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Though her rabid fits of black-eyed Marcus and his legion of the damned had ebbed there were times, especially when she found herself alone in the woods, that Em's imagination played tricks on her. At least...that's what she desperately hoped they were. She could see him wandering sometimes in the distance; a vagrant...a disembodied phantom that peeked at her between the gaps of the thickest tree lines.
 
It was a similar moment of disillusion that had sent Emily off the well-beaten path and onto one that was suitably darker...all too perfect to fuel the nervous hammering of her heart. Her ears were pinned to her head but they were largely ineffective again pushing away the noises that stirred from inside her own thoughts.
 
"I love you," he whispered from the shadows.
 
She reacted as she always did when the dead were talking her to. She banked abruptly right and began sprinting in a different direction.

Minna sat at the mouth of the den she had decreed as her herb store, counting a small pile of dock. Counting seven tiny leaves, she delicately scooped up the pile and placed it in the den. As she did, she glanced quickly at the pile of small dark leaves in the corner. She stopped, eyes the four odd leaves a moment. Wouldn't it be better if she simply destroyed them? Should she really be harbouring such a danger in here? She sighed, but couldn't bring herself to toss the things in a river or something. 

Thudding paws brought her her to the mouth of the den, and she watched as a delicate wolf sped by. The wolf looked upset, sprinting like she had seen a bear or something. Who was she? Minna took off after her.
"Wait! Stop! Are you okay?"

It was not long after her sprint began that Em's frail body began to betray her intentions to outrun her imaginary dead boyfriend. Her lungs felt like paper set aflame; each breath sent pings of electricity down her forearms that were already stiff and sore to the very marrow. She could not keep the pace up long...and when she heard the high-pitched cries of someone else she turned her head ever so slightly to observe them; the color of her eyes shined wild like a cutlass being brought from its hilt.
 
Her halting staggers were hard, painful, and entirely unbefitting of the graceful lines of her figure. Wincing as she finally came to the pause, the she wolf leaned heavily on a tree and nodded her head feverishly in a breathless reply to Minna's worried inquiries. I'm fine, she mused bitterly to herself. Just a bit fucking crazy.

Staggering to a halt, the pale girl was quick to inform Minna that she was fine with a nod of her head. She seemed completely spent, and Minna's hackles rose. "What happened? Was someone after you?"
She swung around, half expecting to see a bear come lumbering out toward them, screaming bloody murder. She turned back around, concern clouding her features. She stepped closer the the girl as she recovered, determined to protect her if anything did come running toward them.

"Don't-" she started before a great heave of air stole away the rest of her sentence. Damn delicate body she thought venomously to herself before a few moments of pained gasps lent to her the strength she needed to talk. "Don't bother," she said again. "Nothing more than ghosts in these woods. Ghosts that I'm in no mood to talk to."
 
She couldn't help though but to smirk bemusedly at the other she wolf's posturing; would she really dare to sacrifice herself for the sake of a breathless stranger? Pity the Odolf mused. Wolves of self-sacrificing nature were often privy to nothing more than shortened, unfulfilled lives. And although Emily had certain qualities that put her at odd's end with women it was not that she was unable (or even unwilling) to forge friendships with them.
 
"Just going for a jog," she said finally when she could at last push herself away from her wooded crutch and stand upright. Though she trembled slightly she lifted her head in a regal manner and regarded her company with curious eyes. "I'm Emily Odolf...who are you?"

Minna was puzzled at this wolf's odd words, but decided not to press it further. She knew that something did not sit right with the female's casual story, but did not want to press her. She would talk kindly to this girl, not wanting to get on her bad side. She introduced herself as Emily Odolf, however, not knowing the alpha's last name, she did not make she connection between the two. "I'm Minna. Minna Amsel." she said in her lilting accent. She sat, deeming this female no threat and in no current danger. Still, how exciting it would have been to see a real bear in Rosings!

Minna did not press the issue and for that she earned bonus points in the eyes of the ashen femme. She often found that women in particular had a habit of clumsily inserting themselves into others' lives...investigating issues in which they had no business discovering. She smiled at the other's introduction and gave a quaint nod to indicate she would process and apply the name to its owner from this point forward. "You're fresh here huh?" she asked with an inquisitive sniff. She could smell the leadership on the girl as though she'd bathed in them just hours before...though it could have been she'd simply been spending a lot of company among them. "Which one indoctrined you? My brother or his wife?"

Minna nodded. "Yes, I joined a few days ago." She wondered how long the pale girl had been here. She had not yet met nor heard of her before, but the pack scent was strong on her pelt. She assuamed she had been here for a while. "Your brother? Oh! Aaron is your brother?" The marbled female glanced once more at Emily, perhaps, just maybe, she could see some resemblance between the two. "Amara was the one to meet me at the borders, though I met Aaron a little while later." Minna wondered if the girl had always been traveling with her brother. "Where you here for the packs creation, then?"

"Sometimes I wonder," she said with a teasing grin that played along the entire length of her lips. She and Aaron's ideals mixed together no better than oil and water...she often felt frustrated by the secrecy of her private life lest it earn the fire and brimstone of Aaron's old-fashioned ways. She loved her brother, and was confident he loved her in return, but the stubbornness of him made her question whether or not he'd be able to look beyond her sins and love her the same way.
 
Her head shook as she replied, "No I only arrived a few weeks ago. He and I left our home together but I parted off with another male along our journey." She abstained from mentioning His name aloud. A mewl of frustration whispered in the back of her thoughts...the ghost of Marcus's memory muttering from the darkness she kept locked away so long as she remained awake. "But when the famine struck I was forced to come here...and I was lucky to find Aaron again. He'd already established his lovely little Kingdom before I arrived."

Minna listened to the girl's story with a respectful silence, ears perked forward attentively. "I arrived in Teekon a couple weeks ago, and joined Rosing's soon after I arrived. "She also wondered about the pairings,  perhaps the girl would know. It had seemed a little odd when she first heard about it, but perhaps the practise was common here. She wondered what this Emily thought of it, did she agree with her brother's ideals?

Minna had consented to this upon joining, but now she had met Leto, and wasn't so sure about i anymore. What if she was apired with someone she despised? Surely the alpha pair would choose wisely, right? Suddenly feeling uncertain, Minna glanced at the pale female once more. "I think I should go. I was hunting, and want to bring somwthing back for Amara" The marbled femme lopped off with a few parting words and a smile, eager to hunt.