( Alchemy)<br/><br/>Ylva did her best to take it all in, because she had never seen anything like the valley here. The packs she had come across generally lived much like the humans did, in villages and small communities. Her own pack had lived at the side of a great mountain, and hunted through it's trees, which the pack was named for. Evergreen, the pines that kept their needles through out the winter. Winters had been harsh and long, but there were few things Ylva loved more than to see the world blanketed in layers of fluffy, white snow. There was a calm that could only be found after a snow storm, when the world was quiet and peaceful. Winter was by no means her favorite season, but the thought of the mountainside draped in snow made her homesick, so she pushed the thought aside and followed Marrok and the others.<br/><br/>The world around them seemed almost as alive as those who inhabited it. Her eyes were wide, watching it all, and a smile crept upon her lips as she watched him interact with the pups playing in their path. She watched curiously, the best leaders she had seen were good to the youngest members of their pack, not harsh or dismissive. He appeared to be firm, but kind. Ylva again got the feeling that she was safe within this place, it almost felt like a sanctuary of sorts. She could not tell what kind of wolf each person was by looking at them, but her nose and sense of smell could differentiate that diversity that dwelled within this valley.<br/><br/>Eventually she turned to him and smiled. "You mentioned something about a fire? Oh, and food. Definitely remember there was a bit about food. Though I think I can tell you my story without either, I get the sense I can trust you, but understand if it will take more on my part for that to be reciprocated."<br/><br/>He had saved her life. If he was some menacing character, Ylva was quite certain she would have some feeling of impending doom building within her. Instead, she had a sense of calm. When she reached into the magic that tied her to the world around her, she got nothing but a sense of balance back. If this was a place of torture or pain, no such feeling would have filled her, of that much she was certain. The earth remembered, even when the creatures upon it did not.<br/><br/>She peered at him with curious eyes, almost anxious to gage his reaction to the story she was about to tell. Ylva was not sure why, but she felt as if his opinion mattered. It was more than just his weight as a leader of his pack, though she could not place a finger on exactly what it was.<br/><br/>"The man you saw, the leader of those that were trying to...Either capture or kill me, he is called Kathar. He was once a member of the Evergreen pack. He even once believed that he would someday lead the pack..." It still hurt to think about Kathar, not only his betrayal, but the lost potential he had so easily sacrificed.<br/><br/>"He was exiled, after he nearly killed another member of the pack. I had heard he had fallen in with members of the Astraland cult, but I didn't believe it. Not until the night he killed my parents." She got a distant look in her eyes, and it was obvious Ylva was no longer there in the moment with him. Instead her mind was in the past, again reliving that terrible night. "It was my father who exiled him and denied him any chance at being my mate in doing so. I am sure this was his revenge. I do not know how I became so lucky, but I was not in the village where my pack lived, that night. I had gone off to pick herbs for a tea that would help one of our elder members with her breathing problems...I returned to find my home in ashes, and my parents dead at his feet. And I ran. As fast and as far as my four legs would carry me."<br/><br/>She shrugged her shoulders. "I found a town in need of a healer's apprentice and hid in plain sight, among the humans. I didn't expect him to follow me."<br/><br/>Ylva looked at Marrok and her eyes narrowed. "I do not think he was aiming to kill. I think he hoped to injure me, then take me captive, but I cannot think of any reason why. If he does not want the tale of my pack's murder to spread, he could have left me alone or killed me. I have no value to the Astraland cult..." At least, she thought she did not. Even as she spoke the words, something the oracle had said to her so many years ago stirred within her. Something about a gate and a key, but she was too young to listen closely, and too old to put weight on the words of an old woman.<br/><br/>"If there is anything else you wish to know, you have only to ask. I owe you that much for saving my life..."