Blacktail Deer Plateau In these trees there's no escaping truth

Rue nodded gratefuly at the offer. "I'll take some time to rest up, but I might be ready to travel again once you embark." Rue knew not to count herself out yet; while it seemed at the moment like she could sleep for days, oftentimes extended rest left her feeling... restless.

"There was one more detail," Rue slipped in before the subject changed, "The Elysium woman I spoke with-- Lily-- she knew you and Kavik. You stayed with her once, she said." Lily had seemed to respond fondly enough to hearing Liri's and Kavik's names, but Rue thought Liri should be aware anyway. Judging from the scarred state of Liri's pelt, Rue wasn't going to make any assumptions about anyone from Liri's past, no matter how nice they seemed. 

As the conversation shifted to Rue's new appointment, again Rue's curiosity touched on Liri's past. The ivory alpha had empathized with Rue but more or less talked around the circumstances surrounding her own feelings. Rue was left with the assumption that Liri had thought leadership was out of reach due to her leg deformity. Perhaps in some packs such an injury would have placed a ceiling on one's achievements, but Blacktail Deer Plateau valued more than simply a wolf's physical prowess-- not that Liri's injury really held her back much anyway. 

"I would have to get a whole lot more uncomfortable before I allowed myself to disappoint you, Liri," Rue answered Liri's final statement with a smile. Rue had hoped that she was more or less hiding her discomfort with power and confrontation, but clearly Liri was a perceptive woman. Such perceptiveness only lent credit to her Beta decision, Rue reasoned. Liri must be seeing something in Rue that Rue didn't yet see in herself. Perhaps someday Liri's reasons would become more clear to her loyal (although somewhat baffled) new Beta.