This was all so…new. The constant commotion, community, all the faces and names she was supposed to remember—apparently, it was rude to not care to remember? Something to that effect. Navi was starting to think that, maybe, she wasn’t cut out for pack life. Things were so much simpler when it was just her and her mother…

But those days were gone. It was literally her mother’s dying wish that Navi find her way to Taviora and finally meet her family—or family of sorts, as she wasn’t exactly related to any of these wolves by blood. They were, somehow, all important to her mother, and considering the wolf in question was no other than Suomi, that was saying something indeed. If anyone were to know her, any sort of praise or high recommendation whatsoever didn’t come easily was an ultimate compliment, so…Navi, against her better judgment, was compelled to give this new life its best shot.

However, she had her limits. It had been another relatively loud and busy morning, and she had learned of a good three or four more cousins…ish….she never heard of. Hell if she could remember their names, but the end result was feeling excruciatingly drained from the obligatory social interaction. Three days of this, and she was beginning to wonder if upholding her mother’s last demands was worth the constant stress and annoyance of trying to adhere to social etiquettes, pomp, and whatnot. She needed a break from it, some time away from bodies, constant chatter, and general ridiculousness of the domestic life.

The dark girl was giving the more heavily populated center of the forest a wide birth, keeping to herself as she wandered with her nose to the earth and sharp garnet gaze taking the world with acute attention to details. New place, new scents, new smells—and, this time, she was staying a while. It was a strange thing to think for someone who had spent the entirety of their life as a nomad, the reality of “permanence” only just settling in.

Silvered paws halted in their path as a concussive, off-tempo knocking sounded through the trees. Lifting her head, Navi looked around, her expression a mixture of confusion and caution, gaining no understanding of what she was hearing the longer she listened. It was growing louder, though—approaching with extreme rapidity—and as she cautiously rounded the thick base of a towering evergreen, the girl found herself reflexively ducking under the sudden threat of assault.

The air rushed over her pinned ears as the branch sailed barely an inch over her skull, its bearer seemingly oblivious to the fact that he’d very nearly smashed someone in the face. Despite the bulldozing brute’s breakneck pace—indeed but a massive blur of browns and golds—Navi’s temper was unrivaled on speed in that moment. In a ferocious sound of discontent, the girl lunged her slight body at the stranger, meaning, very much, to catch him anywhere she could between her teeth.