Wolf RPG

Ray? Meerkat called quietly as she approached the tidy pine bed her son kept. Would you like to take a walk with me? I feel like we haven’t had a good talk in a while.

She smiled, hoping he might indulge her. Meerkat sensed there was a shadow on her son’s spirit, as Sialuk would say. She wanted to know what might ail @Stingray and whether she might be able to help.

I haven’t spent much time on the west side of the mountain. Have you? Maybe we could head there, have a look around?

Upon returning from Moontide, Stingray had aspirations to be more involved with Moonspear and better than he was before the trip, when he wasn't busy thinking about how small that pack was. He just... Hadn’t really got around to it yet. Days slipped by and he slipped back into the same old routine.

Visit mom and dad and the girls, meander around the mountain, eat, hang at the rendezvous a bit, sleep, repeat. He hadn’t even gone looking for Sialuk to let her know how Marina was doing, which was just as well, considering she wasn’t at home.

Hey mam, he said, twisting in the pine needles until he got his feet under him. He gave a mighty shake to dislodge the ones caught up in his fur. Yeah, a walk sounds nice. I’ve been over there a bit, but didn’t see much. I’m down to check it out!

In true typical young dude fashion, he had no idea his mom was onto him.

He rolled onto all fours, seemingly eager to join her. Meerkat’s tail waved as she moved closer to nip a pine needle free from his ruff. She spat it out, then pressed her smile to his cheek.

Great. After that, I was thinking maybe we could look around for an ulaq for your grandma and grandpa, Meerkat said, taking a few steps and glancing at her son to make sure he was coming. They may not need it very much right now but I get the feeling they’d enjoy having a place to stay besides the rendezvous site.

The most direct route to the far side of the mountain was up and over, of course, but Meerkat neither wanted to climb that high, nor was she in any particular hurry. She chose a footpath that wound around Moonspear’s northern face, well below the sheer slopes near the peak.

Maybe I’m wrong, she said conversationally as they moseyed, but sometimes I get the feeling there’s something bothering you. Maybe it’s a mother’s intuition. You don’t have to tell me but you know you can talk to me about anything, right?

Ray shot his mother a sheepish grin when she plucked a stray needle from his hide, pausing to give himself another little shake to remove any other cling-ons. He hastened back to his mother's side and was glad she chose to go around rather than over the mountain. He had lost a little weight and put on a little muscle since coming to Moonspear, but he was still a chunky boy and it was still terribly hard to climb the higher slopes.

He felt a sense of foreboding from the moment Meerkat next opened her mouth, almost as if she could read his mind. Well, of course she could. She was his mom, and everyone knows moms can read their kids' minds. It didn't stop him from feeling a little deflated by how easily she cut to the quick of it.

He contemplated fibbing — everything's fine, mam — but Ray couldn't bring himself to do it. Not to her face, not when she had specifically asked. Once he started, it all came rushing out. I'm just... Not sure I fit in here, ya know? There's so many of us now and everyone else seems to know what they're doing here, but I don't. Every job already has someone doing it.

I keep thinkin' about how big we are here, and how tiny Moontide was. The whole pack is only four or five wolves, mam! Ray's brows sank a little. They had all seemed like very capable wolves, and yet he couldn't help worrying how they would feed their children with so few.

She dearly hoped he would open up to her, though Stingray was at an age where he might not want to pour his heart out to his mother. In that case, maybe he wouldn’t mind sharing his plight—assuming Meerkat wasn’t simply mistaken—with Njord instead.

Her train of thought didn’t get much further before her son admitted to feeling out of place. Naturally, Meerkat instinctively wanted to refute him. Of course he fit in here, she wanted to insist. And they could find his role if they worked together to discover his hobbies, interests, etc.

But she pressed her lips together, hearing him out. Her eyes cut to his face in mild surprise when he brought up Moontide. He mentioned Moonspear’s relatively crowded village in comparison. Meerkat wondered if she was getting ahead of herself but it kind of sounded like her son wasn’t a fan of the crowds here and wanted to live someplace smaller, like their sister pack.

What do you keep thinking about? she asked, careful to control her expression and her tone.

But Meerkat couldn’t do anything about her thoughts. They ran rampant as their feet continued carrying them westward along the slopes. Was Ray going to disperse? She wanted to clutch at him, though Meerkat reminded herself she’d always intended to raise her kids to go their own way when they were ready. Just because she wasn’t ready didn’t mean anything. If Ray was unhappy here, then he should absolutely pursue happiness elsewhere. The thought put a lump in her throat.