Blacktail Deer Plateau together we map the world

It felt like they ran forever, but eventually, they came to the dark wall that cast the whole plateau in deep shadow and stopped. The smaller pup panted hard to regain her breath and cool herself, giving Junior ample room to say whatever she wished, whether or not Saēna wanted to hear it. She was expecting, as always, to be shoved aside and blamed for what had happened.

Instead, Junior praised her. It was one of those strange moments the two occasionally had where O.J. relented her dominance and allowed her youngest sister a brief moment to enjoy the spotlight, or so it seemed to her. For a long moment, she neither said nor did anything, but merely stood there considering what had been said. Before Osprey Jr. could take it back, the mottled female took a few steps forward, hesitated, and then snaked her muzzle beneath her older sister's with appeasing licks and nibbles to her chin.

“So wh'you,” she said with genuine sincerity. Even if there were times when Saēna hated Hawkeye's eldest, and even if there were times she would happily have seen Junior gone from her life, there was real devotion there. Maybe not the kind of unconditional devotion siblings ordinarily hard, but devotion nonetheless... And if nothing else, she would prove to be dedicated to her devotion.