[briar]

(please wait for @Harley to post with violet, ty)

Considering that, just over a week ago, their mom had booted the twins from her life, the girls were doing pretty well. Sure, it was traumatic having your mother lead you into the woods and simply leaving you there, but it was hard to linger when Violet was always so determined to horse around and cause trouble. It had been fortunate when they had stumbled upon an old deer carcass in their travels, just barely edible. But edible nonetheless. Albeit, that had been several days ago now and they hadn't had anything (other than the occasional bug) to eat since then. Though, like most things, hunger could not hold back Briar's sister's grand amount of energy. Really, it was ridiculous.

While trotting along with her sister, the freckled child pondered what they were going to do. As fun as it was to be on their own with as much freedom as they wanted, it was... lonely. She loved her sister and wouldn't know what to do without her, really, but she missed their mother. A lot. Sure, it was only now that the pup was only realizing that she had only really looked at her daughters with distaste, she had still been their mother. And those weren't exactly the easiest commodity to come by nowadays, especially when wandering the wilderness.

The twins lived in their own little world, chattering away with each other as they walked along, sometimes bursting into fits of giggles. It was then that Violet began a chase and Briar, never wanting to stray too far from her sister's side, ran after her. She wasn't too fast, uncertainty and worry always plaguing the little girl's steps. That and Violet had a lot more energy than Briar did, more than even what was standard for puppies at their age. That didn't stop Briar from trying her best, even if she stumbled from time to time. Even if she wasn't as fast. Even if she wasn't as energetic. Even if she wasn't as optimistic or as sunshine-bright as her sister. Even if she wasn't-

Too distracted by her thoughts, her mind always moving faster than her mouth or her body, the puppy didn't notice her sister skid to a stop. It was then that she went flying over the edge of Alteron's moat, just barely managing to hook a paw and latch on with the other, kicking with her hind legs. "Oh no," she cried out, scrabbling against the moat's wall to heave herself back onto solid ground. "This... this isn't very good," she mumbled, resolving that her fate was to stay hanging off the edge of the moat forever. That was until her grip slipped and she yipped loudly in fear, resuming her fear-driven scrabbling to hold her grip on the ledge and not slip into the water below.

[Violet]

Violet tried to look on the bright side of things- not that there was much of a bright side to being not only abandoned but vehemently denied by the one person they'd ever known and relied upon- still, she looked for it. She had to be strong, after all, she was the older of the two, by only a few minutes, but she would let neither of them forget those few minutes. Keeping them both fed was a struggle, but if nothing else, she did what she could to keep her sister's chin up. They couldn't stop trying to survive.

If it were perhaps loud jokes or simple games, whatever she could think of in the moment to make Briar laugh or even just give the barest of smiles, it was a victory. So a little chase to get the spirits and energy up, could surely do no harm? She was the big sister, mostly in her head, but that meant looking out for Briar, being aware of danger, and in that she had failed on a larger scale than she'd quite yet fathomed. The murky waters had not caught her attention until what seemed like the very last second, allowing only a strangled and awkward gurgle of a warning to fall from her mouth to her sister, just as she skidded over the dirt and nearly disappeared into the greedy chasm.

"Briar!" Violet shrieked, finding her frozen limbs trembling free from her tense pose to rush to her sister's aid. Panic shuddered her little heart as she peered over the edge, relieved and still plenty terrified to see Briar staring wide-eyed back at her. "Hold on!" She shouted, dropping herself flat against the ground and reaching out to try to grasp at the other child's paws with her own, if to do nothing more than to keep her in place.

"Mama!" An unintentional plea of desperation, though the name hurt her own ears. "Someone! Help- Please!"

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[Connor]

It was the tiny high pitched cries that caught Connor's attention first. Pups? This close to the border? That didn't seem...right. As much as pups should be tested there had been no smell or sound of another wolf for hours. Surely Alteron's youngest would have a guard to make sure they didn't die needlessly. Having children die in the moat was not a very productive use of bodies. Plus, as far as he was aware, there were currently no litters being kept in the packlands.

The shriek of terror urged the small wolf to jog quickly toward the sound. No predatory tracks. Probably not an attack of some kind. A trap perhaps? Connor flicked his ears for a moment before scoffing. If it was a trap whoever had set it up would have had to move over the trails Connor himself surveyed every day. He would have noticed any outsiders.

There they were. Two tiny pastel pups at the very lip of the moat. One clawing wildly at the damp earth. Both of them letting out distressed sounds at the thought of falling in. They were very small. Too young to be on their own yet. Perfect to be taken and trained. Probably a bit older than Connor when Amanda had first begun teaching him.

Too small for killing to have any positive effect. Their potential outweighed any food their bodies may have saved.

Dark paws carried the Page toward the children. He lightly pushed the pup with sure footing aside and away from the lip with his nose before staring down at the little one holding on for dear life. It was a simple matter to grab her by the scruff and drag her back onto safe ground. Without missing a beat Connor dropped her on her behind and sat before the two. His tail curled neatly around his paws as he looked down at them.

"By all rights you should be in the water right now. Both of you, if you continued to put weight on the moatside. This is a serious mistake on your parts." The Page stated, face blank. "You are both lucky I was here. If I may give you a lesson in survival," Connor leaned forward just a touch, red eyes meeting each of the pups'. "Do try not to get yourself into a situation you can not get out of by yourself." 

Leaning back Connor glanced around. "Where are your guardians? What brings them to Alteron?"

[briar]

Briar, rescued at last, immediately latched to the individual that was closest to her. And, considering that her sister had been nosed aside, that individual happened to be Connor. With tiny paws, the child tried to cling to his paw. Which could be seen as funny, considering how she wasn't much bigger than it. Really, though, could you blame the kid? It had been days since the twins had seen anyone but each other after being dumped in the woods by their mother, spending their nights cold and shivering. They had nothing but each other and nothing in their bellies but the remnants of putrid meat. To see Connor, as scary as Briar thought he was, was a blessing.

She eventually realized her mistake, stumbling back and away before averting her blue and gold eyes to the ground, embarrassed. The tiny girl didn't look at him, even as he spoke, ashamed of how foolish she and her sister had been. She should have paid more attention! She could have gotten Violet into trouble too, or, worse, knocked her into the moat before falling in right alongside her. When she looked up, her eyes met crimson ones. Immediately, she looked at the ground, a bit hunched as the child realized her mistakes. He was right, she knew, and while she might be able to use her youth and inexperience as an excuse now, that wouldn't always work.

As the child stared at the ground as if it held the secrets to the meaning of life, Connor mentioned the twins' "guardians." "Guardian?" she asked, interested now as she tilted her head in question. "You mean like... parents? Like Momma?" she continued, glancing at her sister before turning her bi-colored eyes to Connor once again. "Momma left us in the woods nine days ago. Said she didn't want us, then she ran and we couldn't catch up," she answered, oddly blunt for such a sheepish little thing. "We've been on our own since."

In reality, it was Briar who had chased longer. Who had sobbed and cried out and kept running even when her mom's scent had gone stale. But then she had stopped; their mother was gone. She hadn't wanted them. And while it was Briar who chased just a bit longer, she was the one who realized the reality faster. Who had turned bitter in only a matter of hours, well aware that their mother clearly wanted nothing to do with them. The only adult they had ever known had literally left them to die. But... this stranger, he hadn't let her fall in the moat. So, at least he was better than their mother.