Jade Fern Grove I thought that I heard you sing

she leaves the territory while she still can, attempting to move with the same ease as before the pregnancy and succeeding only partly. her first hunt ends in an easy failure, and leaves her more winded than she ought to be. she considers what she's feared before; with the burden of these children she bears, she will lose her own identity. and despite the selfishness of it all, she is unwilling to give that up for the benefit of her young.

the sunlight dances through the canopy above, and the ground is warm beneath her paws. a breeze stirs a conifer, and clouds of yellow are sent through the copse, dancing in the light before dissipating a moment later. here, she is content. swiftcurrent doesn't feel like a home, though she's always known that homes are people, not places. she considered once she might find some semblance of that with her pups, and Adi. but they are not family, and that is to big a burden for them to bear. she exhales between clamped jaws as a ripple of pain moves down her abdomen, something that seems to occur more and more often, now. ignoring it, she presses on.

One of her disproportionately large ears bent backward as Bat watched the she-wolf moving through the grove, her swollen sides dappled by early June sunlight. When she vanished from view, the yearling did not immediately pursue her. She considered returning to her exploration of the jade ferns, though it had been nearly a week since she'd so much as spoken to a fellow wolf. Gnawing at her lip, she rose and slipped after the expectant mother.

Remembering the defensive dam back in Lost Creek Hollow and minding her limited experience with her own pregnant mother, Bat gave the stranger a wide berth as she overtook her, then circled back to approach from the fore. She woofed to announce her presence as soon as she caught sight of the gravid silver again, her head and tail held evenly with her spine and a smile on her lips as she tried to give an amiable impression.

she's not alone for long, and biting back the pain, she offers a grin in the woman's direction. she appears amiable by all means, if a little wary, though for the life of her she could not guess why - she gross and fat and if the girl were to run at a trot, she'd likely not be able to keep up. "hey!" she greets, invitation to hunt dieing on her lips when she remembers how gross she is. "I'm dawn." 

Her smile was met in kind and Bat's tail flicked to, fro. The stranger tossed out a cheerful greeting, then a name, so the yearling moved a little closer. Her eyes flitted across Dawn's swollen flanks, wondering what she was doing wandering around by herself in her condition, but she supposed it was none of her business. Her smoky eyes returned to Dawn's face.

"I'm Dragontooth," she introduced, using her favorite alias of late. "Nice to meet you, Dawn. Do you live around here?" This grove wasn't claimed, unless Bat's senses were all amiss, but perhaps Dawn had ventured from a neighboring territory.