By now Borden had become used to the idea of Vlarindara and Kiche "pup-sitting" and while one of the two eagerly took up the chance to watch over the Lyall's large brood the Grizzly Hollow leader had taken the opportunity to go on a quick trip away from Cedarwood. With the scattered rain showers, he hoped the task would be easy; simply laying in front of the den entrances ought to be enough to keep the puppies from getting wet and covered with mud (something he was sure Jayse would not tolerate). He followed his nose northeast where he soon came upon the Orchard where he and Corinna Donata had met one chilly winter day. His promise to his beloved about not leaving the territory for long had been devotedly kept but after so many weeks his body was starting to crave new sights and scents... adventure at its finest. His eyes immediately went up to the damp, blossoming branches as his large nose inhaled the sweet scent of pollen and crisp fresh air. He paced yarely over to where he had marked one of the trees, keen to examine it.

He smiled at the recovering trunk as he recalled how the dappled gray woman had once mistaken him as an alpha. It seemed so long ago now, nothing more than a distant memory to remind him of how far he had come. He strode past the other tree he had clawed up and came to rest by a towering tree adorned with pastel pink flowers. Settling down by its roots he sat quietly, listening to the plantation around him as he closed his eyes in thought. He was sure Jayse would be around sooner or later but if someone else happened to find him, he was sure he wouldn't mind unless that certain individual brought with them some form of ill will to ruin his early morning escapade.

Coal black nose was pinned to the ground as the youth made his way forward, tail arched and waving above his dark colored back. Golden eyes were focused solely on the ground in front of him, and the path he took was hardly a straight one. Zig zagging back and forth, the second of Grizzly Hollow was on the scent. He had left the borders of his pack land behind and had strode forward, determined to track down the creature he was tracking. Raigo was still young, even though returning to the pack had matured him to some degree, and the way he tracked was more childlike than anything else. He took no care to keep himself quiet, and as he approached the bases of the various shrubberies lining his path, his coat snagged on them, causing their branches to rattle. It was a good thing what he was tracking wasn't food, or the poor creature would be returning home that night hungry.

With his eyes glued to the ground as they were, it was no surprise that he missed Borden relaxing beneath the tree. That was, until the scent trail he was following led him straight to the alpha's paws. Stalking forward, Raigo's eyes widened as the gray paws of his leader entered his field of vision. Looking up, he grinned sheepishly, tail wagging slowly above his back. "Hi!" Okay, so the game was up, he had been curious as to why Borden had left Grizzly Hollow and had decided to follow him. Besides, the two hadn't really had a chance to catch up since Raigo had come back, Rai having immediately left to seek out his sister.

Shuffling backwards a few steps, tan shoulder met the grass as the yearling did a sort of somersault over onto his back. Four paws dangling in the air, he grinned at Borden upside down. It was his form of submission to the alpha, revealing his soft and vulnerable underbelly. He hadn't meant to interrupt Borden's short sabbatical, but the Akreon male missed his company and wanted to talk.

The shuffling of feet and snapping twigs made Borden's eyes flash open, immediately addressing the familiar figure of Vlarindara's younger brother. A smile graced his face, the corners of his mouth nearly reaching his sage green eyes; he held back a chuckle. The youth was so caught up in tracking, he seemed to not notice the Lyall at all. He watched, observing as Raigo nearly walked right into him. "Hi!" he chimed with a wag of his tail.

"Well, 'ello," Borden grinned, his voice unmistakably amiable in tone. The yearling rolled over onto his back and the leader gave an approving nod. While he had been planning to meditate a while and collect his thoughts, Raigo's company as truthfully welcome. His own tail wagged behind him as he met the silly upside-down grin with smiling eyes. "Find what you were searching for?"

In the two months that Raigo had been gone, Borden must have learned the trick that turned him invisible - that was the only logical reason as to why Raigo had not seen him when he first arrived on the scene. While he knew that it had been his fault for not paying attention, Raigo preferred to think of his leader as one of the more all-powerful beings that he knew existed, a sort of demi-god if you will. Maybe that had more to do with the fact that the youth looked up to Borden, and while his primary reason for returning had been to find Vlarindara, his primary reason for staying in Grizzly Hollow after her departure had been because of his respect and love for Borden. And the fact that Borden was a new father and would need all the help he could get.

Grin widened as Borden returned his greeting, and Raigo took the acknowledgment of his show of submission with pride. Rolling back over onto his stomach, he pushed up with his front legs, coming to settle in a sitting up position so that he could look at Borden. Chuckling at his leader's question, the tan and creme head nodded enthusiastically. "I did indeed. I'm sorry if I was interrupting, but I wanted to ask you a question or two." Deep breath, kiddo, it's going to be alright. "First, I was wondering what is going to happen to Vlar? I found her, but she was awfully injured...she said she didn't want to come back in that condition. But she's supposed to be with us, the Hollow is her home." The second question would come later, but right now, this was by far the most pressing.

"I did indeed," Raigo stated before apologizing and that he had a couple of questions he needed answers for. Borden nodded again, patiently waiting for the youth to ask. "Shoot," he said, falling silent. The leader attentively took in each word that met his ears and his brow wrinkled at the mention of Vlarindara. He asked what would become of her and said that she had been hurt... wounded... When the white woman had showed up on the edges of the pack's territory with two dust-covered puppies, he'll admit that while he had noticed she wasn't herself, he had not noted that she was actually injured. To him, honestly, he merely thought she was just worn out from her journey... her trek from the mountain to Cedarwood's depths.

Borden grimaced a bit, trying to smile at Raigo's assertion that Vlarindara belonged with the wolves of Grizzly Hollow - with them by all means. "Well," he began. "I can't quite say... When I last saw her, I had hoped she would stay where we could all keep an eye on her, but..." He took a deep breath then exhaled slowly. "There's not much I can do about her staying or leaving. I did tell her she would always be welcome within our pack though." The addition of his last few words, he hoped, would bring some sort of closure to the yearling about the issue concerning Vlar's whereabouts. "I... could talk to Elettra, our pack medic, but... I'm not sure Vlar would appreciate her prodding."

Raigo waited for the answer to his question, watching with dismay as the look on his leader's face changed from one of happiness to one of something definitely not that. It was a grimace of sorts, as if this was too difficult a question - one that he didn't know the answer to and would rather not have to come up with one. But the youth would not back down for this particular question. To him, ending up with Vlar ultimately meant her coming back to Grizzly Hollow, because in his mind, it would not be fair to make him choose between his pack and his family. They were one in the same. That was how packs were supposed to be.

Unaware that he was holding his breath, Raigo exhaled slowly, the frown evident on his face. While there was some hope given, that Borden had told the white lady that she was welcome to stay in Grizzly Hollow, Rai couldn't quite understand why he had not made her. This was where she belonged, no matter what either Borden or Vlar herself thought. At less than two years of age, Raigo was certainly stuck in the stage where he believed that he knew what was best, but even years later when reflecting on this moment, he knew that he was in the right. Breathing in again, golden eyes turned away from Borden and the sulk grew on his face. He was supposed to be Borden's second and his ally, but right now, he felt incredibly distant and his only real desire was to run back into the forest and find Vlar. "No, she probably wouldn't like that." He commented, trying to keep his voice from betraying his hurt feelings, though failing miserably. He had not quite matured to that point in time to be able to handle such large disappointments.

"How are the puppies doing?" It was a lame attempt at a cover up, and while he was still hurting from Borden's lack of pressure on Vlar to keep her here, there was some legitimate interest in how the new youths of the pack were doing. There were five all together, though two were not of Borden's own flesh and blood, but the story of how they how they had gotten here had been kept a secret from him. "I haven't seen them yet."

Borden watched as Raigo frowned, feeling disappointment settle heavily on his peppered shoulders. His heart sank. The yearling was utterly and unmistakably let down... dissatisfied with his answer. He wasn't sure why he felt that way about Vlar... feeling as if he held no sway over her, even as a pack leader. There had always been this fire about her, he thought, and somehow he had always been persuaded that no matter what happened, if something happened, she would always return to him.

Vlarindara was a free spirit. Even when he had been a Mountain wolf and she had been on her own taking care of Raigo, he felt he could not push or pull her into joining him; and when he had left the rocky heights to form his own pack, he could only ask if she would like to come along. It was definitely an odd relationship between them - being closer than friends but not even close to being something like a mated pair - the trust Borden had ran so deep it often left him alone or waiting for her... sometimes both. He listened as Raigo sighed and commented about Vlar not liking being fussed over. The youth asked another question, but instead of answering it first, he made one last remark about the pack's missing white lady. "Your sister's a fighter," he then said in a fatherly tone. "She'll be around when she's ready to come home."

His tail twitched against one of the tree's large roots before he answered Raigo's next question, "They're doing well... all five of them." He gave a soft chuckle. "They're getting to be quite a handful now that they're allowed to play and skylark about outside of the den."

The disappointment that filled the youth was difficult to bare, and he knew that he was doing a horrible job had hiding it from his leader. But he couldn't help it. Raigo was now facing a division in his life - did he owe more loyalty to Vlarindara or to Grizzly Hollow? Since the beginning, they had been one and the same; he had not expected that to change just because he had returned home. If he had never left, this wouldn't have been a problem. He could have protected Vlar from Kiche, or at the very least spoken in her defense in front of Borden and Jaysyek. Roused by Borden's voice and final comment on the matter, he could only nod mutely in agreement. She was a fighter, but even fighters needed to know that there was somebody in their corner to back them up when it got hard. Right now, Raigo hardly felt like the most supportive corner.

While he had only asked out of courtesy, Rai found himself looking up to meet Borden's eyes as he talked about the five pups he was now the father of. Five of them. While there was no doubt in his mind that the resources that the Grizzly Hollow territory provided allowed plenty of room for the young ones to grow, he couldn't help but think of how much the young mouths were taxing. Indirectly anyway, as they were still at the point where Jayse was feeding them. Or maybe they were being weaned now, he wasn't honestly sure. "I can imagine. I know I was a pain to my parents when I first was allowed to go out." Not technically true, he couldn't actually remember that far back, but given his personality and curiosity about everything in the world, it wouldn't surprise him if he had been the bane of his parents' existence in his early days. "But how did you end up with five?" The story hadn't been told to Raigo, and he was rather curious to know how the additional two pups;stark white in appearance, a heavy contrast to the biological Lyall pups; had come to be members of the Grizzly Hollow clan.

A lump formed in the leader's throat but he managed to swallow it. Raigo didn't seem heartened by his replies. Truthfully, he was at a loss of what to do; he made a mental note to do some scouting around once he returned to the Hollow. Gazing down to his feet for a moment, a genuine smile formed around his jowls at the youth's remark of being a pain. Borden would have chuckled and commented that he was probably much worse as a pup, Raigo asked one of the questions he had been meaning to avoid by escaping out to the Orchard. "Well," he began, his ears laying back briefly as he thought. Hmm...

"It's... quite a story," he eventually murmured. "There... was an incident on the Mountain and the pack there did not survive." His head tilted somewhat to the left as he remembered the leaders he had looked up to. What pain did show on his face only glimmered through his eyes and the position of his ears, which failed to perk back up again. "Vlarindara shouldn't be too far away. She... she was the one who brought the Midnight Plateau puppies here."

The atmosphere between the two was rather...interesting. It was going back and forth like a teeter totter between the comfortable and the uncomfortable. Raigo's disappointment of the lack of Vlarindara in his life had weighed the see-saw down, but Borden's reassurance had risen it slightly. Rai's comment regarding his own puppyhood had pushed it up even further, but his inquiry into the origin of the strange Grizzly Hollow pups pushed it right back down again. Though as Raigo listened, he could understand why. The loss of parents was always a hard and difficult ordeal to have to manage. He had become separated from his own, and it was only due to his finding Vlarindara so quickly to take care of him that he survived. How the two arctic white puppies had made it down from the mountain alive at such a young age was a testament to how much they were supposed to be alive today. Borden's intel that it had in fact been Vlar who had taken the young ones from the mountain and brought them to Grizzly Hollow only further Rai's pride in her. Always a helping hand for those in need.

Smiling up at Borden, the youth's tail wagged ever so slightly behind him. "You're a kind wolf, Borden," he confessed. And he was. He had taken in Vlarindara and Raigo without any issues, and he had taken in two puppies whose parents were unable to take care of them (presumably because they were dead). His leader had a heart of gold. "When I grow up, I'd like to be like you." It was somewhat out there in left field, but it plainly stated what should have been assumed - that Raigo looked up to his leader as a father figured and somebody to be imitated.

Rising from his settled position after a few minutes, Raigo dipped his head at his leader. "I should probably get going. Jaysyek wanted some food." With that and a smile, he trotted off, ready to serve his other leader.