The whole forest was glittering with frost from the night before, and it made the ground and leaves under Draven's paws crunch as he trotted through the territory. With his nose to the frigid air, his breath steamed out above him like tiny puffs of fog trapped underneath the boughs overhead. It was beautiful - except he was on very important business right now, so he couldn't stop and look around slack-jawed at everything... whatever slack-jawed meant. It was one of those words he hadn't heard often enough to really know what it meant--

The former prince shook his head with a snort. He was letting himself get distracted again, and he didn't have any time to be distracted! He needed to learn how to hunt rabbits today, so that he could start practising on his own, so that he could impress @Rose when they met up again by catching a rabbit or two for lunch for them!

He knew Cal could probably teach him how to hunt rabbits - she'd told him how when she was on her own she'd hunted mostly just rabbits and squirrels, so she was probably really good at it. The only problem was that he spent more time with Cal than he did with Raela, and he was starting to feel like he was being unfair to Raela that way. So instead of tracking down Cal, the darkling boy turned his nose after Raela's scent.

It didn't take him long to find the new Queen, but he hesitated a minute when he did - she was napping, and he wasn't sure if she was still asleep from last night or if she was taking a nap after having been awake for a bit before. Finally impatience won out over good manners, and the boy finally trotted up to her side and poked her gingerly in the side.

"Raela." He whispered first, then gradually rose to his normal volume as he continued poking her. "Raela, wake up. Raaaaaaaelaaaaaaaa."