sure was over there. No, his train of thought was more linear; I want to go see if that actually is a fox, so I’m going over to it. And that was that. Of course it took longer than it should have because he continued along the edge of the field instead of just cutting through it. As soon as he reached the halfway mark and the dead part of the field gave way to the living, he began walking through it up to where the creature was resting. The tri-color wolf came across what turned out to not, in fact, be a fox. At least not a literal one. It was a young she-wolf, which kept his attention longer than any fox would have. A charming smile made a home on his face.

“Well, hello miss.”

His deep voice dripped into the air as smooth as syrup. The thing about Leonidas was all these charming, handsome traits of his – the smile, the voice, the stature, the confidence – all of those were naturally his. He wasn’t the type that had to force himself to put on a charismatic front to impress anyone. He didn’t have to try at all, actually, it was effortless and to many females in the past this had made him all the more attractive. His tail swished gently behind him as his eyes and ears waited on the female.