Golden limbs fell over themselves as they tumbled on the edge of the lake. The golden pup yipped as she pulled up mud with her paws. The sound of splashes echoed across the still lake, leaving ripples racing across the surface of the water. The female pup dunked under the water and came up moments later soaked in water and paws dripping mud. She yelped at mud, laughing as it splattered on her golden muzzle. Spinning around, the golden girl beamed at her father. "It's muddy, daddy!" she exclaimed, climbing up the small bank to lope in her awkward puppy gait at the man sitting against a tree. Her dirty paws pressed against his leg and he opened his eyes to peer down at the girl who looked so much like his sister that he could hardly see her dark father in her.

"Yes, it is, carassimi," he said gently, scooping her up in his large arms and holding her dirty paws away from his scarred chest. "Now why did you have to get me dirty?" She laughed at him as he rose from against the tree, flailing her limbs in a concentrated effort to flick dirty mud from her paws at him. She made little grunts of exertion as he carried her light little body away. "Noooo!" she shrieked as the man raced into the lake, jumping from the edge and landing with the water at his knees. Yvette flailed again, shrieking and laughing as she fought to escape her uncle's grip as he waded further into the water. When it was up to his waist he dunked down and held his wriggling niece into the water. "Dirty puppies need baths!"

Yvette wriggled out of the golden man's grasp, swimming to the muddy shore. "No baths for me!" cried the golden pup, paddling as best as she could in the deeper water. Gale turned and started to follow her, knees and arms deep in the muck. "I'm going to get you. I'm a caetus! I'm hungry!" He growled lightly, baring his teeth in a grin.

Nope! It's perfectly okay not to list her. Most people choose to for reference sake, but 1. the profile I'm using is persnickety and it's annoying to edit in more panels 2. I'm too lazy to put it in his wiki at the moment (though his history mentions Yvette is traveling with him)

Gale was the first to stop splashing in the pools at the new scent. Yvette would never have noticed it, her nose so close to the water, and her youthful focus not on the risks but on the moment. The gladiator stopped his movements and looked up, his aquamarine gaze hard on the pup. His golden brows furrowed as he listened to her puppy speak, having some difficulty understanding her mangled up diction. He had been used to Yvette's babble, but her words were always mixed with some sort of foreign language he knew better than English. He listened to the words, deciphered them and almost cringed back in horror. He knew something about killing, though there had never been any Naumachia at the Colosseum. It as such an old building that one would risk it and no one really knew how they were done. But he knew a thing or two about killing and the thought brought back dark memories.

"Yvette," he said once, a gruff call to his niece to cease her movements and hold still. By now she was at the bank and had all four paws in the murk once more, though her back was still covered with water as she peered out of it. "D-daddy?" she said hesitantly, looking back at him, then following his gaze to the pup peering at the two of them. But she saw another child, not a member of the pack he had been careful to avoid, because he had simply not known it. But it was the only way through to the other side and he would not drag his niece over a mountain. "I'm no pet rock!" she cried out getting out of the water with mud trailing after her. "I'm Yvette!" she yipped, caution easily thrown to the wind. There seemed to be nothing wrong with this pup, nor was she a threat to the hulking gladiator.

"You're from this pack?" he asked, rising to his feet, body drenched in water that fell off him in torrents. "Could you help us?" he asked, unaware of the laws of the packs here. He had grown up in something different than a pack, in a place ruled as a monarchy. There a slave could get help and orders from anyone in the family, child or not. It would never occur to him that he was better off looking for an adult.

Yvette cocked her golden head at the other pup, tongue lolling out as she listened with careful concentration. Her own tail was wagging slightly, though it was a pale imitation from the wolfdog's. Gale kept his eyes carefully peeled on the young pair, considering the girl was his last and only connection to his sister, and he was not about to lose her. But this seemed innocent enough, even if the child was a fairly strange one, with a fairly strange mind behind her innocence.

"Garwen? We had a garwen." Yvette could remember her garden back home, where her uncle had started to plant for the summer, with seeds deep in the dark black earth. She could also vaguely remember her mother, a white golden image shimmering in her memory. But now there was only Gale and his darker gold color in solid reality, a darker imitation of her own golden yellow pelt. "Momma and Lilia sleeps togethers in the garwen now," she said a little sadly, unsure of why they were there. She didn't know why she couldn't have stayed with them, and why her 'daddy' had to take her away from home and the little garden. Gale listened to this, felt his heart pang at the memory of burying his sister and other niece in the garden's tilled ground and keeping Yvette away from it all.

Gale wondered who this child was, and why she was alone and unchaparoned. In Rome, all the children were usually accompanied, though the slaves tended to be on their own more often than not. "No.. we -" he froze, wide-eyed at the pup's antics. Yvette stared for a moment then laughed at the other pup, half tempted to toot in response. "But you's not a boy!" she yipped, lower half falling forward and rear stuck in the air. "Can we go through this place to the other side, puella?" Gale was wary of this place, unknown to him as it was. If he found an adult, maybe he could explain things better.

yay! thanks Sura <3

Before they could talk more with the pup, another scent approached. Gale looked up with his pale eyes and almost breathed a sigh of relief from the sight of an adult. He approached the bank of the lake, mud squelching underneath his toes. He stood, dripping with water, on the dry bank with the golden pup pressing back against his wet legs. Her small body wrapped around the back of his legs, as she hid at the sight of another man, an unknown man. So far, her education against the wiles of men had not yet begun but she was careful no matter what. With anyone who her 'father' approved of, the boisterous pup was an energetic ball, but with strangers, she was entirely withdrawn from everyone.

The stranger lectured the even stranger pup, and Yvette watched the hybrid pup turn tail and return to the interior of the pack. Her ears were flat as she looked up at her 'father', wondering when the next time would be where should see another kid her age. He felt bad, certainly, for not having any playmates for the girl to play with, but it was hardly his fault. No, it was entirely his fault, and it hurt to know he was isolating his sister's last daughter. "I am Gale." He looked down at his niece, huddled against his leg. "Just Gale. This is my daughter, Yvette," he said through his strangely heavy accent, a mixture of Italian, English, and something else with an ancient flavor.

"We're stuck," he said, gesturing around him. "Lake here and another pack to the north, with a mountain beyond them, from what I was told. Freetown did not tell me there would be packs here. We're trying to get around to the other side. May we get passage through?" he asked humbly, bobbing his head at the other man. Yvette mimicked his movement and bobbed her large head down.

Yvette smiled slightly up at the man, her shyness fading away as the man continued to talk and her father seemed to relax. He did relax, though his shoulders were sill taut but the rest of him certainly seemed calmer with an adult to talk to and reason with. And he seemed pretty reasonable. As the conversation went on for a bit, the golden pup moved from behind her father's legs and stared up at the brown canine. She was not used to too many canines and the voyage to Freetown had been the same handful of men and women for weeks. Freetown had been a smack to her senses, as their brief stint in London had been. "Soft like a cloud soft?" she babbled suddenly, tongue lolling. Gale chuckled at her and sighed at the innocence of youth. Well, almost all youth, he thought, remembering Sura's strangely twisted words. Her tail flicked slightly in a mock wag as she listened to the two adults talk.

Gale nodded at the man's idea, figuring they would have to have been made recently. The people at Freetown seemed fairly certain that these packs had not been here so they had clearly not made any routes through the area recently. The pack scents here seemed fresh, as far as Gale could understand. "Yes, seems like it," he said with his heavily accented voice, giving his words a hard to decipher quality. "Thank you," he said, with evident relief in the man's allowance and generosity. It did not seem like he was someone in charge but it was good nonetheless. Yvette scrunched up her face at the man's suggestion they would see the other puppy again. She would not mind playing with her, but her daddy seemed to dislike her for some reason. "Meybe.." Better not upset daddy.

"We're going to see what's on the other side." He had not meant it to seem like a joke, for he had a rather poor sense of humor. He had gotten so used to the men laughing at home, and their jokes of cruelty designed to sting the ego. "Find a home for us two." Gold and white fingers touched the silver cross hanging around his neck as he grabbed his spear and the lion skin cloak and slung it over his shoulders. Gale's eyes roamed to behind the other man, wondering what kind of place he would find here. "Can you tell me something about this place?"