She was far too comfortable changing packs - it was something she never thought she would be accustomed to. When first Hellene and Athene had left the pack of their parents, it had been to branch out. The way of their people was unique and powerful, and all within the pack knew it. Most wolves were suckers for power - for property, land, resources, and rank. They would fight and bicker amongst themselves in order to elevate themselves in the eyes of their leader, each one vying for respect, and while some were hungry, there were those who were power hungry and betrayed the trust of their leaders in order to take land for their own. But there was nothing of the sort back home. There had been no Alpha or Alphess. There had been no Beta, Gamma... no hierarchy at all. Instead, they had all been both Alpha and Omega. It is odd to explain to an outsider, but within her pack each wolf chose their path from birth. After the Trials each year, which pitted the pups of each litter against their littermates, they would be apprenticed to a master. But that was the beauty of it, wasn't it? That since only the strongest of each litter survived the Trials, only the deserving went on to continue to be trained. And because of that any who survived to adulthood were masters in the arts. 'Alphas' in their own career, you could say. But they were utterly clueless when it came to any of the skills of the other careers - 'Omegas'. They were strict about it, too - Warriors were never allowed to study under a Healer, for instance, and if they did, both the Warrior and the Healer would be severely punished. It was a law all understood, because it was their individual strengths and weaknesses that tied them together in a tightly knit web of comraderie. None of them were well suited to live in the world alone, as a Warrior would succumb to a simple infection, and a Healer would be unable to defend themselves... just as an example of course. And so they all thrived, living under their unique laws and rules - happy and safe.
Both Hellene and Athene had been Masters when they had left. As was previously stated, all adults were, but Athene was praised for her excellence more often than not. There was no rank, no more power given to her, only more respect. She would risk more than the others to save a comrade. She would put her all into the training of a competitor each year during the Trials, and was the most highly sought out Master for the Warrior career, because her students never lost a single time. And she always teach everything she knew to her apprentice each year. Some Masters would take multiple, and some would take none. She would take only one - in order to have them as her shadow until they were ready to stand in her own paws. When they could stand their own against her, they were ready to be named as Masters. Tghey often surpassed other Masters in their abilities, but never did any have any bitterness or jealousy. They were a benefit to the pack and were thanked for their contributions as such. So why then had Athene left? Because their pack had wanted to share their ways with the rest of the world. Athene and Hellene had been chosen to go - half-sisters of different careers who were well bonded - it had been an obvious choice.
But Athene and Hellene had not accomplished their goal, and Athene had had to get used to two things that she never had had to deal with before. The first was of course failure - failure in her mission to establish a new pack, in her mission to spread their laws. But the second was less obvious... change. Their lives had been what some would have called monotonous. None of them thought so, but they all had their schedules that they kept to, a norm that they adhered to. But since Athene had come to Blossom Forest she had had to find a new way. How long had it been since she had trained a student for the Trials? How long had it been since she had taken on an apprentice? It seemed like years, and perhaps it was. But she had also had had to get accustomed to moving from land to land. It seemed as if her life was an incessant wave that destroyed any pack that she joined. She had first joined Spring Ground with Hellene, but then silence had crossed the land and she had left her sister for Andere Seite. The darkness of the pack had not bothered her at all. Instead it had allowed her her solitude... but the vampires had left and then eventually the gods had wrecked the land, making it uninhabitable. Full circle she had returned to Spring Grounds...but silence had taken it again. So here she was now, in the pack and serving underneath yet another Alpha. He was a Warrior and held her high esteem, even if all she knew of him was from tale and lore spread around Blossom Forest.
This past night - her first night in this new land - she had not slept at all. The boundary was not secure enough, the terra was unknown to her. She was not unsettled, she had not been kept up because of waking nightmares... no, she had spent the whole night working. She had known Spring Grounds forward and backward with her eyes closed thanks to her daily patrols with Pierce, and last night she had begun her studying of this pack. Her muscles now ached, her body was sore, her mind strained with all of the new knowledge, but it had all been worth it. She did not have every inch of the earth memorized, but she knew it well enough. Only time, only repetition would firmly secure it into her mind, but for now at least her paws would always be able to find its way within the territory, even if she could not quite travel it blind yet. Just now, she had sniffed out the place that was to be her den. Rocky boulders surrounding this plot of land both above and below where she would dig. The opening would be well hidden from view, and if she planned it well she would be able to have a exit in case of infiltration. For an hour or more she has sat upon one of the boulders, planning it out, or at least as much of it as she could from above the surface. Even the approaching sound of pawsteps did not pull her vision away from the cavern she would create.
'Athene?'
She turned slightly, her honey painted pools laying upon him, watching the air fall from his nares, his maw. Streams of it slipped from between his slitted skin and she watched, mesmerized.
'Fancy a morning run?'
Athene smirked and leapt down from her perch, her back arching to allow for the graceful transition. A few more footfalls led her to directly in front of Kershov, her face mere inches from him. Eye to eye, the breath he exhaled seeping into her own lungs become her breath, the air that would sustain her. She paused there, matching his gaze, until she lunged forward. Not at him, but to the side, her hairs brushing with his as she slid past him and head toward the boundary. It did not matter if she was tired, if her muscles were sore and exhausted. Her Alpha wanted a morning run? He would have to keep up.
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