A steady pace brought the Whitebark woman through the territory, her black nose twitching over the snow as she searched for prey. Her stomach angrily grumbled at the thought of some succulent squirrels or delectable deer. Oula hadn't been this hungry since she'd been wandering the wastes alone last summer. With the pack she never had to go long without food. Indeed, that very morning she had just picked clean the remains of frozen flesh from the carcass of last week's cached hunt. She'd felt bad finishing the last of it off, hopefully no one else had been planning on eating it, but she really couldn't help herself. The growing pups in her needed the nutrients and she found she was much more even tempered when she kept herself topped up.

The sound of talking caught her attention, and from voice alone she could tell it was Tomen. But she couldn't hear anyone talking back in response. The peculiarity of it made her curious, but as she trotted up to find the boy laying on the ground looking skyward, she could see not another soul with him.

"Are you... talking to yourself?" She asked as she stopped, her pale green eyes flicking as she looked for anyone else the boy could possibly speaking to, even following his gaze up, but finding no one. She couldn't help the look of concern that settled over her rounded face as she focused back on Tomen. Having conversations with oneself really wasn't normal, had he gotten into Veho's stash?

The wolves in this land were strange. Very strange. Hardly a day went by that she was not surprised by how differently things were done here. She didn't know what to say when the boy said he wasn't alone, she had been satisfied with her assessment that they were the only wolves here at the moment. And most definitely nobody named with the peculiar title of 'Pru'. Oula's jaw worked as she tried to determine whether he was playing a prank on her. It wouldn't have been entirely unexpected, sort of waltzing in and taking up such a rank as she had while the boy had likely grown up here.

Her eyes followed the waggle of the boy's paw, and almost on cue, a little bird emerged from a hole in the ground. Oula's small brown ears perked up directly atop her head, green eyes widening in surprise, nearly mirroring the huge yellow orbs staring straight at her. Was that... Pru? Somewhere else, that little owl would have been eaten. But here, Tomen was seemingly speaking with it.

"You..." Oula said, staring at the dark little hole the owl had just disappeared into before slowly pulling her gaze back to Tomen, almost reluctant to look away in case the bird made another appearance. "You can talk to... it?" She asked, a little befuddled. But maybe in a way it made sense. If Veho could speak with ghosts, talking to an owl didn't seem too far outside the realm of possibilities. "What did it say just then?"

Oula listened with earnest curiosity as Tomen explained just how communication between bird and wolf was possible. Any dreams of utilizing the winged creatures as scouts or messengers were crushed as it was revealed the understanding was more rudimentary than that. It was interesting none-the-less that Tomen could somehow gauge Pru's reactions even with the species gap.

Oula watched as the raptor retreated back into her burrow with what seemed like a rather disgruntled hoot. As loathe as she was to admit it, Oula still didn't quite catch the nuances that Tomen must have.

But still, Oula's rounded head tilted as she considered the little owl-den, slightly too distracted to be put off by the boy's somewhat flippant remark. Just what in the world did an owl need a den for, anyways? Didn't they live in trees?

"She..." She said, momentarily contemplating how he could tell whether the owl was in a 'mood'. She could only take his word that it was indeed a she-owl. Given Oula's own fertile state, a thought occurred to her. If harboring growing cubs could make her irritable, why couldn't it for owls as well? "Perhaps she has eggs in there?" Oula asked, her attention flicking towards Tomen. She wasn't sure she could safely stick her snout in there without losing an eye, but perhaps he would know?

While it was an obvious conclusion to Oula, it seemed to be the first time Tomen had considered the possibility that his avian companion might be expecting, plain in the hesitancy that seemed to wash over his expression. Oula watched the darkened entrance of the burrow as the boy called the bird... Pru, she had to remind herself. Oula couldn't say she was entirely surprised when Pru shrilly cried, keeping her wolfish friend from coming any closer.

Oula's smallish brown ears twitched, a little caught off guard by Tomen's question but unable to help the quirk of amusement at the corners of her mouth. "Well, I can't say that I'm an expert on the subject, particularly not in regards to birds." Being pregnant herself only gave her so much insight to how things went, it was such an individual experience she was sure there was some variation here and there. The heat had been far worse for her, she had to count herself lucky that she hadn't maimed any of Pip's siblings on their unexpected visit in the month prior.

"But it's certainly not outside of the ordinary, for wolves, at least. My mother nearly tore someone's tail off for bringing her ptarmigan instead of venison," She said with an amused swish of her tail. Shed still remembered the look on the poor hunter's face as he scurried off with tail between his legs. But to be fair, her mother was terrifying enough even without the added hormones.