the circle of life

It wasn't long after Aquene got the pups safely out of the way that the herd finally started to disperse and leave the territory, the stampede finally coming to an end. Nash pulled up beside Chan, panting, and surveying the damage. The ground was churned up, and the racket was likely to have scared off any prey they might have had in the area. He sighed, shaking his head. What had startled them? How could they prevent this sort of thing in the future?

They probably couldn't, honestly.

Body already beginning to ache, Nash followed his brother to help with the clean up. He would check on Aquene and the pups later.

They had managed to succeed, it seemed. The stampede was going to circle around the lake, directed away from anyone or anything he or the group cared about, at last allowing everyone to begin to relax and catch their breaths, himself included. And though the herd had left a trail of destruction behind, it did not seem as if anyone had actually been hurt in the whole ordeal. The pack and the pups were safe, which was definitely a win, to Jet.

Today was not something he’d soon forget, for reasons both good and bad. But this.. had to be the biggest thing he’d ever been a part of that had actually turned out in a positive way, which felt almost indescribably good.

It had also been one hell of a workout. Chan’s call for those around was heeded though, prompting the dark one to turn and lope much more casually towards the cove alpha, to see what would come next.

As the others started slowing down so did Siyet. It looks like disaster had been avoided. She took a moment to gather her breath after that hard run. She looked around and saw all the others huffing and puffing too. They had all worked hard to keep every one safe.

She felt glad that she was able to be a part of this important event, and helped everyone out. She felt very proud to be part of a great pack. She stopped over by the lakeside for a drink of water while she continued to regain her breath.

She thought after this, she might curl up under a tree somewhere and take a nap. She sure was exhausted.

Aquene clearly didn't need to be assigned to caring for the pups - she did so regardless, ushering them away and toward the now-safe pack den. Nash came his way, as did Jethro while Siyet passed them by to take big gulps of the lake water. Chan couldn't blame her, he was worn out as well but they were possible running on a timer.

"Go ahead and take a minute," he told the trio, his own chest rising and falling hard with each breath.

"Siyet and Nash, when you're ready, follow after 'em. Hopefully they get off the mountain, but I don't know where they think they're going," the exit was the other way unless they could really pull off scaling the valley walls. Hopefully he was underestimating the hefty ungulates, but the last thing they needed was for them to follow the lake's edge right back to the wolves. Just their sheer numbers, all those hooves turning up the ground, was damaging enough.

"Jet, come with me. We're gonna make sure they didn't hurt anyone, and try to find out what got 'em up here and goin' to begin with, if we can..."

After all, this was far from the whole pack. It was very possible others weren't here because they'd already gotten trampled, as much as Chan wanted not to think that way...

(This post was last modified: Jan 10, 2022, 08:38 PM by Chan.)

With his sisters both safe and the rest on the pack seeming to have a handle on the stampede, Leo slowly started to relax. His heart was still racing from the ordeal he’d been through, but surprisingly he’d managed to escape with no big scrapes or broken bones; Though he’d probably have a couple nice bruises tomorrow.     But for now all was good. The terrifying beasts were out of their territory, no one was hurt, and Leo was happy to settle down with his siblings and listen to a story – hopefully one he hadn’t heard before. Thoughts ”Speech”

Lakela @DA