Mabel was grounded. What else was new? But, thankfully this time her grounding meant that she could leave the territory as long as she wasn’t gone overnight. Rather than stick around and see @”Ayla”’s smug face all day long the cream coloured pup had taken off bright and early this morning and had no plans on going back until the evening. She would go back when she was good and ready and nobody could tell her otherwise.

There was hardly anybody left to tell her otherwise anyways. Mom and dad and Lila and cousin Nalda and nobody else. They were all gone and nobody seemed super keen on anything else even though Mabel heard her parents rumbling about their low numbers. Well, the Donata child could go out and get them more members if they would just let her go out and get them.

Thankfully, going too far didn’t seem necessary. Tracking the scent of some stranger nearby Mabel held her head high as she often saw her mom doing. Striding confidently into view through the fog she announced, ”I”m Mabel, who are you? Are you going to join our pack?” That was how this all worked wasn’t it?

Well, maybe recruiting people was harder than she thought. Instead of being enthused at the idea of following her back and joining them he had follow up questions. Still, she was determined to make this work and then maybe she wouldn’t be grounded anymore. A right cancelling out all the wrongs that she had done or something like that.

She wanted to huff and call the boy stupid, but that probably wouldn’t help her so instead she tried to raise one eyebrow like her mom did. She had been trying to teach herself this for a long time because it seemed like a pretty cool thing to be able to do but so far she had not mastered it. All those hours wasted staring into puddles for nothing because when she attempted it now both the ridges on her face shot up in the air. So she quickly dismissed the idea and let them settle back down to neutral.

Shit. How did she get this guy to join them? She couldn’t let him see that he had phased her so instead she let out a only slightly snobby, ”Uh, Oak Tree Bend.” Why didn’t he know that? Maybe he was stupid, ”Almost nobody comes into these woods unless they’re looking for us.” She almost ended it there but couldn’t help ehrself from adding, ”On purpose.”

Before Mabel had just thought that maybe this Laurel was stupid but now she knew for sure and the Donata child also knew she didn’t want to bring him back anymore. She couldn’t bring back a stupid child to the pack who made no sense when he talked, her mother would laugh them both right out. No one was expecting him and he didn’t want to join. She was quickly losing interest in anything that he had to say, and her bored expression on her face clearly displayed that.

Suddenly Mabel’s expression switched from bored to hard, a kind of expression that she had seen her mother wear more and more often. Aponi hated people who left unless they were allowed to and they came back, the child knew that for sure. She knew it in the cold expression and the way her parents walked after another member left. Looking Laurel up and down Mabel rolled her eyes, ”We don’t let people just come check it out. Especially not children of people who left, my parents hate abandoners.” Being the child of an abandoner was just as much of a sin as being an abandoner yourself.