a gift from the heavens

Thistle cloud paced to and fro near the new den site, her heart deep in her throat. Her husband was late he should have been her by now, and she was worried. She knew he slept sometimes in the forest on patrols, because he was working so hard, but he had never been this late. And with the recent influx of stranger wolves at their borders and across them, she worried as most wives were apt to do. Thistle’s ear twitched as she heard the ocean from her view point and she watched and she waited.

Unlike her husband, Thistle had opened her heart to the girl immediately and without consequence. She knew in the end it would hurt if they had to give the girl back, and she knew her husband would continue to try and find the girl’s parents, simply because that was the right thing to do. They would want someone to search for them if one of their children were to go missing and wash up literally at the paws of another wolf. That thought alone froze her blood in her veins. What those parents must be going through? Thistle herself would have been frantic the first day. Now it was what 2 or 3 days since the girl had washed up on the shores.

As she sat and watched and worried, she mused on whether or not he was spreading himself thin. She had told him once before she did not want to lead, that it was not a passion of hers. And she knew he probably took that to heart, and now she wondered if perhaps she had been relatively selfish to say such a thing. He could not do it all alone, though god’s love the man he would try, just to keep her happy. She wondered at it, thinking she would not make a very good leader. She was far too genteel for leadership. She would never be able to punish someone. She shook her head, no that wasn’t necessarily true, if someone were to hurt their children or her husband or even a pack mate, she could maybe probably dole out punishment, it may plague her after, and she would have to be sure the wolf in question really did what they were accused of, before she acted on it.

Thistle had not asked the newest member of their brood anything about her family, guarding her zealously and watching over her while she healed. She had bounced back fairly quickly and she was curious as to where the girl was from, but perhaps again she was being selfish by not asking. She had not wanted to press, but maybe she should, because the girl was starting to quickly adapt, and she did not want to potentially keep the girl from going back to her family. She was so very young and sometimes memories were not always best, and they may get confused, and she did not want that for the poor girl.

She knew her husband would probably want to find her family, but was it so wrong to want her to stay. To add her to their already tiny family, it was not a hardship to take care of another child, she wanted many and of course Ragnar did too. So what was one more added. She sighed, no that wasn’t very kind, here she was thinking of keeping the girl, when her parents were probably heartbroken and grief stricken somewhere hunting for her. She would want someone to give her; her children back not keep them. Perhaps they could keep her and adopt her as one of their own until and if they ever found her family they would then cross that bridge.