Grouse Thicket tossed salad and scrambled eggs

@Fire!

Her heat was due any day now. She knew this not only because it was getting to be about That Time -- she had, after all, gone into season about this time last year -- but also because her moods were beginning to swing all over the place. And also whenever she saw Quixote, all she could think of was eggplants. >_> So she knew it was coming any time now, and with that knowledge in her mind, she had decided to take some time to herself today to do some thinking.

What had begun as an ordinary patrol had eventually led to her leaving the packlands altogether and wandering the familiar scenery of Grouse Thicket. The Redhawks' long-held hunting grounds were a refuge to her, with their dark, overgrown woods cut through by wending, labyrinthine pathways worn permanently into the landscape by the movement of wolves and game alike. The plateau had always been a bit too bare and exposed for her liking, and she found a sense of solitude and safety in these thick trees that she couldn't get at home. It was a perfect place to think, and she was doing a lot of that today. With estrus imminent, were she and Quixote to bear another batch of pups? Should they? There was already Camilla's litter to support, and with all the females in the pack essentially coming into heat at the same time, there was every possibility that more might be showing up in a few months. She didn't want to spread the pack's resources too thin.

But then again, she and Qui were the alpha pair. Well...sort of. She would be resuming her post beside him soon, but that was beside the point. It was expected of them, was it not? If any mated pair in the pack should be breeding, it was them. So why was she worrying so much about this? She hadn't talked to Qui about any of this yet, of course, but she should probably do that soon...

She had come around a particularly thick, brambly copse of trees, where there lay a rare clearing in the midst of the dense brush and hovering tree boughs, when a vibrant flash of color abruptly caught her attention. Familiar shades of sunset and gold draped the form of a wolf she had thought long gone...until now. She stopped dead in her tracks, a look of disbelief plain on her face as she stared silently for a few long seconds. When she finally found her voice, it came out hushed and dry: "...Ceara?"