//Wander; and Ye Will ::Find::

[misty]

Royce
^{Just call me The Lone Ranger.}

<sup>Dank, dreary, foggy; yep, this was prime real estate. Not. Royce couldn't believe his paws had lead him to this ugly place. At least it was better than scorching heat, blinding sunshine, and sand that could burn right through your pads. Roy had nothing against Xenith, but the brute's choice of land could've been better. Plus, he probably would have died out there with his thick coat. Maybe that's why he was satisfied with this place: it was cold.

Winter was Royce's favorite season; it was the only time of the year his fur really had good use. The freezing temperatures didn't bother him at all, and the snow never even got through his outer coat. Steam formed in front of his nose as he emptied his lungs into the frigid air. Then a sudden thought hit him. Where am I?

Huh, this was a predicament. Having no knowledge of where he was, Roy didn't know whether to leave quickly, or call for the leader to come meet him. At this point, he was ready to take his chances. Actually, he'd rather wander around until the leader found him.</sup>

^{Ooc- One word: C-R-A-P x.x}

[Action]

Zuko
Livin large? Hah. Yeah right.

A stubborn and ratty figure stumbled out of a thicket. Tripping over a rock he fell on his face, swearing loudly to the heavens. "SH*T!" Just like a clap of lightning, jet black birds flew screaming into the frigid air. Each flap of their wings making them soar higher. Everything he did had been this way since he had gotten himself shot by a nice little pistol he found on the ground.

Grasping and pulling the cold air into his warm body, steam pumped out of his nose like it hadn't done in a while. Muttering and swearing away, he scrabbled to pull his feet under his bulky cream pelt. At this time of the year, it was longer and coarser than ever, making it so that he was immune to yet another thing. Though he wasn't in pain, he was humiliated by his own clumsy actions and just being so weak lately. Usually, he was a strong, gorgeous wolf. Even though he was still the same, he was weak in the heart. The bullet had not damaged much, except for some nerves that made him unstable at times. Making him weak. Making him mad.

Growling and muttering more words, he stumbled along the frost covered path. Everything was so crisp and clean now. So quiet. And he hated it. This place wasn't meant to be quiet. It was meant to be full of life and full of strong wolves, wanting to take over the world, like him and Mirage. But, no. He had some of those wolves, but not many. He had seen Punk not to long ago, but not all that lately. Last time he had checked, it was just him and her. Not very good for such a dark forest. It deserved to have more evil spirits alive in it.

Breathing in deeply, an aroma drifted to his black nostrils. The scent of another male wolf. He hadn't seen another male in quite a while and he was feeling quite lonely. Slinking along the side of trees, and humming quietly to himself, it was obvious enough that he had gone from a very bad mood into a light one very quickly, just by the scent of another male wolf. Maybe Mirage sent me another slave. No, she wouldn't do that. He doesn't smell like her. An idea of where the wolf came from whipped into his mind and left just about as quickly as he had tripped. But, it was true. Before any wolf went anywhere, they always picked up her scent. No matter who it was; male or female. All the same. Just being around her, they picked up her melodious scent.

But, alas no. He didn't smell of her, but of a different scent. One that he recognized from somewhere. Then like a flash flood, it came apon him. Xenith. His sister had smelt of him. This was what this male scent was of. Could it be Xenith? His mind pumped; making his legs pump faster and faster until he could smell the wolf much better. Practically on top of him; he slid to a stop around the corner and walked slowly and with many manners, to where the wolf was. He dipped his large milky cream head in greeting. "Hello. You be not Xenith, right? If not, who are you? I'm Zuko. Beta to Mirage and overseer of Nightlysse. What are you doing here?" Kissers parted perfectly. Just like Mirage would have done. If this brute wasn't Xenith and once he found out who he was and what he was doing here, he would relax some. Maybe quit this 'perfect wolf' act. Sitting down on cream haunches, orbs continued to watch the gray(I think...O.o) wolf. Waiting for an answer, very, very patiently.

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ooc;; It's fine. Mine is the crap here.

[misty]

<sup>"Hello. You be not Xenith, right? If not, who are you? I'm Zuko. Beta to Mirage and overseer of Nightlysse. What are you doing here?"

Royce had known the wolf was coming long before it confronted him, so the sudden words did not surprise him. Of course, if the brute had wanting to sneak up on him, he wouldn't have roared out a curse word so loud that the wolves in the next land would have heard it. Chuckling slightly, he proceeded to answer the barrage of questions.

"That's a lot of questions to answer on a first meeting, mate. I happen to be called Royce, if it matters to you at all, and I've come here because I find the wasteland Xenith calls home to be . . . unsatisfactory."

Roy didn't usually use such refined language, but he wanted to sound a bit more refined than usual for some reason. Maybe he wanted to impress the wolf, the brujo was, after all, the apparent leader, or overseer, as he said, of this land. The male, Zuko, was it? had said something about Mirage owning the land. Mirage . . . the name struck faint chords inside Roy's mind. Where had he heard it before?

"I hate to pry, but who is this Mirage? And why doesn't she rule the land herself?"

Mirage . . . Royce kept rolling the name around in his mind. It bothered him that he couldn't remember it, almost a worse frustration than when he had first met Xercese. Xerc was actually quite a nice fellow now that Roy knew him better. The word Xercese triggered something in his mind. He had overheard Mirage's name during one of Xercese's conversations with Hayashi. Apparently they didn't like her. Hayashi didn't at least. Roy didn't know what to think of that gal anymore, he had been so in love with her before, but now he was sure he couldn't stand within ten feet of her for more than a few seconds.

Funny how wolves change.</sup>

[Action]

Standing up, sorta stubbornly, he shook his milk pelt like ants were rampaging through it wildly. Stopping the movement as quickly as he had started it, fur dropped to the sides, landing the same as had before. Then he grinned strangely. "Don't mind all that proper junk. Mirage is perfect and wants me to act all perfect. But, I can't even give a good whack at being proper." He grinned, and sat down on his haunches again, looking at Royce. "I'm not sure how Xenith can think of being able to build anything in the desert."

"Mirage and I and her other Elites plan to take over the world, Royce. She doesn't rule the land because she is always off gathering slaves and challenging for other land for her Elites to watch over." He said, solemnly for once in most of this little chat. The look on the other brute's face told him that he was thinking something about Mirage. Like he knew something about her. "Have you ever heard of Mirage?" He wanted to know if this brute was allied with Hayashi. He couldn't stand that wolf, and he knew that Mirage hated her to death as well. Running his tongue over his lips, he thought to ask this wolf to join him in his ranks. If, after all, he also hated Hayashi. But, he would have to get an answer from the brute first on his other question.

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ooc;; OMG. TERRIBLE post! O.o NO muse.

[misty]

^{Ooc- You did fine. :3}

<sup>"Trying to take over the world, huh? Either that gal is evil, has some perfect plan, or is just plain crazy. No offense."

Royce couldn't imagine leading one pack, much less more. He had gotten a taste of leadership during his time with Hayashi, and he had seen what it could do to a wolf. Not pretty. At least Mirage seemed to have plenty of help. And what help it was; Roy wouldn't have wanted to meet Zuko in battle. The brute looked like he could take down a deer single-handedly, and it wouldn't be no skittish doe either.

Always off gathering slaves? Royce personally didn't like the whole slave idea. Forcing your fellow wolves to do all the dirty work was the worst idea ever thought of, but, hey, who was he to judge? Mainly, he just didn't like to see wolves, wolves he knew had huge potential, get beaten to the ground.

"Have you ever heard of Mirage?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I've heard a word or two about her. Hayashi, the Alphess of Hrellia, she doesn't seem to like Mirage that much. But," he chuckled, "her mate doesn't think like that." Sensing that Zuko would want to know where he stood, Royce added, "I'm not sure what I think of this world-dominating femme yet. She sounds like quite a character."

Quite the character I'd like to meet sometime.</sup>

[Action]

ooc;; No I didn't. All trash.

For some odd reason, he trusted this wolf slightly, that he had just met, but also sensed something strange about him. What if he likes Hayashi. The mere thought made him bristle his pelt slightly. He didn't like her, Mirage didn't, and hopefully the rest of the Elites didn't; but, who could tell if he did unless he asked the strange brute? "Plain old crazy. No, she wants the world to be perfect. But, I just want to because I'm plain ole crazy." Stopping briefly, he added in about some of his own intentions. "Plus, I love to make others feel pain, so I gots me my own reason along with crazy." Speaking some slang here and there was his style of speech. Though he didn't speak slang and was proper...sometimes.

Even though he had that fearsome thought of Hayashi, he was still carrying this conversation on as it was before, trying to sweep over the that thought like it was nothing but a blade of grass that he could tred apon with ease. Out of nowhere, a gust of wind cut through his cream pelt like a knife. He felt only a little of the wind and a bit of the cold, but it was still bracing and made him want to ask that question even more. But, when Royce said the 'H' word, that made bells and buzzers and loud sounds go off in his head. Hayashi. The word was said in his mind over and over and over. Hayashi. Hayashi. Hayashi. Until he could take it no more.

"Hayashi? Is that why you're here?" Pelt bristling, eyes narrowed, he looked at Royce with the demon eyes that all the masters feared so very much. The ones that brought death. "We don't welcome followers of Hayashi here." He growled. The mood instantly changed in his brain from cheery, but suspicious to dark and deadly. If this brute was even remotely close to liking Hayashi, Zuko would give him something to remember trespassing by. Staring at him menacingly, he started the stalker's circle, while waiting for an answer. Still eyes set to a slit, fur bristled, he stalked, not even as close to as patient. He wanted an answer and he wanted one now, or else this brute would be bloody and leaving in less than a second's time.

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[misty]

<sup>"Plain old crazy."

Royce chuckled. He liked a wolf with a good sense of humor; too many somber wolves were around today. So Mirage wanted to world to be perfect; obviously she had never heard the saying "nobody's perfect". A little sigh wandered form Roy's maw. Perfect; if only he could find the perfect place. By now his mind had drifted far, so he turned back to Zuko, ready to apologize for spacing out, only to find the brute bristling.

"Hayashi? Is that why you're here? We don't welcome followers of Hayashi here."

Zuko's orbs were lit with a dangerous fire now. He started to circle Royce, leaving the impression that Roy's time was running short.

"I don't make it a point to associate with Hayashi anymore, so you have nothing to worry about." Royce grunted and mumbled a bit more. "She's a b*tch anyway." His words had come because he felt pain and anger. They had been 'in love' and they were going to rule side-by-side. That idea lasted for all of one week. Then Hayashi had gone to fight a challenger, and come back looking like a mangled deer. But under the wounds, under the misery in her eyes, there was a longing. Even as she talked with him about his rise to Alpha, she was in love with another. Then Xercese had shown up. Roy knew that Xerc was the rightful ruler, so he had no problem letting the brujo have his position back, but that like didn't apply to Hayashi, not anymore.

Royce knew just from her voice that she could have never chosen him over Xercese, but she insisted that she couldn't choose between Xerc and him. Liar. Filthy liar. Why had she wanted to prolong his suffering? Even when Xerc wasn't there, she was ready to throw herself at another brute, one that tried to take her land. She would have been all to happy to hand over her land to that wolf, most likely her body as well.

"She's a dirty little b*tch."</sup>

[Action]

The raging bonfire immediately faded from the dark wolf's eyes until it was only a flicker. Zuko really was going to tear his pelt off if he was with Hayashi. He didn't feel like dealing with any followers of Hayashi...yet. It made him glad that Royce wasn't Hayashi's little servant boy. Because, for once in his life, he felt like he had a true friend other than his sister."Sorry there, Royce. I was gonna claw your pelt off!" He exclaimed with a stupid smile planted on cream kissers. Shaking his dusty pelt violently to get the close-to-attack off of his back, he finally settled down and got a look at Royce's eyes. They were full of anger and a twisted story.

"You got a story there, Royce, and I know it. I'm not that bad of a listener if you want to tell it." He just wanted to make his new friend happy right now. Make him feel better. Because, it was obvious that he was depressed about something. Look at Zuko, he was always depressed. It was just the way that he was. But it was obvious that he was masking something. He didn't have to tell him. It wouldn't really matter. But he just wanted to help out. Letting his cream pelt scrape the ground, he lay down and looked at Royce. Just wanting to help.

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ooc;; Help! crap invasion!

[misty]

<sup>Roy snorted. Story? Yeah, he had one heck of a story to tell. It had all the essentials: love, lies, heartbreak, and a major plot twist. As Zuko lowered himself to the ground, Roy realized that he was serious about wanting to listen to his story. With a small sigh, he began his ballad.

"I met Hayashi at the edge of her land and asked to join her pack. We took a liking to each other and . . . Well, I was pretty sure I had the Alpha spot wrapped up. But then she went to fight a challenger and came back . . . different." Royce shuddered at the memory of what the femme had become. She had left a wolfess and come back a ghost. "I think the challenger had done more than injure her. I think he took her heart when he left." Roy managed a laugh at the cruel irony. "Funny, I was sorta trying to do the same thing. Steal her heart and take her land."

"Anyway, I was a bit oblivious to the whole thing, except that she was acting weird. Everything went on as normal as it could, until Xerc came back. Along with a idiot fox-wolf named Rem. I didn't mind Xerc, but Rem . . ." Roy looked a Zuko, sending a silent message of "he was one of those guys". "Xerc really did love Hayashi, the poor guy, and didn't want to cause him more pain."

"So I left."

Royce was silent for a bit, as if reliving his memories. Maybe he was, because he started talking again like he had forgotten part of the story.

"After that I went to the desert. D*mned place. You wouldn't believe how hot it is down there. I kept expecting the devil to pop up." The wolf chuckled, this time with real humor. "I couldn't stand it down there, so I came back up to the woods. And here I am."

Royce settled into the same position as Zuko now that his story was over. Tilting his head, he stared at the other brute.

"What about you, Zuk? You look like you have a interesting history. How'd you end up here?"</sup>

[misty]

D O N E! (Finally)