Northstar Vale A surrender, white flags draped

She was returning too soon. Back to another pack that was not truly hers, to many wolves she had barely spoken to. At least they matched her scent, now, if only barely. 

She shook away her pessimistic thoughts, and tried to make herself think of the Vale as home. The Empress's children would have grown, by now. Were they even now being taught about leadership by their parents? Probably. A good life, Celara imagined. The grey wolf wondered, for a while, whether the drama about the new Emperer was over yet. Reiko was loved by her subjects, and seemed strong, from what Celara had seen of her. She would have solved it, by now. The she-wolf reminded herself to ask someone about it.

Soon the scent of the borders hit her nose. She walked under the shade of the jagged peaks surrounding the Northstar Vale. Celara hurried, for she was hungry by now, and wanted rest. The greenery rose ahead of her as she ran, though it couldn't really be called "green" anymore. Autumn really was a beautiful season.

Wandering the vale to familiarize herself with her home, Isadora trotted to and fro through the dew-covered grass and watched as the trees changed from vivid green to something more frighteningly beautiful. It was her first autumn after all. It almost looked like the trees took on similar shades as a setting sun - if she had seen fire, she probably would have been a lot more scared of the changing leaves than to think of them as the setting sun and not of fire burning down their home.

Ignorance was bliss. 

Speaking of ignorance. A woman caught her sight, someone who just sauntered into the vale (I'm assuming from your post that Celara was away for a while and that Isa might not recognize her right away!) as if she belonged here. It wasn't a face that Isadora was familiar with. With her little stub of a tail rotated skyward, a proud posture, she came right up to the woman with a smile and a playful but tall posture. 

Hey, who are you? This stranger could have been dangerous for all she knew, the scent of the vale was not as strong as those she knew belonged here and yet Isadora came with a wag of her bum thinking this woman would be willing to play.

Yet another meeting with a pup. It really was her luck, wasn't it? Hopefully this time, she wouldn't embarrass herself to much, and the pup had made no attept to attack her. "Oh! I didn't see you there. I'm Celara." She almost prepared to run, but she, and the pup, lived here. Celara couldn't truly escape.

It suddenly occured to her that the scent of the Empire would have grown faint, by now, at least to a pup. "I went away for a while, but I live here."  The sentence sounded false to her, but she pushed that feeling to the back of her mind. This was home, now. At least for a while.

The woman was acting a little strange, but really, everyone came off as a little strange when it was new behaviour that little black and white lady didn’t encounter yet. My name is Isadora, I’m a Noble Pup, can you tell? Since the woman lived here apparently, she must be able to tell a noble pup from a commoner one - even if there were no commoner pups as far as she knew. Clearly her knowledge of the ranks were rather shallow, but she was learning little bit more every day.

You went away? Where? Why? She was curious about the world outside the vale. What did this woman see out there? What brought her to go on an adventure on her own from the looks of it. Was it scary?

Celara sniffed the air. The pup, Isabella apparently, smelled the same as any other pup. "Yes, I could tell." She lied. "Who are your parents?" The pup didn't resemble any nobles she could think of, but she hadn't spent much time among the pack. "Oh. I went to Kaistleoki, to train. It wasn't scary, but is was very different from here. Not as pretty, either." She paused for a bit. "Do you know about it?" 

A cool breeze ruffled her fur. Autumn was truly here, she realized. She'd lived under the Empire for almost half a year. The thought was strange in her mind. How had it been so long, when she'd seen so little?

She could tell! It made the young noble-ess beam with a smile, a little wiggle of the stump of a tail she had. The young girl was just filled with pride. My mommy is Vespera. She proudly announced, not really aware that she should have a father in which to speak of. No, it was just her mom - that other guy that hung around mom from time to time wasn't told to be her dad so as far as she knew, they didn't have one. Didn't need one. 

Kaistleoki? She shook her head 'no', only hearing a little of the name here and there but nothing to really know anything of the river-side pack. What is it? And nowhere is as pretty as here. She quipped happily, thinking that there was no place on earth that could compare to the valley in which she was born in.

Celara nodded as Isabella announced her parentage. Vespera... She'd seen her around a few times. A dark furred noble. Was she the one that had spoken out at the meet? That sounded right. She turned back towards the pup when she realized she'd been questioned again.  "It is our sister pack." She spoke, her words again sounding like lies. "The wolves that made this pack came from there." Or so she'd been told, and she had no reason to doubt.  "Most of the land is just grass, but the dens and hunting grounds are beside a river." The grey she-wolf sat down, resting her weary limbs. "Has anything happened here while I was gone?"