The dark brown wolf approached Libby's and Alex's mother with a wagging tail. "You've got to be kidding me! These are our pups? They've grown so much since a week ago!"

"They were really getting too fidgety to stay cooped up in the den," Shebina muttered while giving her mate a lick on his muzzle. "How's the Pack life going, lately? I really miss joining you, you know."

The male wolf let out a "whuff" sound. "Everything's going just fine! We do sometimes scent some wolves from a Pack unknown, but it's nothing we can't handle, and they only come in small numbers, anyways. Probably just a pair of youngsters who left their homePack in hopes of starting their own. And don't worry, it's nothing the Pack of Fading Shadows can't handle!"

Libby looked at her father with wide pupils in excitement. Her father was a real Pack wolf! Her mother was, too. Will I become a Hunter one day, too? Or will I be a Sentry, or a Patroller?

"So, how're you doing, little ones?" North unexpectedly changed the subject of the conversation. Libby licked her lips nervously under her father's dark brown gaze. "I...I'm fine, Dad," she mumbled softly. She felt her posture become a bit lower as she realized how much she wanted to please her father, to make him proud. Would he be easy to impress? Alice's father didn't want anything to do with his pup, and at most gave her a gruff compliment before turning his back on her again. Libby just hoped her own father wasn't anything like that.

Alex finally stood beside her, now a little more certain of himself. He looked his father right in the eyes without any problem, clearly not as nervous around him as Libby. "We're doing fine. Thanks, Dad. I'm looking forward to exploring the rendezvous."

"Then I'll leave you to it," North said with a curt nod, his brown ears pointing forwards. "Wouldn't want to hold up two excited wolf pups, would I?" He smiled at their mother again. "Keep an eye on them for me, will you? Something tells me these little rascals will get up to trouble if they're not being watched. Like a two certain other wolf pups, once upon a time, one gray, one brown." He had a cheeky grin as he said so.

Shebina seemed to stiffen for a moment, and then frowned. "You promised you'd never bring that up again!" Her ears seemed to droop in embarrassment.

"Just teasing, mommy dearest," North barked with a wagging tail as he walked in the direction of two other wolves, Patrollers, which were ready to leave.

Shebina said something under her breath Libby couldn't hear. The little wolf pup watched her father leave with them, into the high grass of the Brightened Plains. Her anxiety seemed to lessen as he vanished, and her excitement returned. She turned to her brother. "Come on, Alex! We're out for the first time! Let's explore and meet all the wolves around here!"

She didn't wait for him, and just dashed further into the sandy open space. She still felt a bit uneasy under the gazes of the several wolves on there, but she ignored it. She knew she was going to have to get used to being around her Packmates.

"Hi there, little ones!" A gray she-wolf with white patches of fur around her amber eyes approached Libby and Alex, her tail wagging and her tongue lolling freely between her jaws. A friendly face.

"Hi!" Libby settled down in front of her. "Who're you?"

"Oh, I thought you'd know who I was by now, haha. I'm Haunt! Alice's mother!"

Libby's ears perked up in recognition as Alex walked up to them. "Of course! Alice told me a lot about you!"

"I just wanted to give you a warm welcome to the Pack of Fading Shadows!" Haunt said happily. "Come on, I'll introduce you to the Pack!"

They spend a large portion of the morning getting to know the other wolves present at the rendezvous site. Libby felt a little overwhelmed by it all, and did her best to try to remember how each Packmember smelled and what their name was. Alex took it all in from a distance, not totally at ease with everything yet.

After Libby got to meet all of the wolves currently at the sandy space, she settled down besides Alex at a more remote space of the rendezvous, away from the other wolves. Their mother was still watching them from a few meters away.

"That was quite something, wasn't it?" Libby asked her brother.

"There's so many of them..." Alex's voice trailed off.

"I like them! Haunt especially seems nice! I'm not sure about Elder Willow, though. I fear most of what Alice told me about her might just be true. Kinda the demanding and proper type." She briefly scratched herself behind one ear with a hind paw. "I can't wait to meet Pike, though. She must be amazing!" The pup thought of the Pack's Leader with admiration.

"Aren't you the slightest bit...uneasy around them?" Alex's puppy-blue eyes met hers.

"Well, I don't feel totally ready to be among so many wolves yet," Libby reluctantly admitted in a whisper, before raising her voice, "but I'll get used to it! Will have to if I want to be part of a Pack, right?"

Alex grinned, though his expression still betrayed how uncomfortable he felt. "Heh, yeah."

"I hope Alice returns soon from her patrol. I bet she'll be so surprised to see us out of the den!"

"She is," said an unexpected voice.

Alex turned around with a shocked yelp, tail between his hind legs, while Libby simply looked over her shoulder. The one who had spoken had sneaked up on them without either of them noticing.

The wolf was a young she-wolf, not too pretty, of sixteen weeks old. She had an off-white pelt color, with one eye having a pale gray rim of fur around it. One ear was the same shade of gray as well. Her pelt was rather unkempt and a dead rabbit lay at her paws.

"Alice!" Libby's tail instantly started pounding the ground as she noticed her friend.

"Oi, Lib. Alex." Alice greeted them with a curt nod as she panted happily, her mouth corners turned up in a smile. "How's your first day outside of the den?"

"Exciting!" Libby got to her four paws. "I can't wait until I can explore beyond the rendezvous!"

"That'll be a while," Alex reminded her instantly.

"Killjoy!" Libby fired back. She then looked at the prey by Alice's front paws. "Your kill?"

Alice licked her muzzle. "I wish. Nah, Cleo caught it for me. I was told to bring it back to the rendezvous, as it's for Elder Willow. But she's currently sleeping and I wouldn't want to awake my grouchy grandma."

Libby had forgotten that Elder Willow was actually Haunt's mother. She wondered what it was like to have more family within the Pack other than parents. Her own parents had actually been loners that had left their old group and eventually ended up joining the Fading Shadows Pack, so they didn't have any relatives other than their pups here.

"I bet you could catch a rabbit already, though!" Libby barked.

Alice's expression changed to a smug one. "You think so, huh? Well, I'm not saying I can't do it. But, you know, I've only just begun my training, and my main training goal for now is to become a Patroller like Dad and Cleo." She shrugged and started panting again. "Maybe I'll catch a rabbit one day. No, even better, a hare!"

"Hares are huge!" Alex said with wide eyes.

"But I'm stronger," Alice retorted with a wink. "I'll be able to catch whatever I want once I'm a grown wolf, though! No prey too fast, big or strong for me!"

"Even birds?" Libby dared to ask.

"Especially birds. I'll just sprout wings and fly into the sky like the majestic creature I am."

Libby chuckled, and then turned her muzzle towards the Plains again. "What's it like out there, Alice?"

The young she-wolf exhaled deeply. "Oh, there's nothing better. Running out there on the seemingly endless Plains...that's when I truly feel alive."

"I can't wait..." Libby then stared to her right, where, on roughly a kilometers distance, she could see the edge of the big forest. "What about the woods?"

Alice shook her head. "Didn't your mother tell us we don't go there? What business to true Plains wolves like us have in the forest? We don't want the stifling darkness and painful thorn bushes everywhere around us. No, we belong here."

"But don't you have the urge to at least take a peek?"

"I don't!" Alex bayed instantly.

"But you're a coward," Libby retorted.

"Am not!" Alex snapped. "Just careful!"

Alice barked. "No, I don't feel any urge to even go remotely close to the woods. It's dark, it's cold, it's suffocating, it's confining, it's not for me."

Libby's ears drooped slightly. "Oh. Well, okay, I guess."

"Hey, don't look so sad, Lib! We'll be exploring the vast Plains together before long!" Alice turned to Alex. "All three of us."

The gray pup smiled at her. "Yes. And it'll be amazing! I'm going to be the best Hunter the Pack's ever seen!"