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Once again, the small Aatte boy had snuck out of the den before anyone else had woken up. Part of him had really wanted to try and wake up Mati, so she could come explore with him. He was worried if he did though they'd get caught and he'd get stuck with everyone else all day. His freedom to explore had just been won, and he was taking it for all it was worth. After spending his whole life so far always around his moms and his siblings, it was so fun to be out on his own! Wondering around all the ground that belonged to the pack. There was just so much stuff to see and sniff! He wanted to get better about knowing things with his nose like his parents were.
Little black nose was shoved to the ground, following really nothing in particular. Haven just kept going until he bonked his head against an old fallen tree trunk. "OW!" He whined as he rubbed the top of his head with one of his paws. His mind was quickly distracted from the pain though when a grasshopper jumped onto the log. Copper tail wiggled behind him and he pounced at the bug. It easily jumped away into the grass. He liked this new game! He struggled for a moment to get his small body over the log and then bounded after the bug and closer to the borders of Crimson Dreams.
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Leland had come to the land that he knew as Twilight Vale, only to find himself confused. The scent was different, and as Leland wandered along the edge of the border, he realized that the borders were different. The scent of Naniko, which had been prevalent in Twilight Vale, was thick in the air here as well, but something was off. Why had they moved the pack, and why did it not smell like... the same pack? Leland had just taken a seat, settling his haunches onto the ground to contemplate this when the figure of a small, brown, fuzz ball came into view. Tilting his head quizzically at the creature, whom was so wrapped up in the chase of a grasshopper to notice the red hued husky. Chuckling to himself, Leland rose to his overly large paws and moved silently towards the small child.
Once close enough, only a yard or so away, Leland called out, cheerfully and loudly, intending to startle the lad. "Hey thar kiddo! Watcha hunting? Goose, deer, er is it jus’ a pesky ol’ elk?" His bi colored eyes stayed fixated on the boy, wondering what such a young creature was doing all out on his own without any supervision. Luckily it had been Leland to stumble across the kid, or so Leland thought, who only knew what harm could befall a child on it’s own?
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His white ear twitched as he thought he heard the sound of chuckling. It wasn't enough to distract him from his current task however. Every time he got close, or tried to pounce, the bug hopped away just in time. Surely this little game of cat and mouse could have, and would have, gone on for hours if a loud voice hadn't broken the pup's concentration. His head shot up in the air and he spun around to face the mystery voice. Even though the goal had been to startle him, his reaction was in curiosity, not surprise. There was nothing that scared the pup, and having three siblings had made him alert for sneak attacks.
Jade eyes took in the sight of a rather odd looking fellow. This guy definitely took the funny looks prize away from his cousin Ty. He was red and white, with two different colored eyes, and a tail that curled up on his back. A broad, puppy smile lighted up his face. "It was a bug! Tho a goose sounds like funs too!" Haven padded up closer to the stranger with his over sized paws. "Yous looks kinda funny. Whys your tail do dat?" He wondered if it hurt. It certainly didn't look like it would be comfortable.
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Leland settled himself back on his haunches and chuckled at the answer. A bug. Of course. The child did not embellish, knowing full well what he was hunting and per haps knowing too that Leland was pulling his leg. Perhaps Leland would teach the child the game he himself use to play, hunting a buy could easily turn into hunting a much larger creature, if only they pretended. However, Leland considered briefly, was he too old to play pretend? Deciding that he wasn’t, Leland grinned at the child. "What if I was to say that you looked funny? Hmm?" Leland thumped his curled tail against the ground to emphasize, and then grinned at the boy.
"My name’s Leland, young sir, and my tail curls jus’ like so because it has a spring in it, er that’s what my mother use to tell me. Don’t quite believe it anymore, but that’s jus’ the way I was born. Can’t be helped." His mother had always filled his head with fantasy, and perhaps that was why Leland still loved to drift back into his own dream world at times. "And what about you? A name to give me perhaps? And jus’ where do I find myself, this pack is called... what?" Leland tilted his head at the boy, eyes twinkling. If this was no longer Twilight Vale, where did the puppy call home?
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He watched the stranger sit, and Haven decided to sit as well. "Wells, mah cousin Ty said that I look funny. But he looks funnys too!" Maybe everyone looked a little funny. He never thought about it before, when he was just around his mothers and his siblings. That was just the way that had always looked. But then when he met his cousin and uncle the other day, Ty had said that he looked funny. But both Ty and DaVinci looked funny too. Maybe his counsin was right, and he did look funny. He still wasn't sure why he would though. "A spring? Whas a spring?" It must be curly, he supposed, but he wanted to know more! He almost always wanted to know more.
He giggled a bit as Leland tilted his head to the side. It was something he always did, but he'd never seen any of the adults do it before. "Hi Leland! Mah names Haven! An' dis pack is Cwimson Dweams! Mah momma Nani runs it!" Having his mother be the leader of the pack was cool! It made him feel like the royalty that momma Anu told them about in her stories. Like he was a prince or something. Either way, it was neat.
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Sorry I am slow, I suck, but you knew that already. Also, as I wrote this, I realized how creepy Leland comes off at times.
Leland chuckled softly, hearing that the pup had already been told he looked funny. Well perhaps to someone, everyone did look funny, in one way or another. Leland was use the way wolves looked, he had been raised among just as many wolves as he had dogs, but to the wolves who had never seen a wolf before Leland was indeed an oddity. Perhaps though, in some places, the situation was reversed, and it was the wolf who was singled out among dogs. Anything could be possible. Averting his straying thoughts back to the issue at hand, Leland had to think a moment. "Humans made springs... they er bouncy and curled an’ made o’ metal." Leland didn’t quite know how else to explain a spring but he hoped his answer sufficed.
"Crimson Dreams, eh? That’s not a bad name fer a pack, not tat all." So indeed, Haven, as the child was called, confirmed that Twilight Vale was no more. "Tis a pleasure to meet you, young Haven. I’ve already met your mum, so hopefully she won’t be too sore to learn ya’ve run off and er a talking with strangers." Leland reprimanded the child in a playful manner, for certainly as an outsider to the pack it was not his place, but still it worried him that the child had slipped away. Anyone else could have found him, but instead it had been Leland, and of course the red hued male meant no harm. "so what do ya do fer fun around here?" Leland’s eyes twinkled, there was always time for a game or two.
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Awww, you don't suck! <3 And everyone has their creepy moments, right? XD
He wondered why humans made springs. What did they need them for? Did they want to bounce around or something? He had a feeling Leland probably didn't know, but the pup's curiosity was never sated. He had heard that there was an old human city not too incredibly far from the pack, and he wanted nothing more than to go explore it. The boy wanted to know more and more about the humans. Their buildings were so cool, and they had weird inventions, like springs. But such things would have to wait for another time, and his mind returned to the conversation at hand.
Haven couldn't help but let his tail wag as the red and white hued male said that Crimson Dreams was a good name for a pack. He certainly thought so. The pup's excitement expanded as Leland said that he had met his mom. "Reallys?? You knows mah momma?" However his mood quickly changed as he was lightly reprimanded. Why were adults so paranoid about strangers? Every "stranger" he had met had been perfectly nice and fun. He didn't understand what the big deal was. His brows pushed together and he stuck out his bottom lip. "I's a big boy n' I cans take cares of myselfs! No ones mean ever comes here." The pumpkin pup was sick of all this nonsense.
Soon his temperament returned to the fun-loving little guy that he was at the mention of fun. Stubby tail began to wag again and his jade eyes lit up. "Thar's lots o' stuffs to do! Hide n' seek, imaginary games, chasin' bugs, explorin'..." It seemed to him there was a never-ending list of fun things to do.
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"Aye, I know yer mum. Yer quite the lucky lad to have a mother so nice as yers." Yes, Naniko had been quite kind to him when they had first met. It had been months ago, when the chap before him had been growing in the warm womb of his mother. Now here was the product of Naniko’s state when they had first met, and Leland couldn’t help but smile at the thought. The smile quickly turned into a lopsided grin as the male asserted that no one mean ever came to these lands. Leland too had once thought like that, and though he hadn’t really run into any too vile villains, he knew now that they did indeed exist. "Oh really? How do ya know I’m not a mean one?"
Of course Leland was anything but, yet he was excited to see how the child would find a logical answer. Already Leland knew this one was sharp, so curious and ready with explanations for anything Leland asked. Especially if the question was about play. "Well, if yer sure I’m not mean, we can play a game. Any game that you pick, I’m kinda bored meself and you seem to know what’s fun ‘round here."
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He wasn't sure which mother Leland had met, but it didn't really matter. Both of his moms were nice. And he was certainly lucky to have both of them. At the question that came from the spring-tailed guy, the boy gave him a look full of attitude that just screamed "duh". "Is so obvious you not a meanie! You knows mah mom, and my moms aren't friends wif mean people. If you was mean to them they would've told you to go away. An' since you's back heres they didn'," the boy stated, matter-of-factly. "Besides, I can tell a nice one when I sees 'em. You's a nice one." He nodded his head curtly. Even though he hadn't ever come across anyone mean, surely it would be obvious they were. It was easy to tell when someone was nice after all.
Haven plopped down on his rump, trying to think of what a good game to play would be. Well, all games were good, but there was always one that was best for a specific moment. He just had to find which one was best for this moment. He had played pretend with his mom a few days ago, so they needed something fresh. Then it occurred to him, the game they were already playing without knowing it was perfect! "Le's play a question game! I ask yous a question and then you asks me ones." Admittedly, he "played" this game a lot, but this time it would actually be meant as a game. "Ummm...if you coulds be anything else, what would you bes?"
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Leland furrowed his brows, for in the explanation the small pup gave him (and it was quite a logical explanation as far as Leland was concerned) his ears caught the word “moms”. Plural. Leland bit back the curiosity that was on the tip of his tongue. Naniko had surely needed a male to bring Haven and his siblings about, but whether the male stayed, well that was another story all together. Although Leland knew that females could love females and males could love males, he hadn’t really met anyone who fit either description. They hadn’t been around in his old pack, or if they had, Leland hadn’t realized. Although it was a novel idea to the male, there seemed nothing wrong with it. So long as everyone had someone else, that was all that really mattered.
The game that Haven selected was one Leland was quite familiar with, he had played it not too long ago in the forest with a distraught female he had come across. Although, of course, his questions with Haven would be much more light hearted. Shutting his eyes in an exaggerated way of thinking, Leland nodded, finding his answer. "Why, I’d be a cat. Do ya know what a cat is?" Leland of course had never seen a cat, at least not in the sense he spoke of. Mountain lions and bobcats sure… but not the domestic house cat, the counter part to his own heritage. He had always heard stories that often included cats from his clan and he was interested in their kind. If Haven needed an explanation of the animal, Leland was prepared for it, but the game must go on. "If you could have any magical power, what would it be?"
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Short 
A cat? Why would a wolf want to be a cat? Cats hated wolves! They were fussy and didn't like to get dirty and roll around. Rolling around and getting dirty was one of his favorite things to do! "I knows what a mewcat is, bu' why'd you wants to be one?" That wasn't really playing along with the game of someone getting to ask one question and then have to answer another one before they could ask again. Hopefully Leland wouldn't mind though.
Oooo, magical powers. What a great question! There were so many that would be cool. At first he thought it might be hard to choose the one he would want most, but really it wasn't. "I'd want to flys!" Whenever Haven watched the birds in the sky he always thought of how fun it would be to be able to join them. To soar through the sky without a care in the world. "Since I asked you da question about the mewcat ting that will be mah question dis times." It only seemed fair.
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Leland felt that this child would not accept just any old explanation. Why would a canine, so much larger and stronger, faster too, choose to be a feline? Leland just did, and he wasn’t sure he could clearly explain it, but he would try. "Well, cats er small, sos they can fit into places I can’t. And they’er graceful, something I’m not. A cat would, I think, be the opposite o’ myself. What better way to experience new things than as the opposite o’ myself?" Indeed, it would be an interesting way to expand his horizons, to view the world in a whole new light. Did one’s physical limitations or abilities affect how one viewed certain aspect of life? Leland didn’t know, as he had never lived in another body. And of course it was all hypothetical, but it was interesting to think about none the less.
Squinting his bi-colored eyes at the male Leland searched his brain for a follow up question. Flying was not a hard answer to explain, surely there were many others who imagined soaring through the skies? Something else would have to be asked. "Well, where would ya fly to?" Haven probably had not been to many places outside the pack lands, if any at all, so it would be an interesting answer for Leland. What did Haven imagine was outside the borders of his home?
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The small pumpkin colored boy tilted his head to the side, taking in Leland's explanation and mulling it over in his brain. Now that the male had explained his wish he supposed it made perfect sense. If you were going to be something else, why not pick something that was very different from you? You wouldn't want to pick something that was almost exactly like you, that would be boring. Perhaps being a cat would be kind of interesting. "I sees. Dat makes sense," he stated, nodding his head. As far as he was concerned, everything had a reason, even if it was a silly one (though the red canine's explanation hadn't been of the silly sort at all).
That was a good question. Where would he want to fly to if he could fly? Jade orbs looked to the sky, trying to imagine someplace interesting. Unfortunately he had little knowledge of what was outside the borders of his home. He had yet to ever step outside of Crimson Dreams and hadn't heart much about what else was out there. The pup tried to use his imagination. "Ummm...I tinks I'd want to go sees a human city. Da humans and their stuffs is interestin'." That was certainly true. Haven was fascinated by the fallen race. "Do yous believe in dwagons?" It was something he himself wasn't sure if he entirely believed, but he always hoped that they were real.
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“Human city, huh? Well, ya wouldn’t have to fly too far. We have one of them ‘round here. A ways to the east from here, but maybe one day you’ll go.” Maybe one day, if Naniko didn’t mind and Haven was a bit older, Leland would take the pup. Leland enjoyed exploring the ruins of the city, figuring out what the strange artifacts had been used for, and he enjoyed Haven’s company, which would only grow richer as the child developed more knowledge of the world and more social skills, so long as he stayed his cheerful, jovial self. Haven much reminded Leland of his he had been as a pup, curious and inquisitive, imaginative and resourceful, full of answers for the questions life threw at him. And of course part of Leland had never grown up, part of him would always believe in dragons.
“Well, you know, the world is so big, how could there not be dragons, somewhere? But I dun think there are any ‘round here, ‘least I’ve never seen them.” Yet he had always heard stories about them, and had enjoyed the stories, though some had scared him as a child. Fire breathing monsters, which had been the description of some dragons. Other, however were magical creatures, of as his mother had said, mythical. Wise, old beast that only showed themselves in times of great need. There seemed to be a lot of creatures like that, and secretly Leland aspired to be like the creatures in the fairy tales his mother told him. In all seriousness Leland tilted his head, narrowed his eyes and spoke to the child. “What about unicorns?”
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The boy's eyes grew wide. There was a human city not too far from his home? Suddenly he wanted to do nothing aside from go explore it. "Wow, reallys?! Is it cool? Have you seens it?" In his excitement he had lost all track of their game. He had jumped to his feet, large paws bouncing around on the ground. He wondered what it would look like. Surely they were very big. But what all would be in them? Did some wolves live in them? Or other animals? A thousand questions blazed through his mind. Even being told what it was like wouldn't be enough. He needed to see it for himself.
But as Leland answered his question about dragons, the pup's concentration fell back to their game of questions and answers. Haven's heart rose at his new friend's response. He was willing to believe in many things, but it seemed like some adults weren't. It was so great to find an older wolf who believed in such things. "I tink they're reals too! Mah momma and I were playing make-believe da other day and she was a dwagon and I's was a knight!" Those kinds of games were his favorite, though this game was fun too!
His head cocked to the side at the next question posed to him. Unicorns? He didn't think he had ever heard about those. "Whas a unicorns?"
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Leland nodded at Haven’s wide eyed question, he had seen the human city, Halifax. “Yes sir, I’ve been there. It’s quite large, I didn’t have time to see everything, but I’ll go back someday. Mayhaps you an’ I can go together.” Leland was becoming more and more accustomed to the human artifacts. On his first trip to Halifax he had felt like an intruder, the human world was one he had not dabbled in much before. Now he spent more and more time in his shifted form, the form that mimicked the human’s two legged bodies. The red hued husky was making use of his opposable thumbs and finding that the human world was not so mysteriously, rather that many of the objects they had left behind were quite useful or enjoyable.
Ears perked up and Leland tilted his head curiously at the child. What was a unicorn? Leland found it strange the pup knew what a dragon was but not a unicorn, all those mythological beasts went hand in hand in the dog’s mind. Yet Haven said he had played pretend as dragons with his mother, so perhaps she told him of dragons and not of unicorns. “Well, ya know what a horse is? A unicorn is like a horse only with a big ol’ horn growing out of it’s forehead. They can cure sickness too, if you believe in that stuff. Folks say they are only white, but I bet they can be black er brown er any color really.” Leland looked seriously at the boy for a moment, considering his education. Had his mother told him about other important creatures? If not, Leland was happy to fill in the gaps. “What about a phoenix, you know what a phoenix is?”
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Stubby tail beat quickly against the ground. The prospect of going to see the human city excited him more than he could say. "Yahs? That'd be sooooo much funs!" There was no doubt in the boy's mind that Leland would be able to show him lots of interesting things in the city. His mind began to wonder to what all the city might hold. Were there more musical instruments like the piano in the mansion? Or even, were there more mansions? To him the possibilities seemed endless. Part of him wanted to set off with his new friend right now, but even the adventurous pup knew better than that. His mothers would worry about him if he just went off and left the pack lands. Not to mention he'd be in for a big scolding if he did.
As the Leland asked him if he knew what a horse was he nodded his head. Haven had never actually seen one, but he had a pretty good idea of what they looked like. Jade eyes grew wide as this magical creature was further explained. A horn on their forehead? That sounded neat! He tried to imagine what it would be like if he had a horn on his forehead. "Wow, theys sound cool!" he exclaimed. Dragons had been the only mystical beasts he had known much about, so this chance to learn about others was great. A phoenix? The pup thought he had heard that word before, but didn't know what it was. "Nopes. I dun know wha dat is eithers."
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Leland was enthralled with how quickly the child grew excited at the prospect of a trip to the human city. Chances were, the child would do much exploring without Leland and Haven would probably see the city and many other areas before Leland returned for another visit, but that did not mean they couldn’t have their own adventures in the future. Would it be strange? Leland wondered to himself, but perhaps Haven wouldn’t mind a friend and Leland was drawn to the pup. Had Lela picked him over Rue he could have had his own children, but as it were he would settle for borrowing Naniko’s if she did not object.
Leland grinned as the child admitted he did not know what a phoenix was either, the husky was more than happy to explain yet another one of his favorite animals. “Well a phoenix is a firebird that lives for hundreds o’ years. It has beautiful red an’ orange an’ yellow feathers. After a couple hundred o’ year it ignites itself, leaving behind an egg that hatches an’ the phoenix lives again. Rises from the ashes an’ all that.” Leland thought the idea was a great one, to live again in the body of your young, yet the husky didn’t think that was quite possible, as much as some parents wished it, unless you were a bird born of the ashes. “Ya’ve heard of the pack Phoenix Valley, haven’t you? Or no? What other packs aside this one do ya know of?”
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If he had thought that unicorns were the coolest new thing he had heard about, this phoenix thing knocked it off its throne quickly. Mouth hung slightly agape as Leland spoke of the flame bird. There was a part of the boy that held a soft spot for birds. There was that blue one that followed his momma Anu around at times, and he liked following the things around as they flitted from tree to tree. Dragons were still his favorite magical creatures, but this phoenix was taking an incredibly close second. "Woooow. Dat's amazin'! I'd almost want ta see one of those insteads of a dwagons!" He imagined watching a large, magnificent bird bursting into flames and rising from the ashes right before his eyes. Now that would be a sight to see.
Haven nodded his head at the red husky's question. "Yahs, I've heards o' Phoenix Valley. Mah uncle and cousins live deres." It hadn't been long since he had met DaVinci and Ty, but already he wanted to meet back up with them and have more fun. Did he know of any other packs? He didn't think so. The only person he had met from another pack had been his uncle. "Nos, I dun know about any other packs. How many is there?"
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You want to close this one up soon? It’s kind of old. We can have another one if you want or we can wait on the next one for a while.
The explanation of the phoenix impressed Haven, and Leland was about to explain the other creatures he longed to see: centaurs, mermaids, Pegasus, pixies, trolls, griffins, chimeras, and so many others. However the plethora of information Leland had on the creatures would take weeks to go over, and they hadn’t that much time just yet. Naniko would probably wish to see her son sooner or later; the boy’s family had probably awoken by now and wondered where the adventurous pup went.
Leland smiled. He knew very few that lived in these lands, despite his amount of time here, but it was polite to ask anyway. “Whose yer uncle an’ cousins?” Leland doubted he would know the name, he had only met a handful of males and he knew Slay did not have any children. At the next question, Leland shrugged. He knew of the others packs, sort of, but not too much. None of them had interested him as much as the tribe that had yet to form. “Four, that ‘yote clan, Dahlia, the Valley an’ here. Although a fifth one might spring up soon, so keep yer eye out fer that one.” Leland hoped the tribe would surface and persist, he had high hopes for it.
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