Wapun Meadow Slow, I'm getting up

Rue hung onto Liri's every word, savoring the sound of her beloved alpha's voice. Liri emitted just a few precious words before she fell silent, gaze glassing over as she was drawn into the depths of a memory. Rue waited patiently, suppressing the urge to whine in concern. Finally, Liri emerged from her memory with a single utterance: the caves. 

Rue's eyes widened. She had done some cursory exploration of the Door, but all of the routes she had traveled had promptly led her to dead ends. She had always just assumed that all the routes within the cave were fairly shallow, but she could certainly see how picking the wrong route could have a wolf twisting and turning deep into the mountainside. Rue shuddered as she imagined what Liri must have experienced, sick and terrified and stumbling on and on through oppressive darkness. 

Liri wished for death aloud, and Rue moved forward to nudge comfortingly against Liri's shoulder. She did this to console the former alpha, but also to hide the look of pain and guilt that she could feel settling upon her countenance. If Rue had only thought to look a little harder in the Door, if Rue had only stayed a little longer after the coyote attack... all of this heartache could have been avoided. The three of them-- Kavik, Liri, and Rue-- might all be living happily together somewhere, making plans to welcome pups and restart their pack in a new location. 

The questions tumbled out of Liri's mouth, and all Rue could do was shake her head. They were the same questions that plagued her own mind. How could Kavik have done this to Liri? To all of them? How could he? 

"You are not so easily replaced, Liri." The words came out more forcefully than Rue had intended-- a stark contrast to her usual soft, retiring tones.  "He could try for a hundred years, and never find a partner worth half of you." At the sight of tears welling in her friend's eyes, Rue's own eyes also filled. They felt different than her usual tears though-- hotter, angrier. "For what he's done, he will have to replace both of us," Rue murmurred bitterly, pressing her muzzle once more into Liri's shoulder. Learning of Kavik's indiscretions had been the last straw for Rue. Once she knew of Kavik's betrayal, the lands he ruled had no longer felt like home to Rue.