January 27th. Early morning, overcast.
RE: White Fir Notch, it seems a black bear has decided to find a place to hibernate within your territory.
The rise of the sun on a cold winters morning found the russet Alpha restless. She hadn't slept well in weeks, nerves tense, her thoughts consumed with anxious worry and a thousand questions. The pack had been unsuccessful thus far in tracking down Arwyn, but that didn't mean she nor Emrys were going to give up. In fact, she was beginning to drift away more frequently from home in a futile attempt to search, hoping she would pick up her daughters trail. And then, things went from bad to worse when Elyan went missing. Now she and her mate had not one, but two children to worry about finding.
Each time she arrived back home from one of her scouting trips, the atmosphere was dismal. She could hardly call it a home these days. With Elyan gone and Ambrosia striking out, their numbers seemed to be slipping. Tyne and Nauja remained, the former contributing where he could and her second, as helpful and supportive as always. Their kind gestures and sympathetic words did not go unappreciated, and Jynx would confide in the other female when Emrys was too busy or away. But Blackmoore and Sharan on the other hand, were not in such good standing in her eyes. She rarely heard or saw either of them, and they most certainly did not seem interested in immersing themselves with the pack or helping out. They stuck to their own devices, their own company, which in a sense, Jynx regarded as rather selfish. Those were not the kind of wolves she wanted in her pack. They were not the kind of wolves Gent and Raela, the true founders took into the ranks.
She sighed heavily, her breath billowing forth into the cold air. Along with Emrys, she had made a promise to Gent. To keep the Notch standing, alive and strong. This little slice of paradise had been hard won from the start and even afterwards, it threw challenge after unrelenting challenge towards the wolves who called it home. Each test she welcomed, taking pride in the strength it would instill in her and her pack mates once overcome. But now it was different after the betrayals they had endured, the losses they had suffered. With her only two living children gone, lost somewhere out there, her shoulders buckled under the strain. The stress that ate away at her was too much. Convinced that she was unfit to ever lead in the first place, with origins as another nobody in the crowd, Jynx saw little point in trying to hold together a crumbling pack. Emrys would feel the same, and as concerned parents, their priorities needed to be elsewhere...on finding their children, rather than leadership.
As if to drive home what she already knew to be the truth, when she emerged from the communal den that morning, a dark lumbering figure amongst the trees set her fur on end. It was a black bear, looking for a warm, cozy site to sleep out the remaining winter months. Her eyes, outlined with stress around the edges, followed it's slow path. She knew it would find the den appealing. It had after all, originally been a bear den. Memories flooded her. Of the countless times she and the others had faced down a bear, drove off a cougar or wiped the land clean of wild boar. Each time the pack had won. But not today. Jynx never considered herself to be a superstitious wolf, but the appearance of this bear was like a sign. The Notch was no longer theirs. It never had been. Only inherited, graciously passed down from her old friends. With a defiant click of her jaws and a spin on her heel, the russet female headed for the borders. There she would pause one last time, raising her head to the sky. Her howl was low throated and long, signaling to those who remained that the time had finally come to part ways.
Nothing lasts forever.