He was in awe, even despite the fact that the excitement of the trip had dissolved almost as quickly as it had come. His father had estimated two weeks at most and yet three weeks had come and gone, and Chiron had done his best to keep quiet. He knew how frustrating the trip was on his father because every so often he would hear Koda swear or expel a deep exhale of air in frustration at every strange mountain or harsh weather that came their way. Just a few days back they had to wait out the worst storm that he had ever experienced but Koda's attitude and calm had kept him from feeling any of the anxiety he would have normally encountered--his father had a way of keeping him balanced and poised. Today though, he was tired and it showed on the way he was struggling to keep up with the fast pace that his father was going and every so often he would hurry to settle at a safe distance behind Koda with hopes that he wouldn't hear the male repeat his request for him to keep up. He was trying, he really was.


They stopped and Chiron felt a relief come over him but curiosity covered his features and he came around to face his father, head cocking to the side in wonder. "I'm keeping up, why did we stop?" he asked but the words were met with a response he'd been waiting to hear all night. They were resting, he felt that he had deserved it. "Good, I think my paws are going to fall off or something." he complained but this time the words went to deaf ears. Koda had already went off in search of whatever he felt they needed and Chiron was left alone with a few words of wisdom. He was smart, that was why Koda had left him alone and he appreciated his father for allowing him his freedom but everything about this forest was creeping him out--darkness was beginning to take over. He settled on his haunches in thought before finally, boredom taking over, he came to the base of a tree and sniffed out a creature he'd been waiting to get his jaws on. "squirrel!" he yelled, mostly to himself than anyone else, and was off like a bullet with every intention on catching them a meal.

What Chiron enjoyed most about hunting was the thrill that came over him from chasing down and scaring the heck out of whatever creature he was hunting. He wasn't quite good at catching prey, often times they would scurry from his large feet or outrun him before he had the chance to even think of a plan to corner them, therefore he still didn't know exactly what it felt like to take a life and part of him didn't want to. He enjoyed eating prey, probably more than he liked to admit, but for most of his life those meals had been given to him pre-killed and ready to eat, he never had to snap a neck or injure a spine and although Koda had promised him that one day he would during his lessons, he never took it upon himself to push the aging male into quickening the missions. He was perfectly content with the chase and it was evident on his goofy face.


"Get back here!" he woofed, watching the squirrel scurry up a tree but the chase was far from over and Chiron tried more than once to climb the tree and failed. In the end he had gotten all that energy out and was headed back to where Koda had left him in hopes that the male wouldn't notice, what he saw instead was what looked like a standoff and instinctively he lingered behind in case the wolf was another male challenging Koda for whatever he had caught. When he saw that his father had calmed down he figured it was safe enough to enter and he did so with the gracefulness of a elephant. "DAD, I almost caught it this time. You should have seen it!" he yelled, nearly breathless but it was hard to determine why. He eyed the wolf Koda was talking to and managed to give her the most charming smile before speaking, "I'm Chiron, this is my dad, Koda. We came here from Midnight Ridge and it's far from here, so far that we finally took a break." and he turned toward Koda for confirmation, completely missing the scowl that came to his fathers face.

It took him a minute too long to realize that his father wasn't too happy with him. It didn't really bother him though, Koda was getting grumpier with age and he was quite used to the scowls and mumbles that his father would emit when it came to him. Perhaps it was because Koda wasn't used to pups but his father was quick to correct Chiron when he saw and error but today he didn't and that made it even easier for the pale youth to continue on speaking. He didn't think Nineva was a threat, and when his father gave his own name Chiron smiled with pleasure knowing that finally his dad was opening up--it took long enough. His tail wagging behind him he watched as the adults talked, focus going from one wolf to another until the ball was back in the womans' court and Chiron waited to see what she would say. He was actually curious--what did she want to eat?