Blissfully unaware of the danger he put himself in by calling out and announcing his presence to any passersby, Forrest scooted closer to the opening and strained to peer further out into the woods. They had to come back soon. Once more his tummy groaned, serving to remind the young pup that he was rather quite hungry. His ears stooped out to the sides dejectedly, wondering what was taking so long. If she was going to be gone for such a long time, why hadn't she just taken him with her? Suddenly his ears perked up and he sat a little taller. Maybe he could go find her! Scrambling to his paws, he stepped forward, but then remembered her instructions. Stay here, and Forrest was nothing if not an obedient child, so he paused as he raised a tiny paw, setting it back down upon the ground.

Oblivious to the greater world around him, he hadn't heard the footfalls of Magpie's approach. So when he glanced around and spotted the shewolf who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere, his eyes went wide and he scurried backwards into the perceived safety of the hollow log. So quickly did he move, however, that he tripped over his hind legs and promptly fell backwards into a slumped sitting position. For a moment he simply laid there, not really understanding how he'd ended up in a heap on the ground. Rolling over, he righted himself and shook out his fur, looking back out into the forest to see if the wolf was still there. It wasn't so much that she frightened him, he just hadn't expected a wolf to materialize out of thin air. Much less that he would find a wolf at this new rendezvous site that wasn't one of his parents or pack mates. Albeit, pack mates that he'd only known by their voices outside the den or in calls to the hunt.

Her soft voice called out a greeting, and his tail began to twitch back and forth between his hind legs, where it had curled submissively. Something about her voice reminded him of his mother's. Inching back into the light at the end of the log, he looked up at her with wide owl eyes. "H-hi," he said, blinking up at her. "Have you seen my mother?" His voice was filled with innocence. Maybe she was a member of their pack, who had just come to bring him to his mother so that he could have breakfast and play with the others. Between his hind legs his tail began to wiggle more and more, loosening out of its curled position as he grew more excited at the possibility.