To see her now, you would not recognise her as the battered bag of bones that was dragged before the pack meeting a little over a month ago. The haunted look was mostly gone from her golden eyes and not the outline of a single rib was visible beneath the pounds she had regained in muscle nor the quickly thickening lustrous coat that now replaced the dull and dusty patchwork quilt she had been wearing. The former lady of the Lake was back, and she would no longer crawl on her belly or bear the scornful looks of her pack mates. She would no longer flinch away from their glances or distance herself from her children. This was her home, her pack and she was not going anywhere in a hurry.

Winter was coming, and she had no desire to roll over in the snow to those who were beneath her in all but rank. Her time in the wilds had not only enforced her stubbourn streak, but it had taught her the importance of greed. Unless she looked out for herself and her son, and only herself and her son, then they would never have made it back, and as much as the wolf she was would never do such a thing, the time had come. She was sick of waiting for Athena to change her mind about her. She was going to show what she was made of.

If it came to that.

She had picked her ground well. The flat expanse before the lake was littered with smaller stones, but nothing large enough to cause a severe injury. She hoped beyond hope that this challenge would not result in a fight. The last thing she wanted to do was injure the delicate caring girl. It would not take much for it to be avoided all together, but you never could be sure.

As the sun began it's slow descent over the earth, the tawny woman tilted her head to the sky and called forth Chantille, and Chantille only. It was high past time this was over with.