It was the farthest she'd been from home since she, Kinis, Aeylen, and Ruiko had left Swift River. Of course, "home" was always changing, though, and Volkan had made the journey across Blackberry Fields with relatively few worries hanging on her slender shoulders. The days had been overcast, cloudy, threatening emptily with growls of thunder in the mornings, but warm nonetheless. The gray skies seemed to give the trees and the grass a saturated green hue, as in a world in technicolor. Somehow it made everything beautiful, and the promise of some enchanting scenery had been more than enough to rekindle the old wanderlust inside the young female. Ruiko and Aeylen could live without her for two days, right? As long as she kept her ears and eyes open, she told herself as she wandered through tall, strange trees, she'd be fine, and nobody would even know she was gone.

Besides, exploring had its benefits. Suddenly the colorless, rugged wolf found herself at the edge of a small glade. Vibrant flowers carpeted the soft forest floor where a ray of sunlight was able to peek through the abundant canopies above. A few birds sang here and there in the trees, but the throng of insects was all around her. Slowly, she stepped forward, head lowering ever so slightly as her pale gaze crossed the clearing— almost immediately settling on a small, brown rabbit nearby. She froze, only her eyes moving as she blinked once, watching it obliviously take a lazy hop forward. It wouldn't take her much effort to catch it, she knew— if she could only catch it in time, and if nothing else came along to startle it.

Victarion had contemplated the discussion he had had with Nina the other day over and over again. He had been a lone wolf for a long time, he feared that he may have forgotten know how to be around others. However, even as a lone wolf, long-since abandoning his post from the former pack, he was still following orders from his deceased father; they echoed in his ears, 'you're an Ironbelly, we are strong and we go until we die', never once did it let up. Somewhere along the way, he had found himself in the Northern area, subconsciously seeking out the pack Nina had been talking about. He hadn't been aware, but simply drawn on instinct. He had yet to find it, though.

The glade he had stumbled upon provided a peaceful environment, soft earth to lay upon and shade to hide him from the heat of the sun; it was here that he decided to take a brief respite from his adventure. Hours had passed before he'd caught scent of another, a female. Slowly he raised himself from the earth but remained still in his little makeshift den of shrubbery and dirt--the brown shades in his pelt hiding him from sight. He had only obtained a glimpse, but it was enough to make him wonder if he was still dreaming. She looked like an ethereal, gray ghost, all silver and slim. She was tracking something, from what he could tell, and he debated between revealing himself or remaining hidden--although, it was only a matter of time before she figured him out. His father would have been disappointed, to find his son hiding in the bushes like a coward. That thought was the one that sent him out, to confront this stranger, ghost or not.

He pulled himself from the shrubbery, the rustling enough to announce his presence--and maybe scare off an unfortunate, would-be meal. He uttered a low, short cooing howl just in case the stranger hadn't seen him emerge. He approached close enough to be within eyesight, but that was all the space he was willing to give until he determined whether or not this stranger was amiable. "Apologies, if I frightened your lunch." He muttered calmly. He apologized, but he hoped that he hadn't scared off her lunch, it would be unfortunate to get off on the wrong paw.

Slowly, as slowly as she could manage, the young wolf began to lower herself to the ground, ears flattening as part of the process. Gentle rolls of thunder echoed from the darkening clouds overhead, yet Volkan kept her eyes steadily on the rabbit. It sniffed a blade of grass, then became disinterested. So she began the countdown. One. Two—

In an instant, the fluffy brown hare shot off, its white tail the last she saw of it as it disappeared into the underbrush. In that same split second a wolf rustled the bushes nearby, and Volkan's icy gaze shot to the stranger who now stood before her. Instinctively her hackles raised and her oversize paws sprawled and latched tightly to the soft ground, but when his words came, she relaxed. One ear swiveled as she took him in: in an odd way, he could almost be the male version of her, if she was older and larger. The muted tones in his fur, the way he looked like he'd been travelling for miles... for some reason, there was something intriguing about him.

The wiry, storm-colored wolf's tail swished as she cracked a small, lopsided smile. After a moment her thin shoulders rolled in a shrug. [dohtml]"...No big,"[/dohtml] was her simple response, though her pale gaze did drift briefly over to the spot where her previous prey had vanished into the brush. [dohtml]"Those things are common as the trees, anyway,"[/dohtml] she added, shifting her weight a little and taking a step forward, toward the male. Testing the silence, she chuckled a bit to herself, looking around idly before— An ominous crack of thunder seemed to shatter the sky just then, and Volk winced, her attention turning next to the sky. Lifting her brows at the stranger, the colorless sylph of a wolf waited for him to address the situation as the undeniable smell of rain permeated the air.