Without you, I've lost my way

*pounces*

After spending the morning hunting out on the flatlands, Koontz padded back toward the plateau with a fat groundhog tucked into her jaws. She climbed up the pathway leading to the upper plateau, then set off into the woods in search of a place to cache the meat. She located a suitable stump, lowered the carcass into it, then gathered a few fallen leaves to cover it. The Alpha female squatted to mark the spot with her urine, warding away intruders of any species from her pack's food source.

Feeling accomplished but slightly weary from her exertions, Koontz loped toward the pack's main water source, a sort of thin lake near the territory's easternmost edge. When she arrived there, she discovered that she wasn't alone. Her silver tail waved when she recognized Julooke, though it stilled a moment later and her brow furrowed when she saw the other wolf's condition. Her ears flattened somewhat as she recalled the haunting howls that echoed through the park every morning.

"Julooke, are you okay?" Koontz queried, stopping to stand near the prostrate Kappa. Intuiting the cause of Julooke's lackluster demeanor, she frowned thoughtfully and said, "I know you must miss your friends." She wanted to ask, Do you have any idea where they all went? Yet she knew it would be an insensitive question to ask. Julooke wouldn't call for her friend each and every day if she knew where he'd gone and why.

Slowly, the Alpha female lowered herself to her haunches. She didn't say anything else, letting Julooke speak if she wished. Koontz would certainly offer a listening ear. Although not as deeply affected by the wolves' departures, she nevertheless felt the effects of their mass exodus. She focused less on that, though, than on the fact that others, like Julooke and Yildun, had stuck around for her. Without them, the Dragonwatchers would have gone under. Really, it was the least she could do to sit here quietly, her presence a gesture of solidarity for the mourning she-wolf.