[b]Lucio – Volraths Forest[/b]

Lucio followed along behind Damien at a casual pace, hands stuffed into his pockets, as he’d long since shifted back into his human form—it made talking a bit more comfortable, in his opinion. Something about telepathy always rubbed him wrong, and he supposes it’s just his own preference really. 

“You’ve been mumbling a lot.” Lucio called Damien out with a casual half grin, meaning to sound more joking than accusing, but he honestly didn’t worry too much about how the alpha might take the question. 
“I don’t mean to overstep my bounds here, but my advice would be to trust her.” He said, referring to Freya. “That wolf would make a better ally than an enemy.” He admitted. He’d only arrived in time to catch the last few details, but he was pretty sure the loner wolf knew more than the rest of the pack did on whatever threat was bothering the alpha. Lucio wasn’t someone who often doubted the people he respects, and he certainly respected Damien, but he had a feeling that the larger wolf from earlier would be a bigger help to them as an ally. At least, that’s what he assumed his gut was saying; the feeling was weird, and left him wanting to extend just a bit more trust to the woman than he usually would towards a stranger. Weird, he admitted, but didn’t dwell any on it. 

[@MThePathSeeker]

[b]Leif – Town Diner[/b]

[i]((Sorry, I thought initially that the manor was near mountains. My bad, I should have checked the map first. ))[/i]

Leif felt a bit dumb at first, expressing it through a very dramatic face palm, but otherwise didn’t same much else. He simply let her go on with her explanation of the people living in the forest, which lucky for him, were who he’d initially meant— he must have made a mistake about the mountains being there, or something. It wasn’t like he was the most familiar with such a rural area; he was better suited for large urban areas. 

Claudia was talking about the same people, regardless however, as the pack alpha’s names were plenty familiar to his ears. The phrase “god people” hung a bit in his head, and he couldn’t help but smirk about it—he couldn’t tell if maybe she was being honest and this meant that his new pack was actually half decent, or if they were all just really good at hiding their true natures. The familiar gnaw of anxiety reentered in the back of his mind. She mentioned another name, which he recalls belonging to one of the enforcers—a big brute looking dude, if he remembers right. So he lived in town too. Small world, Leif chuckled. 

“Hmmm…nah.” Leif answered back, another fresh grin quickly filling his face. “Thanks for the chat though. Didn’t think people’ round here would be so friendly.” He said with an honest sort of sarcasm, which wasn’t meant to sound offensive, but did anyway. He’d honestly expected people here to be a bit more callous towards drifters, and was still wrapping himself around the pleasant surprise that they were not. 

[@ViolentViolet]

[b]Ester – Her cabin, at the edge of the forest near Stillwater[/b]

Harvesting season was always one of Ester’s favorite times of the year, as it was often the busiest. With the bulk of her crops coming down, canning in process, and a whole lot of hunting to stock up for the winter, there wasn’t much time she’d be willing to waste. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that she was currently on the bad end of her temperament after waking up to more than half a dozen escaped chickens and a busted up coop-door. She recalls vaguely that it needed fixing earlier in the month, but didn’t think it’d die on her so soon. The resulting mess only made the realization more irritating and bitter. Chickens all over the place, a terrorized garden, and then Boba, who responded by ‘sounding the alarm’ and stirring the damn birds up with his howling.

“Boba, shut it!” she barked angrily at the offending shiba, who immediately turned and grinned dumbly at his owner. She could have spit fire at this point if she tried, and the stray chickens seemed to sense this, as they quickly scuttled away from the woman with every advance she made towards them. It was an annoying process, which was grinding Ester’s nerves down further. 

“Christ almighty, will you just. STOP. MOVING.” She shouted the last part a bit too loudly, and only succeeded in chasing a couple of the chickens over the enclosing fence and into the freedom of the neighboring trees. She murmured a few choice curses and smacked her forehead with a groan. She didn’t really want to waste time chasing chickens through the forest, but she knew if she didn’t get them now, something else might. She turned to scowl over her fence at the offending woods, like it was responsible for leading her chickens astray. 

“Crap...” she finally huffed, taking a moment to breathe and cool her nerves. She’d be drinking early tonight at this rate, she thought briefly and frowned. In the next moment, she was grabbing a pair of gloves and hopping over the fence. Already, the chickens had run off further into the forest, making the woman pick up pace after them.