Heron Lake Plateau restore me, restore life the way it should be.

Kiwi watched her big brother, sure he'd agree.  How could he not? It didn't occur to her that he had been in Drageda much longer than she; he didn't see their former packmates the same way she had, as lesser kru.  To him, they were Drageda.  So it came as a complete surprise when he refused.

His insistence that Nomi would come back struck a chord, but it immediately turned surly. Yeah, she might.  And then she could find out what it felt like to be left behind.  It was a vindictive thought, but it suited her, and she found she liked it.

But then he began with the threats, and Kiwi took another few steps, (stupidly) staring her brother in the face in an outraged show of bravado.  She definitely wouldn't be able to back it up, but that had never bothered her before.  They can try, she said, the thrill of the challenge now set in her eyes.  No matter that it was her family he was talking about coming after them.  She was taken with the image of it - She and Wildfire and Sequoia, fugitives, fighting and defeating wolves who came after them with ease.  Because it would be.  She'd protect them, no matter what.