Back-dated to the 10th, about half a mile west of Halifax ↔ 418 words

About fifteen minutes after parting ways with Jackson, Liam felt worn out and ready to go home. He still had quite a long walk to complete though and with a rucksack that was much heavier than it had been a couple hours ago, Liam had a feeling it would take him much longer to get back to his home in the Cour des Miracles territory than it had taken him to get to Halifax in the first place. A sigh escaped his lips as his bi-colored eyes darted back and forth, occasionally stopping to pick up an object from the ground, only to put it back where he'd found it. He had gotten a few things that were undoubtedly going to be useful at Chien Hotel and the last thing he needed was excessive junk to drag him down.

So he just started walking west again towards his pack-lands. A lot was occupying his mind as he processed his afternoon and the limited knowledge he'd gotten from Jackson on the northern packs. It was interesting to know more about the world around him – that Cour des Miracles and its surrounding packs weren't all alone in their little corner of the world.

The sun was beginning to set behind the trees and Liam could feel his stomach grumbling. He could hear its angry protests as it demanded for food. He was hungry and after going almost a day without a meal it was beginning to take its tole on his body. That and the fact that he had spent most of the day walking or running around. With a slight sigh, the Catori boy tugged his heavy rucksack higher on his uninjured shoulder as it began to slip somewhat. He could hear a few birds chirping in the distance and after a few seconds of looking around he managed to spot them in a nearby tree. He walked for another minute or two before he caught a glimpse of a squirrel as it scurried around in search of food for its hibernation months. When Liam walked by the small animal decided that running would be its best chance of survival with the larger predator. Fortunately Liam had no intention of hunting down squirrels.

“Who's afraid of the big bad wolf...?” he chanted to himself, a tiny wolfish smirk spread across his face. He could still smell the squirrel in the tree as it waited for him to be far enough so that it could come down again.

<3 ↔ 378 words

Liam walked for a little while longer, his mother on his mind. Would she have something cooked up once he got home? Maybe she'd be feeding the pups some rabbit or even some deer or boar. Liam was especially fond of boar. He was looking forward to spending the evening with his siblings or maybe read up on some more medical information in the book he had borrowed. He was just looking forward to being home and not being on his own. His mind then wandered further to the days that would follow. What would he do tomorrow? Maybe find Robin so that they could do something together? Or maybe he'd help his mom out some more at Chien Hotel with some of the medical work that needed to be done... It wasn't until recently that Liam realized how uncertain his future was. Usually he went to sleep every night without many plans... just the idea of playing and having fun. But now? Now he wasn't sure there would be a tomorrow. What if Aniwaya tried attacking again tonight and he was killed in his sleep?

That was when he heard the slight rustling sound of paws on dead leaves a couple feet into the woods. The sound was loud enough for Liam to decide that it wasn't just some squirrel this time and it smelt of wolf. Already on edge due to the sudden gloominess of his thoughts, the brown wolf snarled. “Who's out there?” he asked, his voice making a couple birds fly away in fright. “Jackson?” he asked. Maybe his new acquaintance had decided to follow him – see for himself what Liam's pack had in store, considering they'd spoken about the Court for a while. Honestly, if this was some kind of joke, Liam didn't find it funny at all. He was jumpy and wouldn't think twice about defending himself if he believed he was under attack.

But that's not Jackson's smell, Liam thought as his stomach rumbled and grumbled. His bi-colored eyes darted back and forth; why did he feel as though this was all deja vu? He had been in the same defensive stance, searching for the threat that had turned out to be Jackson just a couple hours ago.