The words of the trees whispered in their ears, they had been tracking the faint scent for days and had gone over the mountain. What would river wolves be doing over the mountains when their home was so far from here? Had something happened that they did not know about, because it was rather off with the evidence they had. Perhaps they should report this to Elettra? No, it did not involve the Ridge wolves, not yet a least and it should stay that way. His eyes rested upon the traveling party. Rosealia and he traveled over the mountains, training her on the way. He smiled at her, she was training hard for that challenge, and yet only mutiny crossed his mind.

No thoughts other than that crossed him; he wanted her and her alone. That was all he could take and he was determined not to let Elettra soil on his parade. Elettra would not rule over him with the fear he once had for her, he was better than that. He was just wondering, what would he do after the fact, after all they would have nowhere left to go and he did not want to give potential children a life like he had, he would not make them face that. It had been hard enough for him and his Sister, but he would never put them through that. “This is where it ends, they must have turned back, a while ago, and the scent is extremely old.” He said to her, they had traveled away from home for about a week now. They had gone to Bramble Falls, and then ventured down to the Red Fern Forest in which they stood. The burnt orange ferns were all they could see.

“This place is odd; I’ve surely never been here before.” He told her, a whisper to his voice when he spoke. All these new scents and smells made him weary. What if there was more than meet the eye. “Perhaps before we train, we’ve gone a while before we ate real prey, let’s hunt. There has to be something here.” He told her, this snow crunched at his feet as they walked forward. He scented around, looking for maybe a deer they could hunt.

Shade smiled as his mate asked him a question. He picked up the loner scent and hid his on-end reactions. “We’ll start with talking to that loner over there.” He told Rosealia, a smiled on his face still, his tail drooped, no reason for dominance here right? His eyes had only a friendly reaction in them, there was no time to get in fights, not with breeding season being so close to them. He would have to make sure to get all the support he could in this, he needed a pack that he and Rose could lead. They needed members for that. So they would try and recruit those loners who looked for a home to be loyal to or were in need of some food. A trade then could be made. He preferred not to resort to trades though.

The sun was about to set upon the orange colored ferns that looked like they were on fire. Hopefully animals could be found here to hunt. Even if this loner wanted nothing to do with them, Rose and him were both hungry. If they didn’t eat soon, bad things would happen to them no doubt. They had been more focused on the train; the scrawny rabbit in Rose’s jaws would not cut it. Perhaps if they gave the loner the rabbit, then the loner would hunt with them? Perhaps that was enough to get the loner talking to them. He saw the brown and black east timber wolf. “Greetings there, I’m Shade and this is my mate Rosealia.” He told her.