Draven didn't know exactly how long it had been since Minka had died. Long enough, at least, for him to be okay thinking to word instead of needing to tiptoe around it like everybody else still was. He felt like it had probably been a while... maybe a week? Maybe even two? Had that much time really gone by already? Was he standing still, or was time dragging along behind him? Sometimes he ignored the days and nights chasing each other so much that one sunrise seemed to bleed into the next, although if he thought hard enough usually he could distinguish the days from each other after they were done. That was hard work, but it was something to do - and recently his sorrow had been dulled by sheer boredom.

Today, for example, he had wandered down to a little hollow log, one he had first been to on the day @Raela had taken him to catch his first mouse. It was a happy spot with nothing but happy memories, so it was one of his favorite places to come when he was feeling especially sad or lonely... or bored. Today he sat down in the opening of the log, his rump facing the innards of the hollowed out dead tree. There was nothing around to chase at the moment, so instead of focusing on the jejune ground, Draven amused himself for a little bit by looking up at the trees. Maybe there were some birds flitting around or something. Squirrels yelling at each other or chasing one another around through the branches... but no, all there were was a bunch of leaves and branches.

He guessed that wasn't a complete let-down. As the weather grew colder and colder, more of the leaves were beginning to turn from green to yellow and orange and red and brown - except for the trees that had needles instead of leaves, which stayed green no matter what, apparently. Some of the dead leaves had either fallen or blown down to the spot where he was sitting, and with little else to do the boy eventually laid down all the way and started poking at the leaves, watching as they flipped or flattened under his paws, trying to memorize the way some of them crunched apart with too much pressure while others still felt like normal green leaves. If he remembered too, maybe he could ask somebody why leaves were all kinds of different textures. Maybe Raela or Calanthe would know.

A quiet little huff made one small brownish ear flick to the east, although he didn't look up to see who or what was here. If it was a friend, they would probably come closer; another animal mind wander up, too, if he laid still, and if it was something or somebody who wasn't very friendly, maybe they would go away if he pretended he didn't know they were there with him.

Moments later Calanthe's scent wafted around him as the pale woman nudged him in his shoulder with her nose. His tail wagging a tiny bit in relief that it was somebody he liked, he lifted his head and returned Calanthe's greeting nudge with a bump of his own nose against her chin, then settled back as she began to talk. Her offer sparked something a lot like interest in the boy, except... it kinda sounded like she was talking about crossing the borders. "I thought we weren't allowed to leave the territory?" he asked - just in time for her to remind him that, while he still couldn't leave by himself, he was allowed to leave with a chaperone, now.

His tail slowly began to wag behind him as he sat up and contemplated her offer. It was a chance to explore some new place he hadn't ever seen before, and the prospect of that alone made him eager to already be there. With his first genuine smile since before Minka had passed, he hopped to his feet and told Calanthe, "That sounds like a lot of fun. Can we go now? Please?"

Fortunately the woman was in an obliging mood - or maybe she had come looking for him because she wanted somebody to go adventuring with. Either way, they left the territory at a trot, Draven setting the pace in his excitement. Here and there he would stop to sniff out a burrow or poke at a frog in the little pond they passed or the dead bird they found a while after that, but nothing distracted him long enough to keep them from ultimately reaching the castle on a cloud Calanthe seemed to have in mind.

Draven's eyes grew wide in his head as he trotted away from Calanthe's side and sniffed at the air, drawing in all the very different smells and sights around him. It didn't smell like the mountain at all - here it smelled like water and sweet stuff and fish and a bunch of other things he didn't have names for. he would have to remember to ask Calanthe what the smells were later; right now he was too busy dashing towards the water, skidding to a stop at the water's edge before dipping a paw in. It was freezing cold, and with a tiny little shiver he decided the water could probably wait until things turned warm again before he went diving into it.

There was plenty else to explore; off he charged along the water's edge, towards the bowed maple tree from which this area derived its name - that, of course, that Draven was aware of that just yet. It didn't take long for him to scramble up into the bent portion of the maple's split trunk, although he spent quite a few minutes bouncing and skidding along both halves of the trunk before finally deciding it was too tall and too steep for him to be able to climb. Giving his ears a disappointed flick, the pup hopped down again and sniffed around the trunk, his tail wagging excitedly behind him as he looked for any little burrows or tracks or feathers laying around on the ground.

Calanthe had chosen to lay on a relatively flat stretch of ground, near the trunk of a much smaller maple tree than the bent one Draven was amusing himself with. She didn't really need the shade, but it felt nice to lay down under it all the same - to feel as though it provided her some kind of barrier between her body and the cloudy sky above. She hoped it wouldn't start raining before she and Draven decided to return home; the trek back the the Crest pack's territory would be extremely uncomfortable if it had to be undertaken with soggy pelts.

At least Draven really seemed to be enjoying himself, and for that the light-furred woman couldn't be happier. It had been painful beyond all description to see the black-pelted little lad so down, especially when it had seemed so constant. As concerned as she had been before for his mental well being, now Calanthe was just as relieved to see that this chance to go on a little adventure of sorts had brought out the explorer in him after all. Hopefully this trip would have a more lasting effect on him, and if nothing else help him begin to shake of his sorrow and focus on living a life as close to normal as he could make it be.

Something made the woman's ears flicker, though she didn't immediately identify the disturbance as sound. Only when she went very still did she begin to hear what had first caught her attention: the rustling and snuffling of something moving towards them through the foliage towards the south. The wind wasn't with Calanthe this time, so she couldn't smell whoever this newcomer was. All that she could tell until they came into view was that who- or whatever they were, they were relatively smallish, perhaps around Draven's size.

The hunter-in-training wasn't willing to leave anything to chance; with a frown, she rose quietly to her feet and directed her attention towards the source of the noise, keeping one ear cocked towards Draven. When their visitor finally emerged, however, Calanthe was surprised to see that it was a young girl-pup, just around Draven's age and covered in rosy-tinged tawny fur. The girl's sapphire blue eyes stood out in stark contrast to her reddish coat as she stared between Calanthe and Draven, clearly uncomfortable to the point of seeming outright fearful even before she spoke hesitantly to them.

Calanthe had never been a hard heart, but she had a history of melting around the young. That soft streak swept away every last ounce of her caution, and her features and body language softened until she was the picture of kindness as she dipped her head and took a step towards the frightened child. With a gentle smile and an equally gentle tone of voice, Calanthe said, “It's nice to meet you, Rose. My name is Calanthe; the boy I'm here with is named Draven.” Then, because this child was not one of theirs but did smell a great deal like she had come from a pack, Calanthe added, “Are you... a little lost, dear?”

At first Draven was too busy exploring everything to notice when Cal suddenly turned very still and started looking towards the south. At the same time the woman had picked up on their visitor's approach, Draven had managed to uncover a little beetly bug. He was still batting at it and watching it scuttle around in the grass and leaves when he saw Calanthe stand up out of the corner of his eye. His attention finally snared by something other than the beetle, the coal-furred boy looked over to see his guardian's attention almost wholly riveted towards something in the south - almost, save for the ear she had trained on him. She probably wanted to make sure he stayed out of trouble, Kova looked the same way sometimes when he was playing with Draven, or before when he had watched Draven and the others while Minka was away.

Draven wasn't a little kid anymore, but he wasn't dumb, either. He knew that when an adult started looking like that, it meant they thought that there was something dangerous nearby or coming towards them. He crouched down beside the double-trunk maple tree, green eyes trained on Calanthe as he watched anxiously and waited to see what would happen. He didn't relax again until she did; when she even started wagging her tail slowly to whoever was there, Draven figured it must be safe to make his way back over to her side.

He saw the other pup before he'd completely made his way back to Calanthe, although he had to squint a bit to make out their shape. At first they blended in pretty well with everything else - they had pretty long legs, but otherwise they were almost the same kinda autumny orange as the trees and leaves, except they were more pinkish-orange, or maybe just kind of a softish red-orange. It was only when he finally stopped next to Cal that their... no, her bright blue eyes made the whole pup stand out. He had seen blue eyes before; Kova had blue eyes almost like hers. But Kova was his brother, and Kova's eyes weren't quite the same deep, jewel-toned, really, really pretty color as this girl's eyes were.

Cal finished introducing them both just about the same time that Draven realized he'd plopped down onto his rump. Huh. He must have slipped or something, because why else would he sit down when there was somebody new in front of him...? It took him a second to realize he should probably say something, so after a bit of scrambling he stood up again and smiled at the girl, his own tail wagging much harder than Calanthe's had been. "Hi!" he said. "I'm Draven. Where are you from...?" He trailed off, realizing with a flash of humiliation that he hadn't caught the girl's name while Calanthe had been talking to her. Maybe she would say it again, or the girl would, so Draven wouldn't look totally dumb in front of the first ever wolf he had encountered who didn't belong to Round Stone Crest.

Calanthe smiled again as poor little Rose tried and failed repeatedly to pronounce her name. It was good that the girl finally stopped on Cal - it was already Calanthe's nickname as far as Draven and Raela were concerned, so the light-coated woman had no qualms at all about finally telling the russet pup, “Cal is fine, Rose. I know it can be a hard name to pronounce sometimes.”

She sat down and watched, her head tilted slightly in interest as she watched Draven and Rose exchange what must surely be one of the most awkward first 'hellos' in the history of first encounters. Draven, in particular, seemed more off balance than usual, but Calanthe supposed that was to be expected. He was generally a very shy pup, and he hadn't exactly had an easy past few weeks. Meeting someone his own age from beyond pack lands was probably a lot for the boy to take in all at once. All the same, she had to admit that she was eager to see how the coal-furred former Crest prince would react to Rose informing him that ravens - his namesake, as she had correctly guessed - just so happened to be her favorite bird.

Her pale tawny ears perked up at Rose's mention of hailing from Secret Woodlands; she ignored the girl's initial stammer, having already written it off as her timidity having made her nearly switch the wording around by mistake. But a Secret Woodlands pup? She didn't know exactly where the pack was located - only that they were far enough out that the wolves of the Crest did not hear them howl to each other. At the very least, that probably meant that the Crest was around a day away from the Woodlands, and that meant Bowed Maple Bend was probably an even longer shot from the Woodlands. Exactly how many days had this little one been wandering on her own? Considering her size and apparent lack of familiarity with her surroundings, it had surely been at least a day or two, if not more...

Oh, dear.

“You've come all the way here, all by yourself?” Calanthe asked, keeping her voice soft and without judgement as she spoke. “You must be exhausted.” And, if she was, that presented Calanthe with yet another barrier towards returning her home safely: Beyond her reluctance to send the girl home alone, how in the world could she justify making a child who had been lost for so long in the wilds turn right around and head back without letting her rest a while, first? For that matter, when was the last time the poor girl had eaten anything?

Again dipping her head, Calanthe carefully asked the girl, “If you'd like, you can rest here for a little while. It sounds like you've been travelling for quite a while for someone your age. Not that you have to stay if you don't want to,” she was quick to add. “If you'd like to head home right away, I'm sure that can be arranged.”

She wasn't sure exactly how that could be arranged, of course. She doubted she was close enough the her own pack's territory to howl for either of her Alphas without alerting everyone else in the area that she was alone with two defenseless pups, and after losing Minka the last thing Calanthe wanted to do was draw any extremely unfriendly eyes on any children she had charge of - even those who were of another pack. She supposed the logical course of action - once Rose was ready to go home - would be to walk the pups back to the Crest's borders, see Draven safely across, and then call for Raela or Gent. Better still, to make sure no danger came calling thanks to Calanthe's action, maybe it would be best to have Draven seek out Raela and bring her back quietly.

From there, of course, Calanthe could ask Raela for permission to see Rose back to the borders of her own pack's territory. She had little doubt that Raela would allow it; the woman was as ferociously protective of pups as Calanthe felt she could be, and surely wouldn't order Rose to find her way alone through untamed wilderness. If she didn't allow Calanthe to escort her, surely she would either find another wolf to do so or have Rose stay with them for the night so that she was well-rested and able to leave first thing in the morning... and surely Gent wouldn't oppose to any of that, either. Right?

...In any event, these were plans that could wait to be put into action until Rose was ready to leave. Calanthe secretly hoped that would be a while; she really wasn't certain Rose should head back out again so soon after arriving here, and certainly not before she had had something to eat, first. Calanthe wasn't so eager to see the girl returned safely to her own family that she would march the poor thing out on what might be tired legs and an empty belly.

Besides that, there was no denying that she might make a good playmate for Draven. The boy desperately needed somebody his own age to play with, especially in light of recent events, and if it had to be somebody from another pack... well, as long as pack secrets were not exchanged indiscriminately between the pair, Calanthe saw no harm in letting a friendship form here, if indeed one began to bud. they were only pups, after all - what could possibly come from a harmless, impromptu little playdate?

“Do your... parents know that you've left home?” Calanthe asked after a moment of deliberation. No matter what she - or Draven, or even Rose - wanted to do here, the most important thing in Calanthe's mind was that Rose's parents, whoever they are, were not worrying themselves sick over the fact that their daughter had disappeared. If they were, Rose would have to leave soon no matter what she decided to do; Calanthe could not in good conscience bring herself to draw out a parent's fear that their child was hurt or worse somewhere far away from home.