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An important part of belonging to a pack was making oneself useful. Behati knew this second-hand, having spent at least some of her life in the company of her mother before Daddy took her away. She could not recall the circumstances under which they became a single-parent household, but wished Mother had stayed a little longer. Her knowledge of pack etiquette was patchy at best, and she wasn't entirely sure what to do with herself after seeking out a few wolves to greet.

Food, maybe? Everyone needs food. God - with this many wolves, they might be able to take down buffalo. Behati could scarcely hide her giddiness as she ventured to the edge of the Plateau, brown-tipped ears standing tall and nose working the air hard, trying to catch wind of nearby prey. With her toes clinging to the edge, she watched from the southern edge of her new home, looking south with squinted eyes and steely determination.

the colour of burnt sugar, she was the epitome of youth and loveliness. dante had accepted the girl not two days ago, and lasher found that her aesthetic pleased him, though he was not intending to woo her in any fashion. the druid stepped now from the trees to sidle alongside the young woman. he too took the air in a relaxed sort of way.

with events unfolding silently before the leadership, he hoped that the carmel wolfess would be an asset to their pack, a pillar of strength where others had failed. "hunting?" he inquired with a smile cast briefly in her direction.

Lasher's silent hopes for Behati settled silently and without weight on her young shoulders. She would have accepted whatever burden he wished her to bear in her desire to please - too green to understand the long-term effects of her decisions.

"Juuust keeping an eye out, " she replied in her sing-song voice, sliding her eye over the dark body of the male that had joined her. This was Lasher - mate, father, and leader. Even up close, he held an air of quiet mystery about him. Behati's dark ears twitched, and she focused on the fuzz of his cheek before asking, "So were you born and bred into the Plateau Gang, or are you a stra-.. late joiner, like me? It's beautiful here." Some of the Plateau wolves looked as though they might be related, but not all; Dante didn't look to have fathered any of the youngsters.

he smiled. "a little of both. my children were born here; i was not. i am its beta, however. the plateau is my heart." perhaps in time it would come to be hers as well. he knew naught of the girl, but today had dawned in its newness with the desire to freshen his relationships. "i am lasher," he tacked with a glance to the morning sky.

"you seem to have settled well," the earthen spirit observed. in some ways, her energy reminded him of casmir, and he gave an involuntary smile at the idea.

"Behati," the whippersnapper introduced in return, flashing a wide, crooked grin - one that showed a lot of gum and didn't look  particularly ladylike. Her grey eyes flickered to the horizon, confirmed that nothing particularly interesting was going on, and followed the turn of her head back to Lasher. She shuffled back from the edge, planting her dark paws firmly on solid ground. "Doing my best! You're the healer's mate too, right? And you've got two kids - or three? I've been doing my homework," she grinned, and added a tad inappropriately, "Your boys are cutie-pies!"

she was spirited. "they are indeed," he murmured with a nod. they were developing fast into handsome young men, but it would be some time before they were ready to take mates or even think of the opposite sex in romantic terms. "and yes, i am her mate. eilidh is my daughter, constantine my oldest son, and casmir my youngest."

"from where did you come?" the beta asked, intrigued already by her braw, brazen attitude and energetic ways.

Lasher's children were mere days away from entering adult ranks - had she known his thoughts, Behati would have argued that her first crush had manifested at much younger than that. Life on the move with a young daughter in tow and no other wolves to keep her in check had added many a grey hair to her father's coat.

Behati nodded in receipt of the list, making a mental note to seek out and befriend each one. "I was with my dad, but it was time to branch out," she shared, her light voice an ill-fitting vessel for such sage words. They didn't quite ring true, leaving room to wonder whether the split between father and daughter had been mutually agreed upon. Behati moved smoothly on, nodding her slim head at the mountains in the north. "We came from the south, so I haven't been further than the Plateau. But I heard something about one of the 'jobs' being that you get to go exploring on behalf of the pack? Is that true?"

it seemed lasher was living in a bit of a fantasy-land; he did not wish for his children to grow into adults, not with the spectre of his own mortality looming upon the horizon, as well as the idea that these would be his first and last pups. he had not considered the breadth of manhood that broadened constantine's shoulders, and in a smaller way, casmir's, nor the lushness of femininity just beginning to bud upon eilidh.

"such is the way," the beta rejoined quietly, matching his tone with her own. he would not press unless the girl wished to share more with him; it was not his way. "outrider," he affirmed with a nod. "my son, casmir, aspires to the same rank, but a pack can have no shortage of them." he briefly considered bringing to attention the mission upon which he planned to send his son, but decided against it. no need to involve another.

"you are cheery, but are you diplomatic?" lasher asked with a flashing grin, glancing past her into the land beyond.

Behati made a mental note to seek the younger Mayfair out and offer her assistance — in practice, she would make him listen and watch as she showed off. With Aikasarria and his vast experience gone, there was no point of comparison for Behati's meager know-how; here, on the Plateau, she was a world-crossing badass.

"We can be outrider-buddies then!" the young girl chirped, hopping excitedly on the spot. "Sure I'm di-diplomatic. Obviously." It was obvious from her grappling with the word that Behati had said the word 'diplomatic' exactly zero times in her life, but she smiled her way through the syllables anyway. Did it mean fast? Or sneaky? "Has he been out there before? Casmir," the yearling clarified, nodding her tapered muzzle towards the great beyond.

he flicked an ear at her stammer, but did not comment upon it. "he goes out quite often, but never so far north as i intend to send him." he gave a wry, teasing visual assessment of behati, and then nodded sagely. "would you like to accompany him on the foray?" he did not tell her for what reason he was sending his son, only that there was to be a trek.

"i unfortunately suffered an injury prior to your arrival here, or i would travel with you myself. but it would do well for him to reach new lands." it was upon the tip of the beta's tongue to add that he had allies there, but in truth, he did not know if saena considered them such after what had happened, and without firm knowledge, it would have been presumptuous of him to assume.

She wanted to tell him that she liked his voice - or rather, the way it painted with words she would never have thought to put together. It gave him a spellbinding, otherworldly quality that she found soothing. Her own father had exuded a similar vibe, but he had done so by not speaking very much at all.

"We'll go," she assured the Beta when he spoke of his injury, "Me and Casmir. Do you think he'll want me?" It was fishing, and obviously so. Behati could not help but flutter her lashes, grinning up at the father of the boy she would soon make blush.

he nodded, his lips curving in a deeply amused smile at her vaguely suggestive words. "i am certain that casmir will want you," the druid answered with a faux dryness, pretending that he had not heard the insinuations of her offer. he returned her look of fluttered lashes with a bat of his own and then a chuckle. "you are an intriguing creature. i believe this trek to be a good and sound investment for our pack."

Lasher certainly knew how to butter a girl up - and without sounding insincere, either. Behati had no idea what he actually thought of her, and she didn't care, choosing to take the charming Beta at his word. "Then I'll go!" she announced with a yip and a bounce, tail dusting the ground as she approached and planted a speedy kiss on his chin. The behaviour was in-built, somehow, and felt right even though she could not recall ever having smooched a stranger before. Behati withdrew, a little embarrassed but grinning all the same, and bid Lasher farewell before she bounded off in the direction of the territory's core.