Heron Lake Plateau Steady hands just take the wheel

Finley reacted first, with a protracted, "Okay..." Wildfire could now hear her pulse thunder in her ears as she waited with bated breath for whatever came next. Her eyes skirted sideways to see Elwood's expression—he appeared to still be processing the information she'd just dumped on them—and then back to her godmother as she posed two very astute questions.

"I—yes," Wildfire answered to the first. As a youth, she'd never aspired to be a leader. She'd even actively avoided it in her time (sorry, @Floki). But she'd enjoyed her time as a Bandrona in Drageda and she'd even made plans to resume the mantle before the latest batch of pups had waylaid her reprisal. Now she was nearly four years old, a mother twice over, and something about this simply clicked. Of course, that wasn't to say she wasn't nervous: she was very. But excited in equal parts.

"This would put a kibosh on leaving the wilds. I'd still like to go to the caldera in the spring, as well as get out more in general, especially since I'm a scout by trade and it's been a while. But there were three reasons for leaving the wilds: one was to avoid the overcrowding at the plateau, another was to avoid Drageda's vendetta. This takes care of those two. And I think that I can find a good balance with the traveling, once we're established."