Strides born from listlessness and youth driven angst, carried the juvenile into the unknown. The sun had begun its dutiful decent to mark the days end, so that the moon might take its place, and that night could paint the skies. Though it would be several hours before darkness enveloped the land, the blistering heat of mid-day was beginning to dissipate, and so the apprentice seized the opportunity that presented itself. Adventure beckoned her onward. The sweet whispers of potential entertainment, enlightenment, experience, and even chaos, drew her further and further into foreign lands. The comforting embrace of Agavos' scent had all but faded from the landscape around her. The only trace of it remained on the winds behind her, leaving tokens of her home upon each branch that brushed her honeyed pelt, and each stone that shifted beneath her paws.

What brilliant new things would the young pup encounter on her venture? Endless possibilities flooded her eager mind, and at this she could not hold back the gleeful, trilling giggle that escaped her ebony lips. Was it wrong of her to be exceedingly delighted at the potential dangers that lurked in the vast unknown? Perhaps it was foolish, a tad nonsensical even, but she care little about that. Her daily life had fallen into a dull humdrum of repetition, and she could not take it. She needed something new, something to entertain her ever curious mind.

Farther and farther her lanky legs carried her until she no longer recognized anything around her. A devious grin slithered across her maw and pale blue eyes flickered with jovial delight.  Scouring her surroundings, she looked on in awe at the rocks that rose from the earth into colossal structures on either side of her. It was unlike any of the lands within Agavos. Vibrant emerald foliage exploded from the incredible rock faces, stretching upwards with desperation as if in hopes of reaching the sun. How beautiful, and yet poetically tragic a thing it truly was. From the moment they sprouted, their mission was to seek out the sun. As time went on, no matter the changing conditions around them, they would twist and contort themselves to be ever reaching for their life source and never able to reach it.

In her near trance, glassy gaze fixed upon the wall of rocks, something caught her eyes. A quaint little ledge that looked out over the world below. Brush adorned its edges like a guard from the perils that await any who should dare look too far over. Determination enveloped her, and lengthy legs sprang into action, pushing and pulling her lithe form up the treacherous mountainside. Muscles strained with every step as claws extended and clung to whatever they could for support. With each gruelling step, she came closer and closer to her destination. Arrogance overcame her and she focused on the end result rather than her current situation for all but a few brief moments, but that was all it took. A loose rock slipped out from beneath her, and went tumbling down the hill. Grunting in the sudden loss of footing, her eyes shot open wide as another foothold seemed to start shifting. Gritting her teeth, she braced for the inevitable and as the rocks let go from the mountain side, she tumbled along with them to the grassy floor below.

Grumbling and growling as her body skidded across harsh rock and branches, she huffed, forcing air out of her nostrils when she felt the earth beneath her stop moving. Pushing herself back to her paws, she rolled her shoulders, only to hear the unpleasant cracking of her back. She would have a few bruises come tomorrow, but for now, she did not care. She was not bleeding, and nothing seemed broken, so all that mattered was getting up on that damned ledge.

As the day was coming to an end, Conláed emerged successful. He'd done rather well for himself on his own; trotting down the unwalked paths, sleeping wherever he chose to lay his head. It wasn’t a completely easy life, as he had to constantly keep moving and doing things to stay alive, but it was simple in the sense that he always knew what needed to be done as he only had himself. He preferred it that way, to keep things logical and uncomplicated, reducing threats to his survival, plus he got to see a lot of the world in his vagabond lifestyle. Rarely did he wonder out of curiosity what his sister and mother were up to, and still he felt no need to visit them. They could be anywhere, Oltulysa had no reason to stick around the den now and Lynx wouldn’t have stayed with her nor around one place for long. More of an issue that that, was that they may be in new company by now, and he didn't want any part in meeting them and having to introduce himself. Why waste time trying to find them anyway when he was fine on his own? It didn't occur to the brute with a mind only for himself, that maybe they wanted to know how he was or might even need him. But if they wanted him, surely they would’ve sought him out already, to his dismay. He’d never enjoyed company and quite frankly found his mother’s reasons for birthing him and his siblings selfish and stupid. No, they didn’t quite need him and he didn’t need them at this point. That decision had solidified in his mind for some time now. It was just him and the wild.

With the light continually fading, he retreated into a darker, quieter, almost prehistoric looking, part of the lands he'd always known to allow him to cool off fully now that the sun wasn't radiating intense heat, and to be away from all the nocturnal and other beings that would soon be wandering around, as he wished to be alone. A fresh morsel was gripped in his jaws, so fresh in fact that it was not even dead, and it wasn't injured. It writhed in his maw, but he kept it held tight enough so that it couldn't escape yet it could still breathe. The juvenile had developed something of a habit of 'playing' with his food and indeed with others too difficult to catch, but to him it was not a twisted game. He didn’t do it for amusement, mostly to see what the creatures’ reactions were; what went through their tiny heads when they thought they were going to die. In his mind, the more he could understand the fight or flight response, the better he could use it either while hunting or to understand wolves he might bump into. After all, fear was a strange concept to him, as was true violence, because his emotions were muddled up, almost non-existent, and he thought of life in rational stages so very little provoked him to feel one thing or another. It all came down to a mental process and being in control. The little mouse between his teeth didn't have any defensive instinct at all, all it did was struggle to the point of almost killing itself due to exertion. With a grumble at the creature’s lack of intelligence, he tilted his head and loosened his bite, letting the small animal slip through his teeth until he latched his jaws closed on its tail. He wondered if its newfound freedom, hanging by a furry thread, would tempt it to do something else, at least show some courage or problem solving skills... Nope. Still nothing but tired wriggling.

Conláed worked his way through the foliage of the chasm between the great rocks that guarded from the sunlight, prowling through the bushes and shadows while his captive still hung from his maw. A short way into the shadowy area, his nose detected something, someone, that was not meant to be here. He pressed his snout down to the grass that was tainted with the scent, then realising it was the smell of a female, and not one of the rogues as he knew which wolves roamed his birthlands even if he had not actually met them and the only females were his own relatives. The scent indicated she recently passed through here and was likely still around. Deciding it best to get up onto the mountainside as he'd planned on resting there anyway plus he had reason to want a better view, he approached a thin tree, no wider than himself, that sprouted up just further than one of the lower ledges. He did what he'd done several times before, observing such behaviour from young bears. Wrapping his forelegs around the trunk, he gripped hard as if he was trying to squeeze the tree between his legs, and sprung himself up to grab the tree again higher up. The yearling continued the action, relying on upper body strength rather than his useless blunt claws and using his rear legs to help propel and support him, until eventually he made it to the height of the ledge where he then twisted away from the tree and kicked himself off. Having practiced before, he had gotten used to climbing quickly and safely, not without pain of course, and had developed much more muscular limbs and shoulders from doing so. Just as he flexed his spine after landing, he heard a scrambling noise of rocks below and further across from him, somewhere east of his ledge. Padding along behind the cover of tall trees and hedges to get a bit closer, he peered over, green hues indeed catching sight of a young fae just as she tumbled off the rock face and hit the ground further along the side of where he was, from an attempt to reach a higher ledge it seemed.

Conláed sat quietly and pressed his ears forward, simply watching to see if she was alright, though he wouldn't interfere. She soon got up and appeared to be unharmed, only frustrated that she'd tumbled off. It reminded him of his previous situation at the misty cliffs, though someone had oddly saved him since in that situation it would have been fatal. He huffed, not wanting to speak to the wolf but equally not wanting her to be in these parts. If the pack wolves came to his lands whenever they wished like it was an extension of their territory, it could only come to affect him badly, be it either through them taking control or depleting resources. Besides, he wasn't welcome in their pack lands, so why would they be allowed here? It wasn't fair nor good for them to be here and this time he wouldn't stand back in the shadows and avoid contact. Finished with the mouse, he flung it off the ledge, not quite aiming for the fae but not quite avoiding her either, with a mental thought of “There, you got the freedom you so desperately wanted. See where it got you? You’d have been better off tolerating where you were.” The brute hoped the cream and tan fae would learn the same lesson, and stay at home in future, or at least stick to the neutral locations. Mustering an appropriately loud voice, he called out to the female who was clearly younger than him but not much smaller, nor too dissimilar in colour. Though part of him was visible through the foliage and distance, he kept most of himself hidden. “I wouldn't try that again, if I were you.” His voice was deeper than he had intended, but was not assertive, more of a statement with an undertone of warning, though what he was warning her from was unclear. Confrontation wasn't something he leaned towards, he aimed more to see if his presence was enough to deter her from this domain where she didn't belong, or if making it clear he'd seen her mistake would embarrass her and also make her leave the same way she came. Being obvious about his dislike to her being there might've only made her venture off and get lost, which would only be worse if she went discovering the rogue areas, or worse became lost for so long that her family came to look for her. No, that wasn't a sensible idea. He'd keep her where he could see her and pursuade her to leave more subtly, heck he'd even accompany her if he had to.

Fuelled by the looming threat of failure, Blaire readied herself for another attempt at the daring dash up the mountainside towards her prize. She took a deep breath to calm the nerves that buzzed through her muscles. She was not shaken to the point of being afraid, no, she simply was anxious to try again, and this time to succeed. This time she would surely plan her attempt far more carefully. Everyone was allowed to make mistakes. Mistakes did not make one foolish, or even incapable, but repeating the same mistake more than once, now that was simply stupidity. Picking apart the landscape, she zoned in on the rocks that looked dangerously loose, and noted them in her mind. Those rocks, and the stones around them were sure to prove detrimental to her plan, so she would avoid them at all cost.

The path to her destination was becoming clearer now as she mentally marked the points she needed to reach, and in the order she needed to reach them in. Pushing the air from her lungs out through her nose, she nodded, and made to move a paw towards the task at hand when a voice rang out. Instinct took over and the fur on her back bristled, her tail rocketing upward over her back, and her ears flattening against her head as her eyes darted towards the source. A wolf, not to far from her own colouring called down somewhat of a warning that she ought not to attempt her climb again. Seeing that he was indeed where she intended to be irked her a little, but she would not let that show. He was far enough away that he posed no true "immediate" threat, and she was confident that should he make a move to come at her, she would be long gone before his paws his solid ground.

The cream and black hairs that painted her back began to settle, though she kept her eyes trained on the new, unknown to her wolf. "You wouldn't try it again if you were me? Well.. I suppose its a good thing you aren't me then. I don't give up that easily." she huffed in an opinionated manner, though there was little to no true aggression on her words, but simply a jaded retort in a vain attempt to quell the embarrassment that now began to creep up on her. "So you can take your threat, or warning, or whatever you want to call it, and be on your way." she added coldly, hoping that he would just go away and leave her to her mission. Perhaps such a thing was foolish to hope for, but a pup could dream no? Pulling her eyes away from the male, she marched forward toward the base of the mountain once more, letting her paws find their starting place on her journey upwards once more.

Quietly, he observed the fae as she reacted to what he’d called out. She’d been caught off guard, stopping in her tracks. Clearly she’d had no idea he was there, as he suspected anyway. There was little she could have picked up on to know of his presence as his scent did not linger much in this area since he’d not visited it for some time, plus she'd been preoccupied with her climbing. He could also tell the mouse had not hit her though he could not see where exactly it had landed or the state it was in from such a height. He wondered if he'd interrupted her thought process to determine how best to scale the cliff next, which really he did not intend to do, but at least if he had, delaying her gave him the advantage of keeping her further away for a while longer. Admittedly, he could admire her perseverance of wanting to try again though he believed her method was not the easiest or safest and therefore her audacity was best put to use a different way, yet he was aware he knew this area better and had experimented with different ways of climbing which she likely hadn't so her trial-and-error system did not make her foolish exactly. The she-wolf below took an instantly defensive stance in response to his voice, which he found odd but not entirely unexpected or unjustified. As she appeared to spot him, or what little of him which was visible through the greenery, she relaxed some but did not move or look away. Conláed was curious how seeing him put her more at ease and mentally made a note to see in the future, if he was in a similar situation, how keeping himself fully hidden affected the other participant of the interaction.

The brute turned his head to glance up at the higher ledge he felt sure was her destination judging by the direction she had been staring in as she analysed the mountainside after her fall and its superior view over the surroundings which probably attracted her. Many wanted the highest place with the best view, from what he'd observed on his journeys, but few wanted to put in the effort to get there or considered the hazards of attempting to achieve it. This pack wolf seemed different however; she seemed wiser than her age. Just as he began to look back towards her, her retort arrived at his ears. His expression did not change, he only swiped his tongue across his teeth as he deciphered the tone in her voice and what it meant. He wasn't great at such things, communication and interaction and the like, but from what he could figure out she was still behaving defensively and perhaps trying to insult him. If the latter was the case she was wasting her breath, he never took anything personally. The opinion of others meant nothing to him. Unless of course it was some form of information that could serve him well and he was confident was based on real experience. “I suppose so too.”, he replied coolly, continuing to shout down to the fae. “Or else I'd still be down there on the ground, as you are now.” The yearling wasn't aware that his response could be interpreted as insulting as well, he only stated it as a matter of fact as it wasn't to do with ‘not giving up’ in his opinion, but he clicked his tongue to himself in a proud kind of way nonetheless.

When she then told him to go away, or so it seemed, a single furred brow arched as he glanced off to the side. As far as he could recall, he'd said nothing to justify her telling him to leave, and in any case it was not her place to tell him where to go. She held no authority over him, or in his lands, or probably in her own pack either. He surmised then, that she knew she had no power at all and was not ordering him, but was simply embarrassed by knowing he’d seen her mishap and wanted that feeling to go away. It turned out his presence alone really wasn’t enough to deter her, nor was embarrassing her making her turn back anytime soon like he'd hoped. All she did was stubbornly approach the base of the rocky cliff and prepare to climb again. Conláed grunted and lowered his body to rest on the hard stony floor, staring off at nothing in particular in the area below with his natural glare while displaying clearly that he wasn't going anywhere, though it was probable that she couldn't see him now anyway from her position right at the foot of the cliff face and him being shrouded by leaves and shade as well. “You're mistaken. This is my way. I was heading this way before I even sensed you were here, and this is my land and that of the Rogues. I'm quite surprised you don't appreciate me watching over you at all, seeing as you've been putting yourself at risk since you got here and I don't need to watch you if I don't want to. If I was a puma I could’ve easily pounced on and killed you when you didn't know I was here since you loudly made it obvious where you were. So you see I wasn't threatening you, it was a warning and a hint to be more tactful. There's a quicker way of getting a fair distance up this mountain, and there's a lot I know around here that you don't.” He stretched his rear legs out slightly, letting himself relax as he knew she was nowhere near him yet so he wasn't concerned about being wary. “I even threw you a small snack earlier, but you missed it. That's only important though if you're hungry.” It was a white lie, but if she had seen the mouse he threw it wouldn't have appeared any different to what he said and he may as well twist his previous actions and words to his advantage to seem more caring, as trying to force her away or tell her what not to do apparently didn't work.