Whispers of the changes happening around Moladion troubled me. For many years now, perhaps ever since the unsteadiness that had come in the time of struggle between Roman, Tithe, and Daenerys, Spirane had done well to keep mostly to ourselves. Old bonds had ensured a continued alliance between the Mountainborn and Angel families, and an agreement had also been made once more with our northern neighbors in the forest of Taviora. Beyond that, however, we had focused more inwardly than outwardly. But with all that was happening, could we afford to continue to look after only our own for much longer? The warrior within me thought not, seeking action, and yet that was tempered by Kalseru's more diplomatic approach to things. We balanced each other out well.

Still, I could not ignore the rumors that I had heard. While we went through our own quiet changes here in Spirane - my stepping up to rule alongside my sister as her equal - more troublesome shifts in power had occurred in the lower altitudes of Moladion. Apparently a wolf ravenous for power had taken control of Iromar, exiling all who had called the moors home prior to his arrival. Not long thereafter, a type of call that had not been heard in many moons echoed across Moladion from the north - a call to fight for leadership. Rumors about the Nameless One who had won that fight left me further unsettled. The description of the shewolf called to memory a young wolf I had once fought off after she had attacked a guest in the mountains. If it was, in fact, the same wolf, I worried what darkness might have come to blight the plains of Asteraia once more.

The unfamiliar call of a wolf at our borders beckoned me down from the heights of my home. Moving easily down the rough terrain, it did not take me long to reach the foothills and make tracks towards where the call had originated from. With dark ears pressed forward and an equally dark tail lifted in line with my back, I jogged towards the large white male poised upon the cusp of the realm. Coming to stand before him, I nodded my head briefly in greeting. "Hello, I am Nymeria Mountainborn, Bewilderbeast of Spirane and one of its protectors. What brings you to the foothills of the mountains?" Taking in his missing ear - an injury that must have happened recently by the looks of its state of healing - and his general appearance, I could have made assumptions about his identity. But that does have a tendency to make an ass out of you and me, doesn't it?