while we're young -- open!

[Paint]

In my heart and my soul I can feel this is right
And I know my bones will grow old and my body get lost in the night

The one thing that Kohar had not quite gotten her head around yet was being totally alone. It was blissful! Not to have her dad and mum glancing over to check where she was going, or what she was saying. Kohar wasn't sure how close she felt to her parents, really. All she saw when she looked at her dad was brute strength, but she reckoned that he loved her too. Her mother seemed different. But Kohar, oddly, didn't mind too much. She went about her way with a small smile on her face, padding along in her newly stretched bones and explored the land.

'Cause money can't buy back the youth of your life
when you're older, you're older, you're old

The best part was the night. Kohar had discovered the night and it still hadn't lost its novelty. Her thick, luxurious coat seemed unsuited to the summer heat, but she found no problem with it. Her dark eyes searched the objects around her, glad of the moon for some guidance. With a start she heard an odd sound, and she hurried into the shadows of a tree to assess the situation. Again the sound hooted at her and her eyes shot upwards. A bird with a very round head and huge yellow eyes was staring at her, curiously twisting its head. She snorted a little, giggling to herself at her skittishness. With a slight hop she strolled out of the shadows and made her way to the rushing river. It was exhilirating, seeing the force and power surging in the water. She stared at it, transfixed in the moonlight.

So let's dance in style
let's go dance for a while
While we're young, young, young

[[Midnight]]

Valley River.

Justyn had a lot of memories here, actually. He tried to avoid thinking of most of them, but couldn't help it as he padded along the shorelines. Every once in a while he'd branch away to wander through the forests, but always ended up back at the banks, staring into the water's churning depths.

In this moonlit darkness, Justyn was not relaxed, but transfixed nonetheless by the things out of his control. He had always been such a control freak, but lately things were getting out of hand. He realized that the reigns weren't in his grasp and never really was.

Fire blazed wherever the wind blew it along. That was a fact that he had not thought of when he dubbed himself the Fire Prince.

He was thinking these stupid, unecessary thoughts when he caught sight of something across the river banks. At first, his hackles prickled at the sight of her; a stocky, small-pawed heap of gray fur. But it fell down when he realized it was just one of the packs' pups. She must've wandered here by herself; Justyn saw no sign of her mother or babysitter.

He studied her features with a hard glare. Justyn was trying to percieve her heritage, but from this distance, his eyesight was not good enough.

The evil thought came briefly; a flicker of bad judgement shooting through his subconcious. Kill Duke's genes. When he realized he was snarling at the thought of it, he felt shame wash over him and sighed to himself. What was he? Caer?

The pup wasn't so bad. Justyn had pulled himself into the river and was fighting the current to swim across when he saw the look in her eyes. It was one full of admiration. Justyn decided that was how he looked when he first met Duke those many seasons ago. His puppish face must have been full of admiration for something so powerful and untouchable. This pup clearly admired power.

Or was it beauty?

He padded onto the banks several tail-lengths to her left, and sat down on his haunches to study her reaction to his appearance. He was wordless, but his face full of interest.

[Paint]

Kohar watched curiously as the Beta appeared on the scene. She's seen him a little when she was younger, as is natural of a high-ranking pack member, but couldn't quite recall his name. To her, he looked quite big, and mean, but also deep in thought a lot of the time. She stared at him with her big, dark eyes curiously as he swam and then climbed onto the bank near her.

When he didn't say anything, her ears swivelled fowards curiously. She wondered what he was looking at. She glanced momentarily back at the river, continuing to admire the rush of water in front of her. When the older wolf did not speak to her, she glanced back at him. She had no problem with starting the conversation, thankfully.

"Hello," she said, ears still rotated towards him. She took him in a little, doing as she was told to do by her parents; assess the situation, look at their body language, see if there is a threat. Kohar, being so young, took these things into account but didn't believe for a second that this wolf would attack her - the Alphas' daughter - on Moons territory. Even if he did, he certainly would not get away with it. "My name is Kohar. I'm afraid I've forgotten yours."

[[Midnight]]

With his fur dripping wet now, clinging to his frame, he wondered if he looked far less frightening than he used to. He was a large wolf, and until recently had only ever worn a frown on his face, but he wasn't as angry anymore. For a Moons pup, Kohar was typical; exactly what Justyn expected. No fear, but intelligence and caution.

As she spoke he found that her features were reminding him of someone far more beautiful than her, but holding a resemblence. He hadn't thought about this pup being Rose's, and he wondered why it hadn't crossed his mind. After all, her pups ought to be big enough to leave the dens by now. But it was confirmed that she was not Rose's daughter; her name was Saki. Justyn remembered. Still, Kohar's gray pelt and slender face was familiar nonetheless.

Justyn had only interacted with one other pup the age of Kohar's. A flicker of strange nervousness overcame his wits as he remembered Shiori. What a nuisance she had been, following him around everywhere like he was her father. He never had been nice to her and now she was dead.

"I'm surprised you knew it to begin with," he started, with a smirk implying that he was impressed. He took a moment to shake the water from his pelt before he spoke further.
"We haven't met yet. I'm Justyn. Nice to meet you, squirt."

Justyn by now had drawn the conclusion that this was one of Duke's pups. Rose's half sister; perhaps that was the explanation as to why she seemed to carry the same air as them. Oddly enough, he thought that he'd hate her immediately just for belonging to Duke. But that was the old, immature Justyn. This more recent Justyn was currently trying to scrounge up an interesting topic to discuss with a pup.

"So...how are you getting along in the pack?" he asked innoncently, eyeing her with dark brown eyes as he lay on his belly. She was kind of cute for a pup. Still enraptured with the water. Perhaps she was the Water Princess.
Water...it devoured everything in its path, but unlike fire, it also gave life.

[Paint]

Kohar scrunched up her nose a little when he called her 'squirt'. She laughed, glancing back at him. Oddly enough for a princess, she didn't feel patronised by the comment. Kohar was not like Rose, who had never really been a pup, who was so quick to grow up- no, Kohar would take her time to grow, and she would have fun whilst she could. So she let a peaceful grin slip over her features.

"Dad and mum pointed you out a while ago," she smiled, deciding to be perfectly honest. "Probably because of that whole 'Beta' thing..."

She watched the water drip from him, wondering if he looked much different when he wasn't soaking. Still, she was sure she'd find out, this was her first time seeing him close-up and the summer air was rather hot. If he stuck around, she was sure he'd dry off. His question was a curious one, and her ears flicked a little in thought.

"It's fine, I guess," she laughed a little, shrugging under her silky grey pelt. "It's home, isn't it? I like being able to explore by myself. Family time is nice and all, but getting to wander off by myself is great too."

She shuffled a little, making herself more comfortable, thick fur bushing up. Glancing back at the river, she watched the water and smiled again. Then she turned her dark eyes back on the older wolf. But how much older? Surely he was only about three or so. Still, she wasn't even one whole year old yet... She wondered very briefly where her life would take her.

"I'm still a bit too scared to go into No Man's Land, though," she laughed, flopping down onto her belly and facing him, quickly dipping her head between her paws as if embarrassed. "Dad told me not to until I was older. So how's pack life for you?" She smiled a pearly grin at him, blinking curiously.

[[Midnight]]

She was probably right; he was Beta, and she was royal offspring. Still, to know that he was being talked about by them made him feel put out. Surely they didn't have many nice things to say about Justyn.
Kohar, Justyn is the idiotic Beta, it's best not to humor his stupidity.
He was frowning when he wondered what else they might've fed to this pup.

Then it struck him; why should he care what they all thought of him? Kohar's opinion especially was not worth worrying about, right?

She was speaking of home now and how great it was. That brought him to wondering if she knew anything about her family's history, the murders and the earthquake being the most important details. At least from a pup's standpoint she seemed to appreciate what she had. Justyn hadn't ever took it for granted, except perhaps for when he abandoned the Stars for Falling Moon.

She had her head on straight to be avoiding No Man's Land.
"You should be scared of it. A stranger might eat you up in a heartbeat. Maybe even a mountain lion. Not that Duke would let that happen..."

How is pack life for you?

Justyn couldn't bring himself to tell her everything he felt about this pack - mostly because he didn't think he could put it into the right words. He was still so mixed up about his ordeal.

"For me? It couldn't be better. I get to boss others around, besides Rose and Fallon. I couldn't ever tell them what to do no matter what I tried."

He returned her small, toothy grin, with his own goofy one.

[Paint]

Kohar was bemused with Justyn's expression. He looked almost a little worried about what people had been saying about him. Kohar knew that it had just been her parents pointing him out as a high-ranking pack member, but he didn't... she wondered briefly if he was paranoid, but he didn't seem that unsettled. So instead she just listened, pulling a face when he said that she'd get eaten up by a mountain lion.

"Well it's a possibility I guess but I was thinking more like the Dancing Stars wolves trying to kill me because I'm Duke's offspring or something," she shrugged, so nonchalant as most Moons pups were about such vicious subject matter.

Her ears pricked up a little at the sound of her sister's name. Paddling her paws against the floor, Kohar watched her snowy feet move before looking back up at Justyn.

"I don't know either of them very well. I haven't spoken to Rose much, she's been looking after her own pups," she mused. "You can't boss my mum or dad around, either," she pointed out, rather precosciously. "I suppose it sounds quite good fun really. Leading hunts and helping to protect the place and everything. Ooh ooh, next time you go on a proper big hunt, can I come with you? I've learnt a little bit but everyone always seems too busy to properly teach me. And isn't it your sort of job or something to teach me stuff like that if my parents don't have the time?"

[Malo]

OOC: Mind if I hop in guys?

[Paint]

ooc. Not at all, fire away (:

[[Midnight]]

{I don't mind either }

Her words were enough to make Justyn squirm. He studied her for a long moment with a new kind of feeling. She had clearly been taught - if not, had picked up on - the prejudice between the neighboring packs, with their history. For some reason it disturbed Justyn to hear such ugly words come from so young a mouth, whether or not they could be true.

"The old Dancing Stars I knew wouldn't hurt a fly unless it hurt them," he responded with a curious voice, snuffing away a droplet of water that had somehow dripped onto his nose. "They were idiots, but they weren't vindictive. I don't know the new Stars, though, so you could be right."

He allowed a smirk to play across his face when she mentioned her heritage again. He felt no jealousy at the comment; after all, he never did have the ambition to be an Alpha. The only reasons he ever did for a time was because he was simply hoping to defeat Duke one on one. It was an ambition both for himself, and secretly for Rose's sake, too. He could still remember the words she spoke about being an actress in order for Duke to function.

"A big, proper hunt," he echoed, bemused at the thought. The idea of teaching another pup - especially at something like hunting - seemed more bothersome than amusing. He instantly disliked the idea...but found himself saying otherwise. "Well, I guess you're right. It is my job."

Oh well. It wasn't as if he hadn't ever done so before. In the past he was a stern teacher, but he wasn't necessarily bad at it. Maybe it would be fun to have Fallon help him since she wants to be Beta-ranked so badly. And, well, she'd be interacting with a pup. It'd probably be good for her!

[Malo]

Almost on cue, the autumn colored fae began to make an appearance in the distance. Her fur glistened in the bright sunlight, swishing back and forth as she made her way towards the river to drink. She hadn't been to the river in what seemed like ages--too preoccupied with other activities. Her original plan had been to take a little swim but she had caught wind of Justyn's scent and decided to bother him instead. That was always more fun than what her usual daily life entailed.

When she arrived at the river she easily spotted her companion, not that he was hard to miss. Justyn was not exactly a small wolf, by any means. He was one of the biggest males she had ever seen, coming second to Duke and a few others. But he was not alone. Next to him was a small gray fuzzball and as she got closer, Fallon began to realize that it was a pup he had with him.

She stopped in her tracks, wondering if she should continue forward. She wasn't very fond of pups; as a matter of fact, she couldn't stand the little runts. They couldn't defend themselves, got first pick to eat when they got old enough to eat meat, and didn't hold any real responsibility in the pack. They yammered on far too much about frivolous things, and their boundless energy was more than she could take. She got exhausted just looking at them. She wondered if she could sneak away before Justyn spotted her, but that was highly unlikely. So she made her presence known.

A short gruff bark was emitted as she padded up to the pair, green eyes flashing. She looked down curiously at the gray pup, wondering if she was one of Rose's. She nodded at her, then turned her attention to Justyn. Her tail slowly began to wag as she greeted him. "Well hello Pudgykins."

[Paint]

Kohar tipped her head to one side, ears still a little floppy. She looked at the newcomer with curiosity, wondering briefly if she was dangerous. From what Justyn had said, Kohar deciphered that this must be 'Fallon', because she doubted anyone else would call him such a silly nickname and get away with it (perhaps Rose, but she it wasn't in her nature).

"Hello Fallon," Kohar greeted her brightly. She flashed her eyes to Justyn and back at Fallon, wondering if they were mates. Then she turned her full attention back to Justyn, recalling his previous words. "I was told to be just as wary of the Stars as I was of my own packmates," she cited, and you could almost hear Duke in her voice.

She stood up and stretched, sitting down again as she strained to speak loud enough over the roar of the river.

"Thank you, I'd love to learn how to hunt," she grinned.

[[Midnight]]

She never failed to appear when he happened to be thinking of her. Justyn's head turned at the sound of her voice, his tail also wagging. She seemed as reserved as usual, but he knew the wolf underneathe the mask.

"Hey Fawny," he greeted, giving a nod of his head - and then he felt a wee bit embarassed, remembering that Kohar was right next to him, listening. He hadn't realized before that he was self-concious of his pet name, or hers.

He looked back at Kohar, who seemed intrigued, if anything.
"This is Fallon. You should definately be wary of her. She's quick to bite since she's pretty grumpy."
He blinked mischeviously, slapping his tail against Fallon's foreleg. He looked over at her.

"This is Duke's daughter. She's a perceptive little pup," he commented.

{Sorry! I know it's crap Dx}

[Malo]

Fallon was slightly taken aback that the young pup had guessed her name on the spot, without much thought at all. She raised a brow at Justyn, wondering what he had said about her before her arrival. She's a perceptive little thing, I'll give her that. At the mention of Duke, it all came together. So this was not Rose's pup after all, but her little sister. That explained her intelligence, but she still didn't know the pup's name.

"What are you called?" She asked Kohar, her tone coming off slightly demanding even though that was not her intent. Sending a narrowed look to Justyn, she snorted. "I am not grumpy!" Looking back at Kohar, she tilted her head to scratch her ear. "You're going to learn to ignore Justyn. He tends to speak a lot of nonsense. Feel free to give him a good smack whenever he does so." Almost as a demonstration, Fallon took her right forepaw and placed it no so gently on the tip of his nose.

She gave a smirk of satisfaction before sitting back on her haunches. It was amusing to her, seeing her companion with the offspring of his future rival. She didn't know what their conversation had entailed before she arrived, but she had caught something about hunting. If that's where they were headed, Fallon would gladly tag along. She was not one to turn down a meal, especially if it meant watching Justyn do it. The competitive nature in her was strong, and it would bring her great delight to laugh if she was a better hunter than he.

[Paint]

Kohar was a little taken aback by this new female's tone of voice. She seemed rather bossy, and patronising, not only to herself but to Justyn. And he was the Beta! She tipped her head a little to one side as she watched their exchange. It all seemed rather odd to her. Perhaps they were mates, which would make more sense. But they didn't seem very romantic.

Kohar decided it was all far beyond her and that she didn't much care for the love lives of random pack members.

"My name is Kohar," she replied, ever bright as her dark eyes glanced between the two. She felt a little proud at being called perceptive. She had it in her growing mind that she could do whatever she pleased, if she put her mind to it. The perks of being a pack princess.

Had she been a little older, she probably would have made some sort of sarcastic comment about Fallon really coming across as 'not grumpy' by solving conflict with violence. But as it was, Kohar's sense of humour had not quite developed yet. She blinked at them both, taking a moment to scratch her ear with her back paw, almost causing her to tumble over.

"Justyn's going to teach me to hunt," she announced to Fallon.