Lost Lake a criminal in the woods somewhere

Niabi was far from home. She had to keep pushing onward, much as she wanted to turn back to the world she knew. She didn't have anything to return to even if she tried. Both of her parents were dead, only one she had wanted that way, and everyone she had known was probably on orders to kill her on sight. She didn't know that, but she also hadn't really stuck around after finding out that Bohdan had been caught, so they probably had figured out that she was involved somehow.

Despite how calm she usually tried to appear, Niabi was panicking. She'd been prepared to kill--she didn't call it 'murder', her father opined that her apathy and weakness justified it, and she still believed him in that--her mother, but the thought of getting caught had somehow slipped her mind in the rush of impulsive heroic fantasy. Bohdan hadn't really covered it. Maybe he had overlooked the possibility as well? Or perhaps he just thought that it wouldn't matter what they did because they'd be dead.

Nevertheless, Niabi had made it out. And now she was alone and meeting a mountainous pass that she didn't want to cross. The sky was overcast, but she didn't mind that. It meant that the sun wasn't too hot on her. She'd caught the scent of a pack and steered a good way clear. She wasn't sure if she wanted to stop here yet.

Today, the former Cove leader felt bold enough to travel outside of the borders for the first time in months since he grew ill. After finding out about Lynx's absence, he was hellbent on finding his son. The weather was in his favor with the overcast and lower temperatures. Aleister was confident he would do well on his own. If he ever wanted to regain his leadership, he needed to able to prove his worthiness of the responsibility once again. And if he couldn't travel a few miles outside the Cove territory, there was no use in trying for his former post.

 

The Cove patriarch was still slightly scrawny for a pack wolf, but he was slowly packing on weight for winter. As he traveled along the outskirts of the pack borders, his mind wandered while his paws took him on a journey just like they used to in his adolescent years. Though, this time he was to return home to his family, especially his children down at the cove. No longer was he the wandering nomad. Those years were far behind him now. Or so he hoped. 

It wasn't long before he picked up her scent. Choosing to let curiosity win today, he shifted his direction to head her off and see what this female was about. She wasn't that close to home, but home also wasn't far. Mismatched gaze caught her ebony coat first as he left the thick brush to her left. Keeping his posture somewhat neutral, though a part of him would always be used to carrying himself regally. Casting her a soft smile, "Hello there," he drawled as he stopped plenty of feet from her.

 

(This post was last modified: Sep 16, 2021, 01:11 AM by Aleister. Edit Reason: editing to include Lynx's absence )

Niabi only took a few more steps before she was greeted. It was a man, bigger than her but not by much, who had a pelt of dark agouti fur and two mismatched eyes: one gold, one blue. He had the same scent as the pack she had scented before. His posture was comfortably neutral but without an ounce of submission. That was fine by her. She knew that she needed to earn respect. She would opine, if given the opportunity, that every wolf should at some point have nothing and no one but themselves to lean on. That would ensure that they did not end up like her mother and could learn independence. It would be hypocritical of her to whine and cry like a little baby that she wouldn't be catered to now. Not to mention that it would revolt her ever to act that way.

She set her left paw forward a foot or so and dipped her head in a shallow bow. She'd been instructed in manners as a child and trained always to greet others with this sign of respect. It was usual, back home. "Hello," she replied, smiling slightly in return.

Her coloration and piercing gaze reminded him of @Oksana though she didn't carry the unique gait of his friend. Mismatched gaze continued to look the female over, trying to decipher any hidden secrets she kept hidden from the rest of the world. Though, he certainly came up empty handed as she dipped her head softly. Manners forced him to the same as she greeted him as well.

Aleister was never a fan of small talk and he hoped this stranger wasn't either, so he got straight to the point. "I'm looking for a cub who may be lost." He started off, his gaze pleading for some hope with woman had come across him. "He has a silver and white pelt with blue, green eyes." Those eyes that turned out to be just like his mother's. "Have you seen him?"

 

The man returned his own soft dip of the head as she said hello, before immediately asking a question. ' I'm looking for a pup who may be lost... Have you seen him?' His eyes looked almost pleading. Niabi frowned. She didn't like the idea of a child being lost before he could even get close to reaching his full potential. "Afraid I haven't," she said. "But I'll look." Her motivations were more than basic compassion, which she didn't have a lot of--maybe he'd owe her a favor if she found his kid. He seemed upset enough, so he'd be grateful, right?

"What is your name, sir? So I can tell him who I'll be taking him to. You know, 'stranger danger,' and all that." Maybe she could ransom the boy. She dismissed the idea quickly as just an impulsive whim. This man had a pack behind him, and she had no one. Plus, she might want or need a friend later, and he seemed as good a candidate as any.

As her frown reached his gaze, he knew what her answer would be. The small ounce of hope that his body let him have was quickly whisked away as she replied that she hadn't seen Lynx. Though, she did offer to keep an eye out for him. The more eyes they had looking for his son, the better. So he couldn't refuse her help. 

"I'm Aleister Vuesain and the boy's name is Lynx." He didn't like giving away information about his son, but if it helped get him back to his home, Aleister would have to share some information with this stranger. Enough to get him back. "We live over by the Lake." He stated with a swing of his head in the general direction of the Cove. The patriarch was sure she probably trekked by the borders enough to know their location. "And what is your name in case I have to thank you for Lynx's return?"

The man's name was Aleister Vuesain, and his son's name was Lynx. Niabi wondered briefly what the kid's mother's name was, since where she came from, a wolf's last name was simply the name of their mother. She decided that it didn't matter. If Aleister didn't want to tell her that, she wouldn't press. They were still strangers to each other. He indicated where they lived with a swing of his head.

He also asked her her name. "Niabi Abbas," she said. Some wolves might have hesitated a bit before saying the name of the mother they had killed. Niabi didn't. She despised all that Abbas had stood for, but the name itself was fine. She didn't care enough to change it.

She found that she didn't particularly want to leave. She hadn't met many other wolves since leaving home, and as a naturally social creature, she was now soaking up every last drop of interaction, even in this polite, repressed way.

She had a very interesting and unique name, one he had never heard before. Committing her alias to memory, Aleister briefly wondered if she was from around here. At the moment, he knew very few packs settled within the Lore since the coyote invasion, though she did not smell like she was apart of a pack at all. Her scent was singular, signifying herself as a lone wolf or a scout that has not returned home in weeks. 

"You from around these parts?" He asked casually, his banner sweeping the back of his hocks before he decided to settle upon his haunches. His bright mismatched gaze softened, "We don't have as many wolves here in the Lore like we used to and a lot of those that we do have were born here or have relations that we from here, so I'm curious to see if that is a continued trend." He explained his curiosity, though if he was being honest he always wanted to get a gauge on the wolves that he found around his home. The more he knew the better.

 

Aleister asked her where she was from, and now she hesitated for a beat. The homesickness was too fresh. She had to answer anyway, and so she did, but it wasn't going to be fun. "No, about two weeks travel thataway." She lifted her paw to gesture in the direction she had come from. "Slowish travel, though. You could get there faster if you rushed." She'd run pretty quickly at the beginning, when the fear was close, whispering 'run' in her ear any time she stopped for a second. But then her mad dash had become aimless wandering. She wasn't even sure that she'd gone in the same general direction as she'd tried to. It didn't really matter anyway. She'd just picked a path at random.

"No connection to here." The Lore, it was called. Was the Lore another group of packs like back home was? What about you? she asked. "Were you born here or did you move here?"