The albino’s return to his valley was a recent occurrence, the desire to find those willing to join him often resulting in aimless journeys around the Rising Sun Valley. To be home put him at ease, however, and so he savoured every second of it—up until the very moment he decided it was time to cross his borders once again. Only this time he wouldn’t be seeking out followers, he would instead be making the short trek over to his sister’s pack. Quite some time had passed since he’d told her that he would be visiting again, so he assumed she must have given birth by now. Actually, he was pretty sure that he’d been away long enough for her to have not only given birth, but for her children to be old enough that she need not cater to their every whim. Certain that this was true, he made his way towards the Boulder Path, his decision set in stone—until it wasn’t.

At first, Xan hadn’t even realised that it was a wolf. There was a mound disturbing the earth, which he’d assumed was just a pile of dirt. It wasn’t until the distance between him and said lump was lessened that he noticed something wasn’t quite right. Taking a quick whiff of the air, his suspicions proved to be correct, causing his fur to bristle. Like a sickle, his tail hung over his back as he approached the girl, a deep growl sounding from his chest—yet, he didn’t attack, not immediately. Choosing to take a route never before traveled by the young Inuk, he gave her a chance to explain herself, asking, “Who are you and why are you in my valley?” The visit with his sister would have to wait just a little bit longer, it seemed, as he stared the other down.

Although it was obvious that he’d woken her up, he felt no remorse for having done so. However few his numbers may be, he was still convinced that the valley was his and viewed her actions as an insult to his authority. The manner in which she spoke didn’t help the situation, the casualness of her tone wearing on him. Of course, his first instinct was to retaliate in some way, though he managed to hold off on doing so for the time being. Silent reminders of how his actions had gotten him into trouble in the past, as well as how they’d led to him being hated, kept him temporarily in control. The part of him that no longer wanted to be alone further urged along his decidedly good behavior, however flawed it was.

“Yes, it’s mine,” he responded after (somewhat) successfully reining in his annoyance. “It’s been mine since birth.” Well, to him it had been, anyways. Even during Raziel’s reign, it had belonged to him and his family, no matter what anyone else might say or think. And now that he was an adult, it was his right as the firstborn to officially take back control of the valley; even without an adequate amount of followers to help him defend it, though, he still considered himself to have full control over it. He wouldn’t allow anyone else to say differently or would correct them if necessary—which seemed to be the case currently, he quickly realised.

Glaring down at her, he said, “It doesn’t really matter how much help I get, this valley will always belong to me.” Undoubtedly harsh, he fell silent for a moment after. In an attempt to push passed his hostility, he cleared his throat before adding, “But I wouldn’t turn someone down if they wanted to live here, too.” Unable to muster up a nice tone, he compromised and settled for something more monotonous instead.

It was easy for him to speak on most days, having oftentimes run his mouth when he was younger more so than any child really should. Yet, whenever the topic of family came up, he was less eager to answer. Now was no different, despite the steps that he’d taken thus far to try and fix his family; however much effort was put into it, the past could not be changed and his family would never be considered anything other than broken. “My family is... spread out,” he decided to say, finding the words to be far more simplistic than the whole story. “As for my pack, they’re still in the works.” Gathering together a collection of followers wasn’t as simple as some made it out to be, especially when the days where he wasn’t intolerable were few. No matter, his efforts would eventually prove fruitful—this he was confident of.

Alexander’s eyes never left her body as she rose, closely monitoring the girl. Once their gazes had met, however, he couldn’t help but quirk a brow. The look in her eyes was strange to him, though he tried to ignore it in favour of answering her question. “It is,” he answered, his chest having risen only slightly in response to being called a prince. “Will you accept my invitation?” Although he hadn’t necessarily intended for it to be such at first, flattery was his weakness and she said all the right words in the right sort of tone.

His eyes fell to hers, the look within them still unrecognisable. This time, however, he couldn’t ignore it and said, “Your face looks different now.” Whilst blunt, he didn’t outright demand an explanation, leaving that for her to decide whether or not it was worth it. His primary focus remained on his own question, curious to hear her answer.

When she answered, her voice sounded considerably nicer than before—he wasn’t quite sure if he liked it. In an attempt to look past it, he focused on her words, rather than her tone; she’d accepted his offer. At least, he was pretty sure that she had. It was hard to determine the authenticity of her response, the sound of her voice—ignoring it was difficult—throwing him off. Forcing the questions from his mind, he decided, without much proof, that she wasn’t messing around with him. “Since you accepted, I should probably know your name,” he said, prompting her for an answer. “I’m Xan.” Eck, introductions. The whole process still annoyed him, had for as long as he could remember, and would likely always.

As her giggles reached his ears, they folded back. He listened to her response with a frown, which deepened after every few words. “Okay…?” he muttered, confusion growing. “I think I like you better when you’re tired.” A few months back, perhaps he would have played along but now, after what happened with Kendra… he just couldn’t. Too focused on the girl and hoping that she would stop being so weird, he didn’t even pick up on the scent of her plus-one.

Focused on the conversation at hand—and lacking his usual attentiveness on account of being at home—he remained unaware of the other girl lurking nearby. Perhaps he should have taken notice to her scent by now, or perhaps he already had; combined with Laurel’s own, he couldn’t separate the two and was oblivious to the increased intensity of the fiery girl’s.

At her comment his ears perked back up, silently hoping that she’d go back to being a grouch. Although that side of her wasn’t too great to deal with, it was definitely more tolerable than whatever she was doing now. But of course, his wish was not granted and he was forced to continue speaking to the weird version of the girl instead—whose words never ceased to confuse him. “Why would your friends call you that instead of by your name?” he asked, quirking a brow. “Wouldn’t it make more sense for them to call you Laurel?” Made more sense to him, anyways. “You’re not even my girlfriend,” was the next comment to leave his mouth, eyes narrowing into a glare. “My girlfriend died.” Though technically, Kendra wasn’t his girlfriend, she had been a girl and his friend at the same time, so… close enough.

Despite how it seemed, it actually wasn’t Xan’s first time having someone try to flirt with him. In fact, it had happened a few times in the past, and he’d been just as oblivious then as he was now; he’d never been too in tune with the emotions of others, usually too focused on himself to even begin to understand them. It definitely didn’t help that he was fairly antisocial, having spent the entirety of his youth avoiding others rather than learning to properly interact with them.

He wasn’t entirely sure whether her comment should be taken as an insult or not. In his eyes, Kendra had been amazing at everything; although he clearly wasn’t an expert on flirting, he was sure she had been great at that, too. Perhaps he meant to say something about it—defend his late friend—but was stopped by what was said next. It took him by surprise, as well as confused him even more, which was shown by the furrowing of his brows. “You don’t even know me,” he pointed out. “Why would you want to get with me?” It made absolutely zero sense.

At last, it seemed as if she was tired again; he’d continue to assume that to be the reason for her less pleasant self, seeing no point in calling her out for having a personality similar to his own. Her response brought a smirk to his lips, though it disappeared just as soon as she mentioned a sister—there were two of them? He followed her gaze and soon saw a fiery coated girl come into view, who he followed with his eyes as she came up behind her sibling. He waited a moment to see if she’d say anything, or if a smile was all he’d get out of her—seemed the latter to be the case. “Your name?” he asked and waited; whether he got an answer or not, he’d look back at Laurel moments later before turning and motioning for them to follow him.

It wasn’t that he found either of them to be ugly or unattractive in any way, really. He just had no concept of flirting, wasn’t too good with words or voicing his innermost thoughts, and had a tendency to refrain from getting too attached to others—which, in his head, could start just by feeling even the slightest bit of attraction towards someone. So, he kept his opinions to himself in situations like the current, focusing instead on a task.

“The territory itself is pretty basic,” he said, gaze staying ahead of him. “There’s a forest, a river, a waterfall—nothing too spectacular, aside from the walls. They’re pretty nice.” He liked the defensive aspect of them. Alexander wasn’t too sure about how he should properly conduct a tour, so he stopped suddenly and turned towards the pair. “Do you want to see a bear?” he blurted, considering Arthur to be a pretty important part of the territory. He was definitely worth seeing when he wasn’t busy being grouchy—so catching him during his hibernation, when he couldn’t complain about all the wolves, was an ideal time to introduce others to him.

The thought of seeing a bear didn’t seem too wild to him. If it were a grizzly or any other predator that he didn’t know then yeah, he’d be a little concerned, but this was different. Arthur had existed there long before he’d been born, and even before his parents had settled into the territory. From what he remembered, and was told by the bear himself during a few (claimed) accidental interruptions to his slumber, there was nothing to worry about with him being there. He’d settled on an agreement with Scarlett long ago and, now that it was Alexander’s turn to take over, that same agreement was inherited by the living albino.

When neither of them seemed all that excited about meeting a bear, his own brow furrowed in confusion. “Yeah, a bear,” he repeated, looking towards Laurel. Was she hard of hearing? He then looked at Indra and told her: “He won’t kill any of us—he’s harmless. He usually keeps to himself, anyways.” Really, killing a wolf would require way more effort and energy than he was willing to exert. And as long as no one bothered him too much, he didn’t usually have many complaints.

“Come on, aren’t either of you at least curious?” He’d expected a better reaction in response to mentioning the bear; maybe a few oohs and aahs but not shock. He’d gotten a little too used to Arthur, though, now being entirely unaffected by the realisation that his valley was shared with a much larger predator than himself.

With both of them then interested—willing, is more like it—he continued walking, leading them towards the river. From the bank, he picked out a spot where the ground underwater was raised significantly so that the could cross over onto the island; it was a familiar path for him, having visited a few times already. It was close to the center of the island where the bear had made a home for himself, though there were few recent traces of him being there—something that Alexander didn’t really like, having never understood hibernation or why bears did it.

No matter, he led the pair towards the mouth of the den, but didn’t travel any further in; nor did he say anything, currently disinterested in actually speaking to Arthur. Besides, waking a sleeping a bear? Didn’t seem like a good idea, even to Xan. So he just stood there, letting them look for a bit before a shift in the bear’s sleep had him ushering them away and back to the other side of the river—he wasn’t scared, just a bit spooked, as well as conditioned from being shooed away from Arthur as a child. His actions also kept him from saying something stupid like I told you he was harmless, when they were back on the riverbank, choosing instead to part ways for now. It was with a quick bye and belated enjoy exploring that he set off on his own, heading towards the treeline.

It was time for him to find something to bring back to Arthur, just in case he’d accidentally woken him up.