It was fortunate that Magpie had been the one to have found the child. Exposure only to his parents throughout his short life had fostered a respectful and trusting demeanor in the boy. Forrest could not have hoped to understand the politics of the pack he'd been born to, or the tumult that had uprooted his family and sent them on the run. What he did understand were his parents' final words to him - his father's love, and his mother's command to stay put - even if he didn't realize their finality. So it was a comfort to have Magpie curl around him and offer the same opinion about the importance of listening to one's mother. He smiled up at her with a nod, before snuggling in close to her golden fur. The warmth of another body was comforting, even if it was the first wolf he'd been this close to that wasn't one of his parents.

Making himself comfortable, he rested in the crook where her foreleg met with her torso, tilting his head up to look at her as she reached down to nudge his cheek. "Oh yes, please!" His little tail wiggled out behind him, even causing his hindquarters twitching back and forth a little bit. As Magpie spun her story for him, Forrest became more and more relaxed. The day wore on, and with a lack of food in the warming temperatures as midday approached, his body became tired. For a time he napped at the side of his new guardian, but eventually the grumblings of his tummy turned into persistent hunger pains.

When he woke, the beams of light streaming through the forest had shifted, indicating they were into the later part of the afternoon. All Forrest looked for when he raised his little head was his mother. He gazed out into the woodlands, before looking up at Magpie forlornly. His ears shifted backwards, unsure why his mother hadn't come back. The last thing he wanted was for her to think he wasn't being truthful; he couldn't comprehend the fact that something may have happened to prevent her from returning altogether. "Magpie," he said quietly, not wanting to be a bother, "I'm hungry." Without the only source of sustenance he'd ever known available to him, he wasn't sure how to sate this most basic of needs.

OOC: Thread will continue in Taviora!