Wolf RPG

She had found Haunt's trail several hours old -- Arbiter had been patrolling the opposite end of the territory when her daughter had wandered off this time. Again. Why did it keep being a thing? How could a man who so easily abandoned his children still have such a hold over them?

At least now the pups weren't quite so young. But still. They were supposed to still be escorted, at least until they could prove that they were being responsible. But if she was just over in the forest, it wasn't an issue. Or at least, maybe it wouldn't be if it was any of them other than Haunt. What if her head hurt again? If she was out of commission as had happened before, then she was in danger. Arbiter howled then, calling for @Haunt, but no answer would come -- @Vex had likely heard too, but as far as she knew, he was still in the territory. She stood, waited a few minutes but not a word in response on the air. 

A sigh, and she started forward along the trail, keen to retrieve her daughter before some other foul thing happened. She wouldn't be surprised if she found a particularly familiar shadow trailing her along the way.

vex doesn't think much of it as haunt's scent ...many hours old crosses out of the territory nor as arbiter's scent, fresher yet, overlays it. yet still, he follows after his mother like a relentless harbinger of broken rules; sneering as he shadows her. though there is a soft swell of annoyance that his pale sister would venture out without him ( despite the missing context ), it is only when arbiter's howl rises for her with no response that dread settles like a stone in his stomach. though he does not necessarily understand his sister's frequent headaches she has spoken of them at least once to him, perhaps in passing. sos prowls in his lumbering gait ahead of him, a figment of vex's imagination; hellish but alert. an physical manifestation of his feelings even if naught but an illusion of his mind.

regardless, he draws strength from sos; imaginary friend or deitybear all the same.

the dreadfather lets out a low rumble of unease, appearing to vex as real as his mother's form before him as he shrugs out of the shade of the maples, carrying a slight tang of the sickly sweet scent upon his pelage. she didn't answer. vex capitalizes upon the obvious, catching up to match his mother's steps despite that he was not invited. irregardless of her feelings on the matter, vex counted this as being escorted and he wasn't going to go anywhere but with her.

in regards to haunt, that meant she was far enough away from them, presumably, that she couldn't hear arbiter's call ...or perhaps she was ignoring it as she sleuthed further along. i can't believe she went without me. on this, the haughty princeling's voice carries full offense and unsure what it means for the assumed close relationship between him and his pale sister.

And there was Vex beside her. At least he hadn't run far ahead -- she was still looking for just one child, and perhaps all this would mean he'd stay with her and assist. No. Was her reply. Why had Haunt even wandered? Had the headaches clouded her thoughts? Surely she could see that it was dangerous for her to go beyond the borders alone. She'd thought they'd been on the same page at last. She didn't slow or stop, but kept walking trying to trace the trail.

In a way, this might actually bring some awareness to him. Maybe. To see why she'd been so concerned. It felt like a lifetime ago when the pair of them had wandered off. Perhaps you know a little then how it felt when I found both of you had run off. She needs protection, you know this, I know this. Protection and a solution to whatever it is that is causing it so she can have independence once she's grown. A long exhale, not quite a sigh, She needs to come home. And she -- they, she supposed, in truth -- would find her. Or so she believed.

at least we were together. vex mumbles under his breath, in truth vex fashion refusing the connection of empathy. in his mind, the situations were entirely different and though his mother tried, valiantly, to make him understand that they weren't different at all vex won't see it that way. of course, having one another hadn't kept haunt from getting hurt. he'd failed to protect her then and he was failing to protect her now ...where ever she was.

arbiter is so sure that haunt was going to come home ...that she was going to drag her back kicking and screaming if it came to it and vex feels his lips mash into a terse line. the last thing he wants is to argue with his mother, especially when there was no telling how long this trip was going to be and he was the only child at her side — unfortunate that he had no one else to turn her ire to if he stoked it. this knowledge forces him to contemplate, to weigh the pros and cons of speaking.

so, he decides to change the subject, almost entirely. they have a stale trail to follow and who knew how long it'd be before they reached its end. i want to be a leader, he says, almost too quickly, afraid that if he didn't get all the words out in a blurt they would be stolen from him. someday. he adds quickly before she can reply. would you teach me?

that, he decides, is his price for obedience. one of the many things he would have to work on if she agreed to his curve ball admittance.

Apparently it wasn't enough to link it together. She hadn't heard all the words, but the attitude of the muttering was enough. He would learn one way or another, it was just a matter how how long, and in turn how foolish he might look when he looked back on his own actions at a later date. Right now, that wasn't the focus of this lesson -- hell, it wasn't even really a lesson. It was a rescue mission, as far as she knew.

But Vex's next comment did catch her off-guard a little. Had this been something that had nagged at him for some time? A curious tip of her head, I can. But it's not always a fun job. Is there something about it that appeals to you, specifically? She certainly had seen her own fair share of leaders she certainly wouldn't want to mimic. It was so easy to do it wrong, and so easy to turn off wolves to the pack. Sometimes that was a good thing -- she was perfectly fine without wolves like Seabreeze and.. What was her name? That other woman that left. She was fine without them -- them and Kaertok.

Either way, they both would probably think this was a better topic of conversation while following Haunt's trail than to go over the same thing they had done previous times.

to vex's complete surprise, arbiter does not shut him down when he mentions his desire to rule. perhaps, he considers in the brief seconds before his lips part to speak, she is as grateful for the reprieve from the issue they've been 'round and 'round in endless circles on for months now as he was. i dunno, vex responds in a lazy drawl as they following the stale scent. it seems pretty fun. he remarks. what could be horrible about being the boss?

disarmed in general, vex is left to quickly try to compose himself in order to answer her inquiry as she poses it to him. besides being in charge, he really didn't have an answer for her and as this was one of those serious conversations ( and steeped heavily in something vex wanted ) he wanted to have more of a concrete answer for her. all of it. granted, it only went to prove that he didn't grasp the extent of 'all of it' and was far from knowledgeable on what being a leader meant and the sacrifices it demanded.

Ah if only as things were as simple as he likely thought. It would make things much easier. Leadership is a complex thing, with many facets, many overlooked. The glory is the easy part to see. But with the power comes the fact you get shouldered with the blame for what goes wrong, regardless or not if it's true. So you must avoid it.

But how to explain? It's more than just standing up and staying you are a leader and doing what you want. You are expected to balance choosing the things that benefit the pack, proving that you are strong enough to lead, while also ensuring that those under you are happy. Should one of those fall out of balance, then it becomes your fault in their eyes. Push it far enough, and then they will fight against you, and without wolves willing to serve beneath you, you are not a leader at all. In times of peace and plenty, it's easy to keep balance -- any fool can be a good leader then, the world practically does it itself -- but have too many distractions, too many problems, and it gets harder to ensure. There was always something unexpected to mess with plans, to add another wrench into the machine. Runaway children, for example.

Those are broad strokes. Diplomacy, earning trust, overall decisionmaking, being a good judge of character -- there's many smaller things that fit under each. If you ever think it's simple, it's probably not. A sort of wry smile at that, brief. And sometimes the right choices are not the ones that are most appealing, those might actually be the worst to choose for they might come back to bite you later on -- you then need the foresight to contemplate what's likely to come up on down the line. She looked to him, curious, It's no small task. But does that give you a sense of what might all be involved? All of her children this time around seemed like the type to act before thinking, and that impulsiveness would be difficult for them to overcome.. But if he tried, perhaps.