Wildflower Glade The Wind Blew Away

There are several fresh rabbit tracks in the mud. Hunt Opportunity

Last two posts from me, feel free to either post once more or archive <3

I hope you like fish! What if they DIDN'T? Way to just make him panic when trying to say something nice, ma. Fishing was pretty much the only way he could really contribute to the pack, he was just dead weight otherwise! What else could he do, scout?! Hunting normal stuff was out of the question, everything was too fast or too strong... he could barely keep up with his own health, let alone others... and what could he teach, how to lose friends and alienate people?... guardian was just plain a joke...

But then Aideen spoke, and her gentle, genuine enthusiasm cut straight through his spiral of self-loathing. He blinked at her, then dropped his gaze to his pile of fish. Huh. Maybe... maybe that would work. Expecting mothers were normally hungry, right? And then even more once she was feeding puppies... even if only himself, his mother and Aideen ate his catches, maybe that was enough.

As he pondered it, the two women talked briefly of the whole pregnancy thing, and though he was distracted by the possibility of being useful it was impossible to miss the warmth in Aideen's manner, the sincerity, and then when she looked straight at Duck and threatened to eat his fish the joy quivered down his spine and ended in a jittery tail wag.

"Pl-pl-please," he said quietly, with a faint urgency, nudging the fish on top of the small pile towards her, needing to show just how much he wanted her to have them. All of them, he didn't care. It just gave him an excuse to get more, rather than waiting for his catch to sit in the cache and start rotting.

Aideen was such a sweet soul, it was so plainly obvious to anyone who spoke with her. Nina had been wise and clearly a good-hearted leader, with the pack's intention in mind, but somehow slightly... cold. Bella was not a Woodlands wolf by birth (and she could not lie to herself and honestly promise that she would be one come her death) and so, to her, Aideen and Miccah were the real leaders. Theirs were the faces she would imagine whenever she thought of the thicket. That was her reality.

... the same happiness in the Woodlands as I have. Bella beamed, basking in the second-hand expression of contentment, able to just look at Aideen so pregnant and optimistic and cheerful and warm and looking forward to the future. It was clear that this was her first pregnancy, too, and likely her first time in the leadership role. Bella was younger, and yet saw so much of herself of two years ago in that bright smiling face, only she knew the circumstances were so very different. May you have all the good fortune I never did. Miccah was a good man; their family would be happy.

"It certainly is," she said with a soft laugh at Aideen's final remark of her pregnancy, and resisted asking more. It wasn't fair to live vicariously through the sweet leader, she deserved more respect than that. As the subject turned back onto fish, and Duckweed eagerly offered his catch, Bella's heart felt heavy but comfortable in her chest. "Let's get these back. Where would you like them, by the main cache? Have you chosen a birthsite yet?"

The pair of them would help carry the pile of fish wherever Aideen directed, and then hopefully feast on them together, enjoying easy conversation as they went. On the women's part, anyway - but Duck would sit nearby, always quiet, but unable to suppress a tiny, pleased smile.

Despite her best efforts not to, she seemed to have flustered the young man yet again, though his tail gave a fidgety wag. Aideen's smile grew soft, her tail swaying in a low arc at her hocks. His anxiety baffled her, it was understandable for him to be a little nervous, but this level of discomfort told her clearly that something deeper was at play. This was not the time nor the place to talk about that though, and the leader made a mental note to ask Bella about her sons childhood, once they'd gotten to know each other a little better. For now she contended to treat Duckweed as she had been from the start, with the gentleness he so clearly required. A light chuckle lifted from her lips as the boy offered up his catch so insistently, her muzzle dipping towards his, copper eyes leveling with the dull grays. "Thank you Duck," she said in a low, warm voice, more than happy to accept his offer. The smaller wolfess looked up briefly to meet her darker counterparts gaze, smiling brightly at the other mother. It was an odd, yet sweet feeling, to somehow be sharing in this wonder of parenthood with someone else, have it in common with a friend. Then their collective attention returned to the fish, and Aideen picked up the one she had been offered, nodding at Belladonna as she lifted her head. The main cache would do, give everyone a chance to taste the ambrosial treats that Duckweed had caught for them. "No, I haven't found the right place just yet," She would explain later, as they enjoyed a casual chat over the delicate meal. She'd been scouring the thicket from center to border, looking for somewhere just right, but had yet to find the spot she sought; The point where a particularly stubborn blackberry bush had made its way into the denser forestry, from the fields beyond. But she would continue to look, she was determined to have her children born under the fragrant branches, like she herself had been. Word count: 347 Thoughts ”Speech”

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