ooc: ♥ (445 words)

Liam smiled. “That's nice. When I was younger I used to love exploring that place. So many neat things to find and places to hide. I played hide and go seek with my brother a lot, too.” he said, the somewhat blurry memories of his puppy days filling his mind. He would have to show all of his puppy games to Skoll, Hati and Lottie soon. They were getting to the age where exploring was something they enjoyed doing more and more. “I've grown up here my whole life so I've gotten to know quite a few secret places around the territory.” he added as a side-note. Of course, Terra was probably too old to be interested in any of them, but Liam prided himself in knowing that he was very savvy as far as his land was concerned.

As they arrived at the stables, Liam noticed how the horses were all in their respective places, Robin's horse Scarlett eying him suspiciously – as though he had done something wrong. He disliked that creamy mare with a passion. Ever since she'd nearly trampled him because he had pounced on Robin over a month ago... It seemed as though she would forever have a grudge against him even though he hadn't done anything to harm her master. He had been playing with Robin, that's it! Fortunately his thoughts were turned away from Scarlett when Terra spoke next.

Well now, her suggestion was one that caught him a little off-guard. Liam looked at her for a moment, thinking. To be honest, Terra made him feel uneasy – as though she was a wild card; a bomb just waiting to explode. He didn't trust her. Running a hand through his messy dark brown hair, Liam shook his head, “You know, considering some of the pack members actually ride these guys, I doubt it would be a good idea to spook them half to death.” Liam suggested. “I mean, the whole trust thing and all. Wouldn't want any severe injuries now would we?” he said with a gruff laugh. So maybe he wasn't just looking out for his pack's well being... but Terra didn't have to know that, right? He would have probably agreed if it wasn't for the fact that these were, well, horses. “Do you know how to ride?” Liam asked. He wasn't sure he wanted to know her answer though – if she didn't, would she want him to teach her? And if she did, would she want to ride with him? Liam was worthless when it came to riding horses and he preferred having both feet firmly on the ground.

ooc: ♥ (265 words)

If there was one thing Liam had noticed about the new Cour des Miracles member, it was that she wasn't like Liam and the wolves he had grown up with. Terra was more feral and hadn't adopted many of the human customs Liam and some of the Courtiers had adopted – like sleeping in nests rather than using a mattress to sleep on, or even riding horses just to name a few. She seemed like the type that was always looking out for herself and only herself – survival of the fittest, so to speak. Liam knew things didn't entirely work like that here. All of the wolves helped each other out, especially when times were hard like at the moment. They relied on each other for help, comfort, entertainment, pleasure... for hope.

Liam shrugged at her question, leaning against one of the tall beams that had hooks on the other side of them for some bridles. He glanced at the horses and then back at Terra. “Nope, I don't.” he said, glad that he could tell her the truth and that she hadn't asked him to teach her yet. He could teach her how to read and write, or the basics of medicine – those were things he knew, but riding horses? He would leave that one for Robin and the other wolves in the pack that happened to enjoy horses more than he did. “So where are you from, anyway? I mean – before you came here?” he inquired, still leaning against the wood, crossing both arms against his broad chest.

ooc: eek, sorry for the slight wait. I had a headache and ended up falling asleep. =/ (573 words)

If Liam was to describe what Terra told him about her background in one single word – it definitely wouldn't be embarrassing. As she spoke, Liam actually found himself listening keenly, every word sinking into his brain. Honestly, if he had to compare his own relatively boring up-bringing to hers, he was probably the one that should be embarrassed. Sure, his father was the King of the pack... and maybe having a brother run off on the family out of the blue wasn't all that likely, but then again most people complained that they had an embarrassing or boring past, even if they truly didn't. “That's really cool. Both my parents are Luperci and... well, everyone I know are Lupercis. I've never met someone that isn't yet.” he said, deciding that he ought to tell her a little something about himself since she had opened up some. Slowly but surely she was beginning to earn his trust – a feat that had gotten harder to accomplish since the raids.

Then Terra asked him about what he liked to do and an entire list began forming itself in Liam's mind as a grin spread on his features. He watched her shift again – it was odd, she did it pretty effortlessly but she also did it quite often, unlike Liam who only did it about once a day, sometimes less. He was almost always in his Optime form, unless he was hunting or needed to get somewhere quickly. Then he was in his lupus form. Recently he'd used his Secui form for fighting during the war against Aniwaya but it had been one of the first times he'd made use of the seldom seen, beastly form. “There's a lot of fun stuff to do, Optime form gives you so much freedom to do things your lupus form couldn't do... Like using your hands. I've been learning how to do stitches – my mom has a few medical books at home and they're really helpful.” he informed her. “I've been thinking about training for the Apothecary co-rank. Ever since our old Apothecary left the pack... the spot's been vacant.” the wolf said proudly. He loved talking about his goals. Only a couple short weeks ago he'd been freaking out to his older brother that he had no idea what to do for his future... and now he did.

Liam shrugged. “But aside from that there's a whole other bunch of stuff you can do in your Optime form like... like climb trees, obviously... And use human tools like... well, my friend Robin uses bows and arrows. She's really fantastic at it – pretty much saved my life when we had to defend the pack from Aniwaya Guardians a couple weeks ago... Um, my brother plays the guitar. It's a musical instrument. Makes a really neat sound!” he paused for a moment, trying to think of more stuff he did or that his family and friends did. When he couldn't think of anything else off the top of his head, he ran a hand through his hair and smiled sheepishly. “So I presume you haven't really used your Optime form much while growing up?” he asked, assuming this because A) she was one of the only ones from her old pack to have the Luperci gene, and B) she was asking him for fun stuff to do in said Optime form.

ooc: Hehe. (422 words)

Liam glanced down at the smaller hybrid, his bi-colored eyes filled with curiosity – he looked more and more like the wolf he'd been before the war, fun-loving and with a sizzling desire to know everything and anything. “I'm not all that great yet – just started out not too long ago... Haven't done much, to be honest.” he said truthfully. But one day he would get to do more things – right now his main goal was to master the art of stitching. His fluffy padded hands were still quite clumsy with the bone tools and the oh-so thin strings. He had never actually done it on a wolf before – only dead things that resembled vaguely the flesh and fur of a wolf. So far his sutures were crap, to put it nicely. But at least he could wrap gauze nicely and was able to change the dressings. Soon he'd be better. As long as he kept his cool, stayed patient and practiced day and night.

“Well there's not a specific place in particular. Chien Hotel is like the pack's meeting place so after the war we mostly gathered there and everyone did what they could over there.” he explained. In any other circumstance he probably wouldn't have had bothered with the specifics but since she was new and needed to learn how things worked around here, he was telling her as much information as he could, yet still with a slight carefulness. Just in case she turned out to be some evil spy from Aniwaya looking for just the right moment to attack and how best to do it. He highly doubted it, considering all of the guardians were either dead or had fled the lands, but you could never be too certain. Even if the young wolf-coyote seemed legitimate in her stories and relatively harmless.

That was when one of the horses decided to screw with Liam's mind by letting out a loud neighing sound, his hooves hitting the side of the wooden enclosure and emitting a loud noise. Liam didn't jump, but it took a lot for him not to. He glanced at Terra with yet another sheepish smile. The last thing he wanted to look like was a coward, but horses legitimately freaked him out. “Anywhere else you want to check out? I can give you a tour if you haven't had it already.” he suggested. There – those words didn't make him look as though he was scared of horses, right? Hopefully.

ooc: eh, I don't particularly like this post... (236 words)

Oh, she did see through his I'm-a-tough-guy act. Great. Liam wanted to just fade into the wooden background; this was not the way he would have wanted to meet somebody for the first time – let alone a cute female. He was so screwed! Fortunately he didn't look as if he was having a mental breakdown on the outside, keeping his complete calm and grinning – albeit a tad awkwardly – at Terra. According to her, everything was fine in that masculine mind of his.

At her question, Liam grinned mischievously, finally finding his opportunity to have the upper hand in this endless, wordless competition to see who was the better wolf between the pair. “So you just think I'm going to tell you all of my secrets?” he said with a playful chuckle, “Well now, you underestimate me. You'll need to prove yourself first.” he joked. Of course his idea of her proving herself wasn't anything far out – not at all. To be honest he wasn't expecting anything at all. He just wanted to see what she was going to say next.

Liam glanced back at the horse. Crazy dirt-bag. Liam was hoping they could get out of this place quickly – maybe go somewhere that didn't have animals weighing three times as much as Liam did, animals with hooves that could pulverize his skull and use his brains as... as... something.

ooc: I went and did some research on the pack territory. LOL I had no idea where things were placed until now. Huh. (448 words)

Liam didn't actually know what kind of challenge he'd have Terra do – he wasn't actually serious about it. But she seemed quite ready for just about anything so he decided to go along with it. What was the harm, right? It would just be for the fun of it and if the little game could make him trust Terra more, Liam was all for it. Because he really did not like his discomfort and lack of trust for a member of his own freaking pack. He was really going to have to work on that. But then again he had been doing pretty well, talking about his life, what he liked to do, his family and let's not forget his hopes of becoming the new Apothecary of Cour des Miracles.

Liam gave her a wolfy smirk before he began walking back to where they'd come from, glad to finally be out of the stables. He glanced around for a moment, trying to think up of something fun yet relatively difficult for Terra to accomplish – kind of like an initiation task before she could be part of his general epicness. Liam grinned to himself as he turned to face the smaller girl. “Alright, how 'bout this.” he said with an air of mystery lingering in the back of his throat. He glanced up at the cloudy autumn sky before looking back at Terra. “You're challenge is to... We'll go hunting in the forest over there–” he paused only to point north-east at a little area with many trees near a lake “–in our Optime forms... And you have to catch more food than me.” Liam was an average hunter, not the best, definitely not the worst, but a part of him felt confident that in his Optime form he had the upper-hand just because Terra wasn't used to walking on two legs.

And she didn't know the territory all that well either so she couldn't possibly know that there was a massive tree that made for a good watch spot or that a couple feet from the lake rested a small herd of deer. Once upon a time there had been a lot of them but with the pack hunting them down... It was kind of odd that they hadn't migrated elsewhere by now. Really, the spot Liam was taking Terra too was not the best hunting spot. The best one was closer to Chien Hotel – to where Liam had been earlier – but it was a longer walk and Liam didn't feel like walking that far just to hunt for the hell of it – or well, to try and beat Terra.