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Jet wagged his tail in a fury. "Yes, yes! This is perfect!" He yipped silently in delight. The black wolf looked as if he was a pup again, ready to play out in a lush green field. Though, he knew the matter was far more serious. Still, he couldn't help but feel excited. He had finally found Asphodel a new pack member. He felt genuinely proud of himself.

He was about to tell the female, Matya, to follow him back to their territory, but suddenly he heard the familiar voice of the alpha. "Asphodel?" He whispered in the direction from which the woof came from. "Is that you?" Then he suddenly saw her figure appear from a bit of a distance. He turned to look at her fully, and stood a bit in front of Matya, just in case something happened that Asphodel didn't trust her. He didn't want the female to get hurt.

He held his head high, proud of himself, but suddenly faltered his expression when he saw another male. He seemed to have something invisibly bound to his front paws, as if the shadows were ready to pounce on him at any minute now. He shook his head and took a few steps. "Asphodel, I'm so sorry if I disturbed you." He was referring to the clouds that had disappeared not too long ago.

"However," he continued. "I found another wolf. At first I thought she could be a threat, but after further conversation I found she was just the opposite. To us at least." His eyes glittered with excitement at telling his leader the news.

((OOC: Hey guys for the time being I will be playing Hispeth so my posts may be a little slow at first))

Meanwhile, back in Astral terriotory, while most of the pack was able to relax none knew that the fearsome mate of Zhivel was stirring in her sleep when her unborn cub was stirring in her body. "So I see...," she mumbled nuzzling her mate right next to her. "Zhivel...wake up, I need you to answer something..."

Ryder nodded and started to follow close to the pack of loners in the shadows before he feigned an injury, prentending his paw was broken "Follow my lead and maybe this time neither of us will be chased or hurt this time Ryder" he whispered to his friend quietly as he made his way out of the shrubbery with now self-inflicted burns and his fake broken paw. "Excuse me, but me and my friend here are hurt we've been running from the Astrals for as long as we can remember and now we wounded"

Ooc: Sorry, on the verge of getting sick and have had tests piling up. >.< Also, who is Ryder talking to?

The female gave Hitze a funny look when he said that, but she smiled after. She appreciated the humor, and his attempt to diffuse the situation further, despite still not trusting him. And she was good to her word; as soon as Jet caught sight of her and came their way, the shadowy bracelets were gone. She shook her head at Jet in reply to his first statement, then heard him out.

"You didn't disturb me." Her mismatched eyes flitted over Matya and she nodded to the other female with a smile. "Certainly, she can join us, so long as she harbors no ill will to us. I'll take in any wolf who has an issue with the Astrals, so long as they cause no trouble for us."

She nodded back at Hitze and then added, "This is Hitze. He was the one we scented earlier, but he seems ok." She gave Jet a meaningful glance, as if to say to keep his eye on the wolf without much pigment, but she left it at that, not wanting to worry the new female. "Weren't there more wolves around here? I thought I heard more than once voice."

Zhiv stirred awake and his blind eyes automatically focused on his mate. Though he couldn't actually "see" her, he could see her aura and it was pulsing vibrantly - she was alert and awaiting his attention. That got his attention in turn and he rolled to his feet with a light yawn, pushing himself into a sitting sort of position.

"Yes, dearest?" he asked in a genial kind of way. He was a little on edge in the back of his mind, but only because he worried she was about to be unreasonable. It happened occasionally, and even when it did, he would always cater to her wishes completely like a good mate. Even if those wishes included breaking up a family or two.

Jet looked at Asphodel and nodded when she sent him the hidden message through her eyes. The nod was slight, but just enough to get. At her introduction of Hitze, he began to keep his eyes on the wolf. Surely, he meant no harm. If he hadn't gone after neither of the wolves from a possible rivaling pack, he couldn't be working for the Astrals or in their pack at all. Astrals usually bit first and observed never. That was the typical way they were. This wolf didn't seem to do that, so Jet pretty much dismissed him as a threat. However, he would keep an eye on him for Asphodel.

At her question about more wolves, the shadowy colored wolf looked beyond her to the mud slide. "They're over there. The male is getting the female out from the mud." He lowered his head slightly. "I don't know. They look very suspicious. Maybe Astrals, maybe not. I can't exactly tell. Their scents seem odd, peculiar. It could mean anything as far as I can tell."

To be a bit honest, the sleek black wolf was slightly afraid of the male. He seemed so big that he could take out a weakling with less than a push. The female also looked strong, and Jet shook his head to himself at such thoughts. If he couldn't take on a pair of strange wolves, how would he ever be able to stack up to help defeat the Astrals?

"Do you think we should go talk to them?" Jet said quietly.

Ooc: Apologies for posting again, but things were clarified and I needed to add this so Talon and Goddess could post, XD.

Asphodel nodded to Jet and Matya, happy to have the female's input already. That was promising - she didn't seem shy. Jet was already suspicious of the other two, and that made her wonder, more out of curiosity than anything. If they hadn't been hostile to Matya, that was also promising. She was just about to suggest that they do indeed go and greet the other two and possibly help the other wolf out of the mud when Ryder and Quilat came up from downwind. Their sudden presence startled her so much that she growled just a little while turning to face them.

"That's an interesting story," she mused and stared at them both, not recognizing Ryder at first. "But if you'd been running for a while, that stench wouldn't be so strong on you. Try again, and this time go for the truth if you please."

She didn't like being surprised like that and certainly not with the Astral scent, but considering there were two of them she stayed still. Besides, she wasn't alone this time and unless Hitze had planned this and staged some sort of ambush, the numbers were currently in her favor.

Jet growled softly when the newcomers' scents invaded his nostrils. The Astral scent flared in his nose and it wasn't pleasant. He had taught himself over time to hate that smell and only that smell. Sure, he felt uneasy with a new scent, but this one scent always put him on his highest guard.

He looked baffled at Asphodel. How could she act so calmly? He knew he should follow her example, but he couldn't stand it. He tried his best, but in the end he just stepped between the two new wolves and the other three: Asphodel, Matya, and Hitze. He trusted Hitze now. He barely scented the Astral on him anymore. His story was believable.

As one of them, Quilat it seemed, began to tell the 'truth', Jet let out a somewhat quiet snarl. From the words they spoke, he knew this story was most likely the truth. However, the way they put the sentences together, made it seem something entirely different from safe.

He spoke up now, almost forgetting entirely that he shouldn't be speaking outright. All he cared about now was the safety of him and the others. "Why should we trust you, former Astrals?" He put a sarcastic twist to the word 'former'.

"The way I see it, you wouldn't be here had Zhivel and Hispeth let you back in." He looked at the two, glaring with defiant blue eyes. "You'd be on their side." He made his point clear, and hope everyone would try to understand his reasoning, however he was now aware just how unruly he had been. In a normal pack, he would have been shot down to the dirt with teeth around his neck had Asphodel not been so kind and understanding. In fact, there was no promise she wouldn't. He gulped silently without anyone's noticing.

What was noticeable as he turned to the other three was the sudden fear in his eyes. When he looked at the two strangers, he hardened his gaze and made sure to stand tall. His alpha, his leader though, was a bit of a different story.

Jet snarled in defense. How dare this newcomer insult him this way. And near their territory too. They were far from Astral grounds. A dangerous growl was escaping his throat now. He would have fought, too, had he not suddenly become aware that Asphodel was standing behind him. He had stepped in front of them all, breaching a major line that was bad to cross. He stepped a bit more forwards, so as not to be so close to them, just in case they didn't like being 'guarded'.

His eyes darted from the newcomers and back to his own pack, growing bigger by the minute it seemed. He didn't like these two. He didn't like them at all. Had he been in charge, he would have chased them out right then and there. Since he wasn't, though, he gave them one last warning. "If I were the alpha, I would have chased you off a long time ago." His breath came upon Quilat in warm puffs. His entire body stacked up high against him as he stood as tall as his structure would allow. The black wolf seemed a huge shadow now, capable of doing the darkest deeds but just whispering warnings instead.

The tone of his voice too, was dangerous indeed. It was obvious in the wave length of the sounds that if you ventured too far into his anger zone, all hell would break lose. You could immediately be able to see that had it not been for Asphodel, he would have seriously tried to injure the two strangers. "You'd be gone the second you made a move. I don't trust you, and honestly I don't see how everyone else can." He blinked hard and looked back at Hitze, Matya, and Asphodel before turning back to Quilat. "You better watch it, because if you make one wrong move, I'll take you down before you have a chance to falter again." He growled softly and took a few heavy steps back.

The wolf made it a point to walk a bit further off than the rest of his pack. He went way behind them. He knew his actions had been against Asphodel's wishes, more than likely. Though, he also knew that what he had done was out of the pack's safety. He prayed someone would understand what his drive was. Still, he was not ready to face the embarrassment that came with being put in his place, so instead he walked a good distance away from them. He was now halfway between the female stuck in the mud, the male helping her out, and the small group with strangers.