The Heartwood Well, nobody's perfect

Charon had decided to travel a bit further from home to check out if the rest of the world had been as affected by nature's PMS as Stavanger Bay had. Thistle seemed to have had a wake-up call, which made Charon feel a little more confident that he could leave his home without it crumbling apart under his mother's 'rule' (if it could be called as much). Some days, Charon had considered confronting Thistle Cloud with her depression and force her to step down and let him lead the pack alone, but he just didn't have the heart to. She was probably the only wolf in the world that could lead a pack Charon was part of crappily without dire consequences on his end. She'd pretty much saved him when he was little and his parents had died. Perhaps that was why he was uncharactistically soppy towards her, even in her current state. Still, things were going to improve. She promised. Charon just hoped it was that easy, but he decided to shove his doubts aside today.

A frown found its way to Charon's face briefly when he first stumbled upon a burnt part of the Heartwood. Had all of the forest been this ravaged? The young naturalist sniffed the air around him, and it reminded him of Osprey. She'd never been found... He wondered if the fire that had attacked Blacktail Deer Plateau had taken Osprey, too.

Suddenly, Charon heard a voice nearby. He trotted along a line of trees that were burnt, but still made it unable for him to see who was talking. When he rounded a corner, he saw two wolves in the distance. One of them was light-coloured and looked small, and the other, though larger in size, looked like she was maybe a couple months younger than Charon. He was surprised, since seeing Potema had been the first time he had ever seen other pups around the Wilds, and now it seemed he stumbled into two at once.

Charon decided to approach. As he did, among the scent of burnt stuff, he picked up FitzSomething's scent, the Silvertip Alpha. If he hadn't visited fairly recently before the storm, Charon might not have noticed or remembered at all, but the scent was so strong that he didn't doubt that this pup had to be one of his. "Does your dad know you're out here?" Charon asked as he trotted towards her -- and the ruddy pup, who was closer to his own age and therefore actually captivated Charon's interest a bit more; but he had to make sure that FitzWhatever's pup was okay first -- and he momentarily forgot about his Naturalist quest of checking damaged territories.