Otatso Wetlands bippity boppity

I am ready for a helping of Bazi unreasonableness now! Remedy, thank Ian for his glorious contribution to this game.

The weight of the decision pressed down hard on Bazi. She gritted her teeth and stared hard at Fox, willing some divinely sanctioned answer to appear in a clearly written label above her head. The question she posed did not buy as much time as she had expected it would; Fox did not stumble over excuses or introduce her friend - the answer was entirely neutral, and the ball landed back in Bazi's court again. Leaf, Magpie, the pups, Njal and Tuwawi, Jace.. there were bodies at stake, lives in the balance - and Bazi had to decide. The pressure in her chest rose. It was almost painful now. Did she want Fox at Swiftcurrent's helm?

It was Peregrine that inadvertently punctured the bubble by adding yet more variables into the mix. Bazi was having a hard enough time balancing the plates that were already spinning, and the idea that Fox could just swan off into another pre-made family made her head spin.

"Is that why you brought him? As a get-away vehicle if I said no to you?" She puffed up like a flustered cockerel, grasping for facts and finding only hot, unedited emotion. "Then no, I don't want you back! You never consult me, you buzz around the Sunspire like they're not going to retaliate, you put our wolves in danger - you created that pack when you threw the baby out with the bathwater!" Despite her best efforts, Bazi simply could not accept that booting Jace out alongside Ferdie had been a good idea. One wolf dies quickly in the wild - two wolves form a pack and live on. Her voice was high and screechy now, laced with equal parts frustration and rage. "Nobody trusts you any more! Njal and Tuwawi would sooner leave than raise a paw against that mountain - they have children now! Just.. just go with Peregrine. Go with him."

Bazi's nostrils flared like two black trumpets, and her face was so sharp and pinched that it looked like it might cave in under the strain of so many tensed muscles. No sooner had she yelled 'no' in Fox's face than doubt began to creep in. Could they have concocted a plan instead? Showed Ferdie Fox's filled-in den, retrieved their captives, and relocated elsewhere? Sensible options - always late to the party - flooded the Beta's brain as she caught her breath.