Arrow Lake she's intimidating and brooding

it was strange, blodreina thinks, waking up in a new place where the only wolves she knows are the little bit of kru that'd gone with them. this morning, her eyes burn with unshed tears because she is wanlida and she doesn't cry; but there is an overwhelming rise of homesickness that is followed very closely by morning sickness ...but dragoncrest cliffs wasn't her home anymore. it stopped being her home when heda'd committed suicide and left them there: commanderless; and the new heda that rose to take her place would never be blodreina's commander. plain and simple. and maybe, she thinks, those are thoughts that would surely paint her as natrona. so let her be a traitor, then. she no longer feared the word. it wasn't like drageda'd ever followed their ways anyway so what did their version of natrona mean to her? nothing.

she stretches and winces as she realizes that her body is growing more tender. sort of like the soreness of muscles after a rigorous spar except ...different. it's a subtle difference yet felt keenly. her body is trained for war ...but it is not yet trained for child growing. it's all new to her body ...all new to her. her chosen resting place near the lake is not quiet and that is why she's chosen it. she can't stand quiet nor being trapped underground though she knows that when it comes close to give birth she will have to swallow her claustrophobia as she has time and time before to ensure the life within her womb is warm and protected ...but until that time she is stubborn and refuses sanctuary beneath the surface.

the morning is chilly, the sun peeking through the thick clouds that move to quickly obscure it and she pushes herself to her paws, stretching again. it's a few feet to the banks of the lake and she takes a long drink that is followed by her leftovers from the previous night — the fox isn't much but it's enough to sate her hunger for the time being though she finds she is often hungry more than she is not hungry these days. she will hunt again later, she thinks, after she's done a bit of patrolling. it is a familiar routine and in the face of diversity of everything she's ever known she is clings to anything familiar with ferocity.