Lost Creek Hollow time to sink way into the blue, dear

indra returned a brief, bemused smile in response to treason's no-nonsense assertion: fluffy white pants aside, the redleaf woman could not endure another breeding season -- coping with infidelity and the result of it in the form of eight whole, demanding puppies had all but drained the last dredges from the summer wolf.

gods, was she tired -- and she would remain tired for a long time, for whelping and raising children (not all your own) put a cold strain on a creature: the kind of opaque and chilling film which clung to ones mental acuity, and rebounded with a spiderweb's snaring insistence each time one tried to shake themselves free of it. and more than anything, it sapped one down to their basest role: provider -- not individual.

the pups would soon be adults - maybe not mentally, but physically - and bit by bit they were dispersing... something that while it came naturally, still pained indra to come to terms with. she had an easier time coming to terms with her own death -- her own ultimate end, that surrender to bleak and black nothingness -- than she did with the idea that someday, her children (of blood and of adoption) would forge on without her.

in the middle of these grim thoughts, treason had mentioned the hollow's own sorrowful troubles. indra's expression snared into one of quiet disdain (in truth had she known one of the wolves spoken of so unfavorably was seabreeze, she might have exclaimed but seabreeze is nice! i met her myself -- surely there must be more...)... but indra had yet to connect the dots from terance's heartbreak, to seabreeze's collected departure. she certainly would not make that connection of her own intelligent merit.

she wanted to lighten the mood, maybe by saying something like 'breeding season, amirite?' with a flashy grin -- but, she didn't. she didn't think it would be taken well, and, indra was not the type to deal with rejection particularly gracefully -- especially if it was her own attempt at a joke that fell short.

"that's terrible." she remarked, and it was genuine too -- she worried about the children more than the hollow - had they made that travel okay?

the conversation shifted, and with it, the tone seemed to soften. indra still found it strange she, for all intents and purposes, was a caretaker of puppies -- she had envisioned greater things in her life.. but perhaps producing and protecting the next generation was the highest deportment there was.

"i wouldn't mind that - hunting, i mean. our pups have done a few small practice runs, but no big game.. but in the meantime i could make myself useful storing caches. we had a good one at h--" she almost said home; guiltily, indra looked away and corrected her course. "at bearclaw. if you ever are that way and walked past the two big stones at the entrance and followed the creek down to a tangle and deadfall, your nose would find it in a minute. could come in useful if we need it.. but, i'll see to it that we don't."