Blackfeather Woods whispers through the trees

It had to be strange, Cicero realised as she bowed in respect to him and his place in Blackfeather Woods' hierarchy, to go from being Alpha of her own pack to being low ranking here. Was it truly worth it to her? He wondered what had driven her towards making these decisions. Why had she been Alpha in the first place, if she was so easy to give up her position? Even if she was pregnant (an assumption that he had not yet verified, but he could think of no other reason for such drastic life changes and Burke had been lonely) it was a big step to take, and he wondered what was in it for her.

Yet he did not focus further on it, figuring he could ask some other time. Even her retort was debatable; did the stars light up in the night sky, or were they always lit up, yet only visible in darkness. Yet he did not push on riddles for now, eager to get to picking herbs. He was lucky that Malice filled in the blanks herself, saying that she knew little to nothing of herbs. Cicero asked, "Does Malice wish to learn?" He could teach her a thing or two, but only if she so wished. "Yet there may be little left to find. The herds are not the only ones that can find nothing to feed on." A disclaimer, as not to expect too much. If she truly wished to learn, however, Cicero had some buried herbs he could show her. Their quality was not as great, but most of his non-underground caches had been raided by the pests that had infestated the lands and he was glad that he had been so smart to create different caches now.