It seemed like once again there had been a mass exodus from the pack a few days ago. At first the Valle man had thought nothing of it, other than noting the pups were pushing their newest freedoms a bit far for his liking. It wasn’t unusual for pack members to be gone for a night, even two, as they track herds or do other tasks. But nights had gone by and there was no sign of Vasco, Mira, or Jacynth. He could only hope the kids were with his father and they had gotten delayed somewhere but there was no way of knowing really.

Understandably Clover and the rest of the pack were worried and it was growing worse by the day. Happy to have something to do and to keep busy he had volunteered to go looking for them. It wasn’t like he was sleeping much these days and he wanted to stretch his legs now that the smoke had lifted and his cough had gone from constant to just occasional.

Moving through the willows he had happened across a strange area of rolling hills filled with fox burrows. Thankfully with the colder season they had all moved on and he was in no danger of being attacked by a protective mother. If only he knew that he was walking on the same ground where Sephrina and Archer had once played just a month or so before her death.

Ducking his head into a nearby den to investigate out of curiosity, he was greeted with the unpleasant experience of a spider dropping down directly onto his face. Snorting in surprise he reared backwards out of the den, swiping madly at his muzzle, trying to knock the pest off.

The spider seemed to be clinging on for dear life, avoiding the Valle man’s paw swipes and even biting him when he got close to knocking it off. He cursed and stamped both paws on his nose, squishing it and effectively ending the battle. Only now he had spider guts smooshed into his face which was also not great. Wrinkling his nose in disgust, Viorel licked one of his paws and tried to rub it free, managing to get most of it out.

In the midst of everything he didn’t notice the child that had emerged from one of the fox dens until she was only a couple of feet away from him. Blinking in surprise, he stared at dark coloured girl with the shockingly blue eyes for just a second. Then a slight smile curled one side of his lips, ”Oh uh, hello there.” He glanced around, out here all alone and probably around the same age as the Empress children.

Raising his eyebrow he questioned, ”Are you out here all by yourself?” Surely her parents would be somewhere nearby, or at least in an easily walkable distance. Or maybe they were bad parents, equally possible.