Red had finally found a home. A pack. A pack made of wolves, no less. She stood on the mountain — her mountain — looking out at the view. She was facing the Kintla Flatlands, and could see Greatwater Lake glinting in the sunlight, even as the clouds covered most of the sky. Despite this, it was still a gorgeous day, however hot and humid. She sat and contemplated her next move. After her discovery on Mount Apikuni, her need to discover new areas was even stronger than it had been before, but her instinct to protect her pack left an odd feeling in her bones whenever she traveled too far from the Sunspire. She was confused, and had a feeling she would be for a while, until she found some kind of balance.

Still, at least now she knew she had a place to return to after a long journey in the Wilds. She turned to look back at the mountain, gazing with fondness at its trees and its prey animals scurrying here and there. She knew that perhaps she was not as worthy as others to be here, seeing as she was half-coyote. But she would prove her worth. She had to. She was loyal to a fault and would die if it meant protecting those within her pack. The thought of dying for a great cause did not frighten her, though she hoped it wouldn’t end up coming to that. She hoped that she still had many great years ahead of her, to watch the pack grow and prosper.

Turning her body back towards the Flatlands, a smile graced her lips as her chest swelled with pride.

Red’s ears swiveled to catch the chuff that Jace let out to tell her he was there. She tensed, but in a moment, the wind changed direction and carried his scent to her nose, and she caught Ferdie’s smell on him. He was a member of her pack. Good. She turned to face him, now relaxed, and was surprised that she could only see his eyes looking out at her from beneath a rocky overhang. This made her a little uneasy. Was he hiding from her? Why?

She whined, while simultaneously wagging her tail, which meant, “I’m not sure what you’re doing hiding under there, but I’m friendly. There’s no need to hide.” She hoped he would come out. Either that or she would approach him. Normally, other wolves frightened her, but she was learning not to be so intimidated — especially not with members of her own pack.

She took a step toward him and chuffed back, letting her tail wag more. Maybe he was nervous about meeting someone new. She would change that. She would be the nicest friend ever!

“M’names Jace,” said the male, as he stepped out from under the overhang.

He towered over Red, which frightened her a little, and she felt the need to submit to him. Something in the way he held himself told her that he was an Alpha, or something close to it. Or maybe it was just wolf instinct. Wolves were generally good at distinguishing hierarchy. It was needed to keep the peace within a pack. You couldn’t have submissive wolves stepping on the toes of the higher-ups. That would cause tension, and tension could destroy a pack.

She lowered her body in accordance with the rank difference, but continued to wag her tail. He seemed friendly enough, willing to talk to her, and much less scary out in the open, even though he was bigger than her. “Red,” she responded, by giving a single bark. Afterwards, she wasn’t sure what to do. She had never been very good at speaking, so she was at a loss.

Instead, she stared up at him with big eyes, begging him to say or do something that she knew how to respond to.

All was going fairly well, until those magic words: “Where do you hail from?”

That was when Red knew she had absolutely nothing on Jace. What was she supposed to share about herself? She had no past. No memories of childhood. No thoughts on her parents or siblings — if she even had any. What on earth was she supposed to say? There was nothing she could say. Nothing at all. She was new not only to this pack, but to the world. And suddenly, this information hit her like a ton of bricks. She felt as if someone had slapped her, and actually flinched in response, and then turned away from the black wolf. There was nothing she could say — not that she would say anything, anyways. She was terrible at speaking.

Awkwardly, she ignored his questions, and simply stared down at the lake below. Would this be how she was for the rest of her life? Not speaking about herself because there was nothing to say? She supposed she could tell the truth: that she didn’t remember. But that would be hard to explain, and would raise so many more questions that she didn’t want to deal with. She looked at her paws, wishing she had more courage than she did. Didn’t protecting a pack mean one had to be courageous? Where was that courage now? She tried to speak up, to tell the truth, to tell Jace that she was no one before the Teekon Wilds. But the words wouldn’t come.

Instead, she gained only enough courage to turn and face him, to flatten her ears along her head, and let out a pitiful whine before collapsing to the ground in defeat. For the first time since awakening beside the Duck Lake those few weeks ago, she felt… like a nobody — that in the grand scheme of things, her place in the world didn’t matter. She hid her face beneath her paws and hoped desperately that Jace would simply go away and leave her alone. He had punctured some part of her, and now the puncture wound was bleeding her emotions all over the ground. Wolves can’t cry, but if she could, she would be. Instead, she opted to making whimpering sounds into the ground as these thoughts pounded their way through her head…

Red jumped at Jace’s touch on her side and neck, but did not pull away. Though the sudden physical contact frightened her, she a) was submissive by nature, and therefore had to make herself stay put if others touched her and b) felt the sudden weird urge to nuzzle against the black wolf’s face. But she didn’t. That would be inappropriate and she couldn’t be sure how he would respond in turn. It might just make everything worse, and she definitely didn’t want that.

So instead, she just laid there and listened as he spoke. A small smile graced her lips when he said he would only need to know if something bad had happened in case he needed to fight someone on her behalf. While she appreciated the sentiment, she was sure she could handle any fighting herself. She was in-training to become a Warden, after all. And although she would never quite be a Warrior at heart, she was a wolf. All wolves knew how to fight to protect themselves, as part of their instincts. And if there was one thing Red was good at, it was doing whatever instinct told her to do.

The Beta’s promise to take care of her, as well as the rest of the pack, sounded an awful lot like something she, herself, would say. When he backed up after he was done talking, she rose to her paws and faced him, looking at the ground awkwardly for a moment before beginning to speak.

“Thank you,” she said, so quietly that it was almost a whisper. Her voice was small and timid and a little raspy, due to the fact that she hardly used it at all. With a sudden burst of courage she came forward and placed a kiss upon his chin, her small pink tongue flicking in and out of her mouth quickly like a snake’s. The licking of the chin in Wolf language was a sign of both deference and adoration, which seemed fitting, since he was her superior in rank, if not in age. Quickly, she backed up, ears flattening again her head in embarrassment. Then she simply waited, to see what he would do, how he would react to her show of friendship and thanks.

Red nearly purred with delight — if wolves could purr, that is — when Jace returned her physical gestures. She just barely refrained from nuzzling him, being deathly afraid that he would think she was going too far and snap at her face. She was still below him in rank and she would make sure never to forget that. So when he pulled away, so did she, and sat back on her haunches to look at him curiously.

“So tell me Red, what do you want to talk about now?”

The coywolf’s ears went back against her head and she looked at the ground. After a long, awkward pause, she said, very quietly, “I don’t like talking.” And that was all she said. With an embarrassed expression, she slowly looked back up at Jace, wondering how he would take that. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to talk, it was just that talking for her was so unnatural. Words felt wrong on her tongue. She was so used to communicating through body language alone that speaking seemed… foreign. Ugly. Difficult. She could understand when others spoke just fine and didn’t mind it at all. It was only when she had to speak that she hated it.

Instead of letting the awkwardness get to her, Red decided to rectify the situation by suggesting another form of entertainment. She suddenly lowered her upper body to the ground and raised her rear into the air, wagging her tail and barking playfully at Jace. If there was one thing all wolves knew, it was how to play fight. Her eyes, sparkling with mischief, asked the question that her mouth wouldn’t: “Wanna play?”

Red yipped happily when Jace agreed to play. She had no memories of her puphood, and so had no memories of ever playing with littermates. However, instinct was a powerful thing — especially within her — and it filled in whatever gaps her amnesia might have left her with. For a moment, she just stared at the Beta, stock-still, and then suddenly sprung into action, barking playfully and prancing around him in circles. Every once in a while, she would attempt to reach out a paw and whack at him gently, counting on her speed to keep her out of reach of him.

Then she paused, waiting for him to make a move. She wanted to see if she could dodge whatever he tried to throw at her. He was a lot bigger than she was, but that didn’t matter, since they were only playing. The most he would probably do was bowl her over a few times. She wriggled in anticipation, a light challenge in her eyes, which was essentially the equivalent of, “Come at me, bro.”

Red watched Jace as he returned her stare. There was a moment in which neither of them moved. And then she saw him barrel towards her at full speed. Being smaller than him also meant being faster, and so she managed to dodge him at the last moment. What she didn’t see was the paw that he stuck out in front of her, and so when she lunged out of the way, she still landed heavily on her face, having tripped over his giant foot.

Grumbling to herself at being stupid and not paying attention to the ground, she quickly scrambled to her paws, intent on winning. She spun around to face him so he couldn’t get the jump on her. Before he could come charging at her again, she coiled her back legs and sprang at him, hoping that her extra momentum might push him over — though she doubted it. He probably wouldn’t even feel it. But if she was going to be a Warden, she had to learn. And there was no harm in trying whatever move came to mind, since this was a safe partner to spar with and she knew neither of them would actually hurt the other.