Naesse wasn’t sure how long she’d been running for.

Naesse’s chest heaved with each large step she drew. Her leg muscles burned from her running all the way from the highlands down to the deserts. She’d ran far, and nonstop. She was beginning to grow tired, and her eyes burned from crying, her paw pads felt as if she ran more they might blister.

She was not oblivious to the calls of her slightly younger (though much bigger) brother’s calls. She’d heard him, and although at times felt bad he’d been following her and with much effort and determination, he refused to give up. She knew he was only worried about her, but, she couldn’t face him. Not after what she’d said, and right now, she was hurt and just wanted to be alone.

It was not until she reached the dense forest until she finally slowed down. The lower branches, and tall foliage made it difficult to run. Instead, the Russian femme slowed her pace into a soft trot and soon to a slow walk. This place reminded her of the thickets in Narwain, but, instead of the place being cold, it was very warm and very humid, which made the heat seem warmer. She wrinkled her nose and hissed at the heat, shaking her pelt every once in a while, letting large amounts of her fur to shed off at once. Glad to have inherited her father’s Russian blood that allowed her fur to thin or thicken depending on her surrounding climate.

Although it was hot and she was sweating like mad under her thick coat, she found this place fascinating. Never in her life had she seen such lush green leaves and bushes. Vines greener than anything she’d seen before. Blinking slowly, her deep brown, near red eyes gazed up at the high canopies that held the humid moisture into the forest and blocked the sun out, the only acceptations where the small holes in the coverage, which brought down thin rays of light onto Arquen’s floor.

The place was quite fascinating, and creatures lingered around in the tree tops and the jungle’s floor, making unfamiliar noises, which told her these where creatures she’d never seen before. Colorful birds flew by, and strange two-legged animals swung in the air from vine to vine, seemingly in a hurry to get somewhere as they shouted things Naesse couldn’t understand.

“Whaaa!” Came a struggled cry, and Naesse’s ears flattened against her head as she recognized the cry as her brother’s. “Aru…” She murmured before taking off in the direction the cry had come from. Sticks and other exotic plants snagged her coat, pulling more fur off her thinning pelt as she ran through, some even dared go deep enough to cut her skin. It did not take her long to find her brother, but what she found wasn’t what she was expecting. First her eyes narrowed at the femme, who at first in her mind seemed to be the cause of her brother’s cry, but Naesse relax as her brother did not seem threatened by this other femme and a sigh escaped her maw. Silly she’d been worried about her brother, although he wasn’t the brightest of their litter, he was fairly large, much larger than herself and she had no doubt he could take care of himself. Although she was his big sister, she felt he would more than likely through the years protect her than the other way around.

Sighing, she was already here so there wasn’t a point in running any longer. She patted forward towards the two and walked up to her brother and nuzzled him under his chin and against his chest. She nuzzled him affectingly, glad he was alright and grateful he’d come after her, and apologetically she’d ran from him and ignored his calls and cries. She felt she failed as a older sister. She sighed and turned to the other femme who was a few inches larger than herself, although it did not bother her as much. A couple inches made no difference to her, but unlike her brother, who was nearly ten inches taller than her. Her ears barely reached his neck as she sat down beside him, his chest against her back as he towered over her. She’d never realized how much larger her brother was than her.

Awkwardly, her deep brown orbs met with the other femme’s honey orange hues. Naesse wasn’t quite sure what to say to the femme. But introductions could be a start. “Sorry if my brother has caused you any trouble, but I thank you for helping me find him…” She trailed slightly licking her lips before she continued. “I’m Naesse Lutefi, it’s a pleasure to meet you…” She trailed slightly, as she did not know the other femme’s name. Her hues looked directly up at her brother’s odd orbs, wondering if he knew who she was yet. But his anxious look told her she was awaiting her to introduce herself as well. She sighed and waited as well for the multi-hued femme to reveal to them who she was.

Arutona blinked at the female as she went off on him, his head tilted to the side slightly as she spoke. “I did? Oh… I’m so sorry, then, I didn’t mean to” He said and gave a sheepish, almost childish grin. He hadn’t even aware he had been running to be able to run into someone, but he had no reason to distrust this femme, so he’d believe her. When she said she was fine, Aru grinned slightly and nodded. “That’s good, would have been bad if I’d hurt you… I do that, sometimes…” He said softly, completely ignoring the sarcasm in the female’s voice. No, Aru was defiantly not the brightest crayon in the box, that was pretty obvious, but in a way, it kept the brute from being hurt by sarcastic wolves like this femme. And it wasn’t all the fact that he didn’t notice it, a lot of the time he did, he could tell when someone was angry, or trying to bother him, but he just chose to ignore it.

As the female snapped and started yelling at him, Arutona blinked a couple of times. “Huh? Did I…?” The brute tilted his head to the side again and flicked his ear back slightly as the female got up in his face, however an amused grin occupied his face, he wasn’t afraid of her and actually found it a bit amusing. “Would you prefer handsome, then? Or good looking… It accounts for all of the above, I suppose” He said and smiled. She was a very good looking femme, but now that he got a good look at her she did seem very muscular for a female, that, however, didn’t bother him in the least, she was still attractive.

As she spoke again Aru gave a small giggle, he wasn’t usually called by his last name. “Most people call me Aru, you can too, if you want” He mused, ignoring the ‘go away’ part of the sentence completely, he didn’t want to go away yet, he was still curious about this femme. Besides, he didn’t really want to be alone in a place he’d never been before, especially when he had no idea where his sister was. Though, he’d never admit to being scared of being alone… But he was, a little.

As the other Russian began to help her shedding fur, Aru realized how hot he actually was. His fur had been shedding for awhile, since he had to trek through the desert with his older sister, but there was still enough left that made him feel hot. Standing up Aru shook himself, his shedding golden fur falling off onto the ground, it did feel much better. When Vern spoke to him again, however, Aru’s attention was averted from his own coat and back to her’s. “Make me leave? How are you planning on doing that?” He asked in a surprisingly innocent voice, pouting slightly. He wasn’t really bothered by this femme’s hostility like most might have been, it was odd really, he kind of liked it, she could stand up for herself and what she wanted, and didn’t just go along with what everyone else said. As she stretched out Aru watched her, yes, she was obviously very muscular, but he found that kind of attractive, to be completely honest.

When the Russian femme said that she hadn’t seen his sister and didn’t know where ‘here’ was, Aru’s stomach sunk a little. That wasn’t good, that neither of them knew where they were, and didn’t know where his sister was… What if she was injured? Or lost? Or… Before he had a chance to get anymore worried about his sister, she showed up where the two were holding ground for the time being. “Nessie!” He called out happily and nuzzled and licked her happily as she came over to nuzzle him. The earlier hate, confusion and tears forgotten by the much larger Russian by the time being.

When his sister and the new femme he had just met began to talk Aru grinned a little, he felt slightly embarrassed, but he wasn’t sure why. Looking down at his sister that sat leaning against him and then back at Vern, Arutona pouted a little. “I didn’t mean to! I didn’t see her and then next thing I knew we were on the ground on top of each other!” He said apologetically and gave a hopeful grin, he didn’t want to get scolded for hurting someone.

When the Russian female introduced herself as Vern, Aru grinned slightly. “Cool name, I like it” He said. It was obvious, even to Aru, how much this female embraced her masculine side, especially now that he knew her name. Allowing his eyes to leave the two wolves he was with, the Russian brute looked around, for the first time realizing that he didn’t remember how to get out, he might have been able to figure it out before, but after getting knocked off his feet, he had lost his sense of direction completely.

When Vern spoke up again, Aru’s attention was brought back to her as he listened to her speak about her encounter before she came across Aru. “That does sound a little scary, maybe we should get out of here…” He trailed off slightly as he looked around again, frowning slightly. “Erm… I think… I came from… That direction… Or that one… Umm…” He laid one ear back and looked down at Nae for help, he really had no clue where to go and hoped she did.

The rainbowed pelt of the brute blended in oddly well with the jungle around him, like a parrot or other colorful animal of the jungle. As he walked slowly through the underbrush, he closed his eyes, he didn’t really need to see to be completely honest, he was so used to the thick undergrowth of the jungle that the way to push through it was as natural as eating and sleeping to him. ‘How could I? How could I like a fae that has a mate and pups?’ He growled to himself with slight frustration. Perhaps it was just an innocent crush, but Icari was a beautiful fae, and he couldn’t help but feel bad that she was alone right now. Perhaps he should have followed her, but at the same time, he felt like she should have time alone to bury her dead daughter, as that was not something he wished to interfere with.

As he continued to walk and mentally argue with himself about what to do, a scent caught his attention and he stopped. There were others on the lands? Rouges? He didn’t recognize the scents, but they hadn’t howled either, which was against the rules when you were on pack lands. ‘Might as well check it out…’ He thought and headed in the direction of the scent. There were three different scents, two female and a male, none of them he knew, but that wasn’t really a surprise. As he got closer to the group he slowed down and lowered himself to the ground, creeping closer slowly. He could hear what they were saying, but only caught the tail end of their conversation. The one femme was talking about a jaguar she had encountered and about how they should get out of there, but they didn’t seem to know the way out.

He was just about to show himself, when the smaller femme exclaimed that she was leaving and took off, however the direction she took off in would make it almost impossible for the other two to follow. Once she was gone, Kalthore stood up and walked out of the bushes. Aside from the remaining female being a bit rude, they seemed harmless enough. “Good evening” He said softly and dibbed his head slightly, smiling slightly. “You two do realize you are trespassing on a packs territory and could get yourselves into trouble, do you not?” He said, his words holding a bit of warning, however his tone and the smile on his face said that he wasn’t about to get them in any kind of trouble.

Sitting himself down Kalthore sighed softly, figuring he might as well introduce himself. “My name is Kalthore Yávëtil” He said softly and licked his maw slightly, flicking one of his red ears slightly as a bug bothered it. “I over heard you talking about leaving, and unfortunately, the path your friend took isn’t really suitable for wolves of your size, however I’d happily escort you to the way out if you would like” He offered and smiled slightly, waiting to see if they would accept his offer or not. While he waited, he looked the two wolves over, their coats were slightly similar in color, golds, browns and blacks mostly, rich and rather attractive colors. They were Russians, between the pelt color and the shedding fur it was quite an obvious observation.

While his sister and Vern were busy being annoyed with each other, Aru was perfectly content chasing after a very unique looking butterfly he’d found. The bug in question was HUGE, bigger then any butterfly the brute had ever seen in the lands from where he’d come from. It was bright yellow-gold and brown, almost the same colors as Vern in a way. When the butterfly landed on a flower, Aru grinned slightly and lowered his muzzle to look at it. However, when the butterfly’s wings opened to reveal a very scary looking face, Aru’s eyes widened slightly and he let out a surprised yelp, stumbling back slightly before he turned and ran back into the clearing where Vern was and his sister used to be.

Arutona looked around for his sister to rant to about the scary butterfly, but his brow furrowed into a frown when she was nowhere to be seen. “Nessie left? Without saying goodbye?” He pouted slightly, much more upset that she hadn’t bothered to come say goodbye to him then the fact that she’d left while the both of them didn’t know where to go. Actually, he hadn’t even registered the latter yet. Sitting down on the forest floor, Aru sighed softly. ‘Now what?’ He wondered as he watched the fae watch him. Tilting his head to the side slightly, Arutona grinned a little, he wasn’t quite sure what Vern was looking at, but he didn’t find it bothersome, actually, he kind of liked it, at least she wasn’t ignoring him.

Before either of them had a chance to say anything, the sound of another wolf caught the brute’s attention and his head turned to look at him. As Aru took in the brute’s form his eyes widened slightly. “Whoa! You’re colorful” He pointed out of obvious and giggled softly, grinning harmlessly. “Hi!” He exclaimed, glad to see another wolf, his tail wagging slightly. However, when the brute mentioned that they were on a packs lands, Aru’s brow furrowed in a slight frown, he hadn’t bothered to check, so he couldn’t really vouch for there not being any scent, though the brute didn’t seem to be upset really. “Sorry, I didn’t know” He apologized and smiled, flicking his tail slightly.

When the colorful brute introduced himself, Aru grinned again and flicked his ears slightly. “I’m Aru!” He piped up, not really feeling like stating his full name, it sounded rather boring and he much preferred being called Aru. “Oh, and this is Vern” He poked his paw towards the female Russian as she failed to introduce herself. When Kalthore offered to lead them out of the jungle, Arutona nodded happily. “Yes, that would be nice, my sister was the only one that knew the way out and she left…” He pouted a little, a ping of pain in his chest at the thought of his sister leaving without saying goodbye, it was really bugging him and he’d have to search her out later, once they got out of the forest.

Before the trio had a chance to leave, however, Aru caught the sound of more wolves and his head turned towards their direction. Grinning happily the Russian brute padded over to them and wagged his tail slightly. So many new faces in one day, it was exciting, especially since Aru loved meeting new wolves. Though, one of these wolves wasn’t exactly a new face, Sellion Nidërsá had grown up in the same pack as himself, though they had only met briefly a few times Aru did recognize him. “Hey Sell!” He exclaimed happily and tackled him back on the jungle floor and licked his cheek. Giggling, Aru backed off the male to let him up and grinned. “Sell and I grew up in the same pack together” He barked, explaining to the others how he knew the older brute.

Backing away from the two a few more steps, Aru looked at the female Sell was with and smiled at her. “You’re mate, Sell? She’s pretty!” He complemented before adding in his head. ‘But, not as pretty as Vern… Er… Handsome?’ He corrected, looking back at the Russian femme and giggling softly before turning his attention back to the two newcomers and addressed the black and blue fae. “Hi! It’s nice to meet you, Artanis, you can call me Aru” He said, his tone of voice was a bit excited, he really enjoyed the company of others, and this large gathering was fun to him.

When Sell mentioned hunting, Aru’s expression brightened more, the male loved hunting, it was his favorite activity, the thrill of the chase, the adrenaline rush he got as he took down the pray. The brute grinned more and nodded excitedly. “Oh, yes, I’d love to come hunting with you!” He exclaimed happily, his tail wagging slightly. Turning, Aru bounded over to Vern and grinned slightly. “You should come too Vern! Please~?” He looked at her cutely with a hopeful grin. For some reason, the brute didn’t want her to leave him, despite her rudeness.