AW! Forward dated to 10/10. Pinged Tarquin for a mention!

Each night he wept himself to sleep, he'd have the same dream. A memory of running through the tundra with his Ma with a trail of laughter and joy. Every time, before he startled awake, it'd turn sour. His laughter morphing into desperate, frayed cries for his mother who'd disappeared into snowdrift, but left a path of blood-stained snow behind.

He's too young to decipher the nightmare, too naive to have realized that it wasn't a nightmare at all, but a memory.

So everytime he'd wake up, he'd set off across the bitter cold plains. With no general direction, he wandered around with a tucked tail and an awful sense of helpless fear. Calling for his mother, and praying that each howl of wind would bring her beckoning call.

It never did. It only sometimes summoned the mean lump of charcoal who'd began to shadow his steps, Tarquin. Llewellyn made efforts to ignore the boy, despite how badly he wished to seek comfort and alliance.

In his path, he leaves his little paw prints. His nose runs as he tilted it toward the bleary sky, his ears pinned against his sleek skull as he wandered aimless and afraid.

Ma? Are you there? He'd squeak. Each time, it'd go unanswered.

A mouse? A merlin?

A little voice peeped a repetitive call that pierced the air intermittently, and it was only when Ksura was close enough to decipher words that he realized the voice belonged not to a tiny rodent or a little bird of prey, but to a young wolf. He'd just gulped down the last bit of a hare that he'd caught, and contemplated the frail voice for a moment. The wolf was speaking in his language- it wasn't likely to be a child from Saatsine, then- one that might get him caught if he meddled in their business...Then again, returning a lost child might just grant him a bit of redemption. The presence of the pack occupied his thoughts a lot lately, and he hadn't quite decided yet whether he'd be better off investigating, or leaving them well alone.

It was due to his own paternal instincts that he decided he should intervene, and trotted toward the fields in the direction of the pitiful cries. He spotted the lean young wolf- half a year old, if that- with the woebegone expression of one alone and frightened. Ksura wasn't necessarily an outwardly frightening looking wolfdog- aside from having a very keen and expressive face. He blinked his almond-shaped indigo eyes and flicked his ears forward, licking the last bits of rabbit fluff from his lips as he meandered toward the young boy, hoping that a softened posture and swinging tail might be enough to convince him at a glance that he needn't bolt.

He halted, still quite some distance away, and woofed softly. "Need help?"

A voice was carried by a bitter gust of wind, freezing his nose and tickling his ears. Llewellyn broke into a sprint, eyes wide and smile hopeful...only for it to fall when he found himself leering up at a man and not his Ma.

The disappointment scrawls across his expression, curls tight in his gut as he stumbled a few steps back, the blonde hair along his spine rising with unease. The wise words of his Ma drift through his mind; do not trust strangers, Llew.

And even though the man looks nice enough, the fear instilled still lingered. He looked up at the stranger ashamedly, his lips pursed and tail curved against his inner thigh.

H-Hi. Have you seen my Ma? He croaked. She looks like me b—but with dark eyes.

That flicker of hope is back, glimmering in his pallid eyes, as he waited on a bated breath.

The lanky youngster loped toward him, lanky and buoyant, only to skid to a halt and look up at Ksura with an expression of growing dismay. The sight of him curdled the boy’s hope, but at least he didn’t bolt.

He looked apprehensive about replying at all- and rightfully so. Everything about the young lad screamed vulnerable. Hope seemed to keep him rooted to the spot- and his motives were precisely what Ksura had suspected.

He was alone- and wanted his mother. Momentarily, he thought about lying- so he might delay the bad news and keep the boy’s spirits up a moment longer…But it would do more damage in the long run.

”Not today, no,” He answered. Truthfully, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen someone who met that description, but he didn’t want to boy to think that his mother might be quite so far away. ”But I got nothin’ else to do today. And four eyes’ll be better than two…You want some help looking for her?”

The man hadn't seen her. Llewellyn, despite having half-expected the reply, couldn't help the bloom of frustration that coiled in his gut. He knows the tundra is vast, but he is nothing if not naive in his hope that someone in this white wasteland had come across her.

Oh. He muttered. A glimmer of disappointment in his pale eyes, as they fell to stare at his snow-clad paws. I dunno where she went...can't remember. Truthfully, he scantly remembered the last time they'd been together at all. He has nothing but his reoccurring nightmare of her running off into the blinding-white, leaving nothing but a trail of crimson blood against the snow.

His stomach lurched at the thought of something having happened to his Ma. She was strong — much stronger than he ever was — but he cannot help but worry.

His ears swiveled, piqued by the man's offer to help his search. He sat up just a little straighter, that flicker of hope reviving just enough to make him eager. Really? You would?

Then, his mother's warning tickled his mind again, and he deflated once more. Timid, cautious. W-Well, my Ma said not to trust strangers...

Can’t remember.

Ksura struggled to keep himself from frowning as he realized that there was a chance that the child wasn’t lost in only one sense of the world. He remembered his own departure from his former life- and how he had arrived here, with his terminal wound healed completely, as if it had never been there.

If his mother lived, still, he would never find her. Breaking that news to the kid was too hard- and there was a chance they’d simply been separated when they’d both crossed over.

”Well how about this- we’ll leave a mark here, so if your Mom comes this way while we’re looking, she’ll spot your scent and start following…And we can come back here after to see if anyone else has come here.” It seemed a reasonable enough solution- sure, staying where you were when you were lost was the ‘best’ plan, but he felt this wouldn’t cause any harm.

Until the kid came up with a slight roadblock. He grinned. ”You don’t look too strange to me, d’I look strange to you?” He asked, tilting his head to the side with a sudden, jarring motion intended to look ridiculous. He chuckled. ”Don’t answer that.” He joked. ”I’m Ksura. What’re you called?”