Overture Downs you didn't socialize me properly.

Rusalka was a challenge. Yami felt as though she might be getting the hang of being part of them, but she changed her mind about that about five or six times a day as one interaction left her feeling confident and another shattered it. That day, she decided to take a bit of a break from it and snuck away, past the borders and into the Wilds where she can breathe easy and let herself just be.

Yami had left at a point in the day that could've easily been considered either very late at night or very early in the morning, and so by the time she decided to finally pause for a bit of a rest, midday had just barely broken upon her. She had gone rather far, but that was no surprise - she had always loved running and had broken free of Rusalka's borders like an arrow shot from a bow. Her tongue dangled from her bottom jaw as she panted heavily, her breath FLOATED OUT LIKE A CLOUD OF SMOKE OR VAPOR OR POLLUTION IDK around her muzzle and into the frigid air before her.

Yami licked her lips and suddenly found herself parched. She began to walk again, her eyes surveying the area for a river or a stream or something that could lend her a hand in quenching her thirst. It didn't occur to her that she was basically walking on water with the snow crunching beneath her feet because what fun would that have been? Yami relied on her internal compass instead, and soon enough lost herself in meandering.

c'mere soulmate! @Merrit

*busts in to sweep you off your feet*
or maybe not.
Tags are for reference only! :)

Merrit was anything but lost - but, he was, admittedly, more than a little bit late.

Something had prevented him from leaving Easthollow at the time he'd originally intended. A feeling, a sorrow, an anger that resurfaced when he'd begun to leave for the Festival in search of his sister, but had scented @Greyback's marks so strongly along the borderline, and @Keen's so faded, that he couldn't step a paw beyond the Hollow. He had turned instead, and set about to desecrate each fresh mark his mother's suitor had left by leaving his right on top, until he found himself exhausted from bitterness, and a solid hour behind.

The snow kicked up behind him now in a pattern that almost seemed as calculated as the path that he charted through the gentle hills. In actuality, he had very little idea of where he was to go from here. The last time he had been this way, speed hadn't been on his side, but he needed something faster today. So when he caught the motion of an agouti stranger sauntering across the downs, his initial instinct was to turn away, and he began to. He didn't need unnecessary small talk - he didn't need something else slowing him down.

Unless she could help, and he stopped, before his body followed the turn of his ear and he cut toward her instead. Surely he could dismiss her quickly if she was of no assistance. Merrit approached with a sweeping stride set with rugged purpose, and he called for her attention:

"Afternoon, m'lady," his voice was polite, but devoid of, well... anything, really, but he rang a bit sharper than usual, a bit quicker, a bit more rushed. This was business, he hoped that was clear. "Are you familiar with the packs in this area? Elysium, particularly."

Yami had just paused to inspect what appeared to be an abandoned rabbit warren when she heard the stranger approach. She picked up her head and turned to face him, her posture wary but not unwelcoming. Her eyes swept across him, taking in his appearance. He was a good-looking fellow, but a quick glance was all it had taken to tell her that he was young. Probably about her age. This disqualified him almost immediately as a romantic interest, so she didn't feel the need to impress him as she so often did when she was around the opposite gender.

"Hey," she responded, quirking a brow at the m'lady, but keeping her comments to herself, "Uh.. Not really. I've never heard of any Elysium before and this is about as far East as I've ever been." Yami paused to consider if this was true and figured it was. When she'd met Tru and Ripley, they'd headed South and then West before looping back around. "I live on the Coast," she added, "So unless it's around there..."