Titan was starting to get very angry. He'd never felt this angry about something before. The ebony child was angry at himself mostly for disobeying the rules. Of course the pup would only realize that the rules were meant to keep things like getting lost from happening AFTER the fact that he was totally lost. However he was also angry at the constant hunger pangs in his gut that screamed out to the dark boy to get food. Titan was beginning to give up hope that he would find home again. Everything around him was unfamiliar now. The trees were different. The sky was different (or so he thought) and the smells all around him were strange. Nothing reminded him of the meadow where his family lived.

Another problem was that the nights were getting colder. Of course Titan had noticed it back home. The gray misted dark child had found himself waking up every morning shivering as the nights slowly grew cooler and colder. Now he realized that the trees had shed all of their leaves, and the young wolf wondered if the cold had killed them.

White flakes of cold started drifting lazily down from the sky. Titan had noticed the cold things a week ago and without any adult to tell him what they were the pup thought of the flakes as cold suns. Mostly because the things looked like little white suns falling from the sky. Though when he had first touched them the things had burned like fire for a second as the flake melted onto his velvet black face. The pup watched in amazement as the little suns piled up night after night engulfing the land in an eerie white.

Now used to the fact that his paws and body would sink through the two and a half inch snow covered landscape, Titan trudged along silently shivering with the cold. His winter coat was coming in quickly but the child was still chilled. The only thing he could do was continue moving forward.

"speech"

Titan was lost in his despair trotting along the mostly virgin snow when his ears caught the strange noise from behind him. Titan's head whipped up, fear clear in his blue gaze as it fell upon a tall large gray male standing not too far away. It was clear that the male had followed the young Thorbens trail, even if it was just for a short distance from Makisms original foray. Titan froze in place eyeing the stranger with a weary look, then quickly dropped his gaze. The child did not know this male and did not want to be bullied like he was last time he'd met a loner. Besides the young male had learned enough from his own family to know that staring was rude. However the childs eyes would occasionally flutter upwards in an attempt to measure the male and make sure the man was not attacking.

A curious but strong voice uttered from the leader making Titans ears shift forward in order to listen more effectively. He caught the questioning gaze of the stranger but did not feel any bad vibes from the guy. At least not yet anyway. So the child turned sideways to greet the male with a slightly wagging tail.

"Well.. That's kinda a long story. Umm.." He paused wondering if it was really okay to be talking to the gray man who kinda reminded Titan of his uncle Kino a little. "My name is Titan Thorben and... I was looking for my mother." He shrugged his wide shoulders sheepishly knowing that the dark lad had truly in all words "messed up" getting lost while disobeying the rules. Titan had an inkling that because of his disobedience he was paying for it now in some way.

While Titan waited for the males response his paws scuffled across the ground. The child's blue gaze continued to flick around even catching the tense look of the male begin to falter. Once the hard males eyes began to soften Titan began to feel a little more comfortable even allowing his body to stand at its natural height. Being used to large males with kind hearts at home gave the child perhaps too much trust in a male of such size that could easily injure and kill the boy. Yet the dark pups ears perked up at the sound of his name and his eyes slowly looked closer to the male regarding him calmly as he spoke.

"You'll help me find mom?" Titan asked hopefully tilting his head to the side as Makism began approaching. It wasn't until the alpha stopped noticing the scent on the air that Titan wondered what was wrong. He saw the older males stance and copied it opening his mouth and allowing the breeze to pass over his teeth and tongue.

Food

The growing boy recognized the scent of food but wasn't sure what creature it was. Titan knew of rabbits, mice, ground hogs, and even regular mule deer scent. However his mother had never brought the Thorben brood something that smelled like this before. It smelled vaguely of deer but different somehow.

The stranger spoke again and, nodding quietly, Titan licked his lips while a hunger pain tore through his gut. He waited for the elder wolf to start moving before he even dared to follow. However once they were moving it was easy to fall into a certain rushed stride a few wolf lengths behind the leader. Titan was always great at the game of follow the leader.

Soon the pair of wolves came upon the scent that set Titan's stomach growling so loud that he swore it sounded like Malia when she was woken up real early in the morning. Titan spied the carcass surprised at how large the remaining bones were. He had never been brought to a carcass before. Food had always been brought to him in neat clean chunks of deer or whole dead rabbits. The smell tempted him closer, as did the males order to eat. Quickly the dark pup trotted forward to investigate the large curving rib bones of the moose.

"This is a big deer." He noted partially to himself though loud enough for the male to hear. Then the pup began gnawing on pieces that looked soft enough to tug off into smaller bits. He ate his fill while casting thankful glances towards Makism. The growling in the young Thorben's stomach ceased as it slowly became comfortably full. Pausing between bites Titan raised his dark crown while the man spoke.

“perhaps you would like to come back to my pack? Just for a little bit—you can rest up for a few days and then we can go out and find your mother. How does that sound?” At this question Titan had to take a moment to think.

So he has a pack, that means he is a leader like mom and dad. Which means there would be food there and a nice warm place to sleep. He thought quietly thinking about the situation. But mom..well.. It's not like I'm going to be able to find her at this rate anyway. I can't even get back home on my own. Drooping his head and resting his chin upon the rib of the moose, Titan sighed knowing that there wasn't much else he could do. Plus he had the chance at a home for a while and food to eat.

"Well, I overheard Inali and uncle Kino talking to mom. She said she had to go out on a mission to find a friend of hers somewhere. I honestly don't think I'm going to find her..." It was hard for Titan to admit this since he had been completely confident on finding Nari when he had first set out. "...and I know I can't find home either..." the lad spoke in an even more depressed tone turning his eyes onto the horizon.

"I'll go with you I guess, but what is your name anyway?" The child asked innocently enough. He was curious as to who his helper was.

After receiving the males name Titan bowed his head in both greeting and submission. He had practiced this before with older wolves from his family. The dark lad knew that "it was the right thing to do" in this particular situation. Like Kino told us.. Respect your elders, respect your alpha's and their actions, then respect your parents. Though Titan was already garnering a bit of respect for the larger wolf. Makism was proving to be a good guy so far willing to help someone in trouble. It kind of made the young Thorben look up to him the same way he looked at his father. Indeed both alpha males had similar "lawful natured" personalities. However Titan was unsure of how this other pack would deal with him. Makism might be nice but that didn't mean the rest of his pack would tolerate him for long.

"Thank you, but I'm pretty full now... " Titan no longer felt hunger gnawing on his stomach that was for sure, but he knew he would probably get hungry later. Mom's always nipping my ears for whining about being hungry. I don't want to..whine too much in front of him. Titan lowered his muzzle sniffing the carcass while trying to think of a way he could thank Makism and help the pack all the same. The alpha spoke the name of his family. Cut Rock River which intrigued the pu for a moment. He knew what "cut" or "cutting" meant, what rocks were, but the young man had no clue what a river was. For now he let the question go worrying more about helping the man who was helping him. "Could I bring some of this with me though? For you or.. umm.. maybe a pack mate?" He looked up with puppy eyes towards the leader hoping to be useful in some way.