Emberflame Ridge Aftershock

It was a title, not a nickname. Wildfire ran her tongue across her lower lip, nodding as she took in his explanation. It was no wonder he hadn't shed it when he'd left home. It was a hard-won privilege and a fierce moniker. She didn't doubt for a second that it fit him, even though the yearling could not speak to the fearsome side of him. The word Wildfire would have used to describe him was capable. He would make a great Alpha and likely a wonderful father one day, a true patriarch.

She shook her head at his question. "Nope, can't say that I have. I hadn't spent much time up this way until recently. Both Moonspear and my parents' pack were—are—in the Great Bear Wilderness," Wildfire explained. She could safely say she would only be getting more familiar with the area, considering she had next to no reason to venture back south (unless she wanted to visit the Redhawks) and several to linger here in the north. All three of the packs on her list of possibilities were nearby, for instance, now including Warbone's.

"Well, Mr. Solothurn, I think your remedy is working," the youthful scout announced in the next moment, stretching out painstakingly slowly and then letting her chin begin drifting to settle on top of her forelegs. "I think I'm going to get some shuteye, if you don't mind. Don't feel obligated to stick around." She flashed him a quick smile, her eyelids already beginning to flutter as some of the sharp pains in her side ebbed away.