Swiftcurrent Creek please say you love me · pack meeting

Second round ends Monday 11th, but it would be great if we could all post again before that. :)

No-one spoke up for or against her decisions, nor did they contest her claim to top spot - and who else was there? Bazi had served as the pack's Beta for longer than most of these wolves had lived at the Creek, save for Tuwawi and Njal, and the latter had already stepped down from leadership once to care for his children. It wasn't out of spite or mistrust that she exclude the mountain and his fire from her nominees now, but the foreboding sense that something was about to burst.

And it did.

Njal started to say Danica's name when Tuwawi interrupted. "Njal and I intend to leave the creek." Whatever she said after that barely registered - Bazi only heard static. She stared vacantly at the two wolves, as if the announcement was still in a queue of inputs to be processed and measured. For a few glorious seconds, she felt light.

Slowly, the repercussions began to rise around her, like flecks of hot ash from a distant firestorm. She would lose Tuwawi and Njal. She would lose the pups - Swiftcurrent's very first brood, born and raised to love the land and its inhabitants. The tender roots that those children represented would be transplanted elsewhere, and and Swiftcurrent Creek would become naught but a fondly remembered starting point. Somewhere beyond the noise and lights of this future under construction, Bazi heard Scimitar's deep voice.

"Where will you go? And how will you move the pups?"

It was either a happy coincidence, or he had somehow sensed her need. She sat stock-still, struggling hard to re-focus her vision on Tuwawi and not the hole she would soon leave in the pack's hierarchy and Bazi's heart.