It was around noon by the time that she caught scent of the pack. During her rush to get there the female’s mind had been very preoccupied and she had ended up taking several wrong turns...but it looked as if she’d gotten back on track somehow. She had run the first mile or two to clear Ichika’s borders, but had slowed her pace considerably after that. She was great at running, but the long distances were much more difficult to take on when one was sprinting. The yearling was concerned not only for the well-being of her own body, but for the well-being of her charge; she had found an abandoned pup while leaving Ichika and had managed to keep it dry and warm enough. It was still alive, kept clutched up against her fur. Wretch’s cloak served to keep her warm, which in turn helped the little one.

She didn’t know what had urged her to touch the seemingly lifeless pup when she had, but she was now glad that she had given it a prod and had noticed it squirming and moving about. She planned to take it to a place where she knew it would be safe and have a good life – Salsola. She had been attacked outside Ichika no Ho-en one too many times to feel safe there again, and Salsola was the only other place that she knew the pup would be safe in. She could no longer handle living in the peaceful pack that lay to their East. From what she had been told, her brother and sister lived in this pack along with the mother and father that she barely knew. Today she would be bringing someone special to join Salsola, this unwanted whelp. She would have a Family once more, canines who cared about her and who would give her protection within their borders in exchange for her own service to the pack.

Wretch stopped quite a distance away from the borderline, remembering her past experience with Magnolia. She knew a few members and Eris had seemed open to her coming to stay…but had she meant for Wretch to stay in a permanent way? She wasn’t sure. Hopefully a member who knew her would come…otherwise they might just think that she was lying or that she was some sort of a spy. How could Wretch prove to them otherwise? She was desperate and needed this place…hopefully it had a need for her small skill set as well.

The girl would flourish and grow if given the opportunity, but right now she didn’t have many abilities that she thought were very useful. She was beginning to learn how to fight and use a weapon and had recently located a knife in the human city, as well as a hand-held sling for projecting rocks quickly in a given direction. She had used it for hunting quite a few times so far, using small rocks to take squirrels and birds out of the trees above. She knew little about pups…but had known that the one she found was far too young to eat meat. It was very important that she present the pup to someone in the pack and ask for some kind of a…substitute mother. Someone had to feed it what it needed.

She had thought ahead, having packed several useful items in the bag that she carried on her shoulders. Firemaking materials, her sling, a few skins for sleeping on, a couple of small scarves, and her treasured jewelry were all rolled together and stuffed into the large pack. Hopefully there would be something suitable in there, an object that her mother might find of worth. Maybe she could trade a female in the pack for her wetnurse services, as well. Despite the bag’s weight she kept it on, unsure of whether she might need to flee from the borders once someone came along. She hesitated for a moment before choosing to make her presence known, giving a very short and yippy howl. She wouldn’t have been so bold as to howl had it not been an emergency. The pup needed to be fed and nourished soon, and she needed to get out of here. She gave the squeaking pup a lick across his darkly toned forehead to quiet him, standing tensely in wait with her tail and ears held low. As soon as she could hear a pack member coming, she set the puppy carefully down onto the ground and went to hide away in the bushes. If they took the pup in, she'd leave.