Sun Mote Copse Let this moment be the first chapter: where you decide to stay

With her mind swimming, Niamh had pushed herself back into her usual duty of patrolling almost mindlessly as a means of distracting herself. Would she ask Bronco how he felt? And how did she still feel? She tried not to dwell on it too much...But in the end, she ended up dwelling on her thoughts for hours, moping about and more or less avoiding the others in the pack. Bronco was currently avoiding her because they'd had the talk and he probably was trying to get as far as possible from her so that he didn't have to think about how he and Nellie came to be. At least that made one thing easier in her life- she didn't have to avoid someone who was avoiding her. 

But when she heard a voice call from the borders, it wasn't one she recognized immediately, as it had changed, but the fur along her spine prickled, and for a moment, she staggered sideways. Had she heard it? Had she heard her daughter's voice? She waited for a moment for perhaps another call to ring out, to prove to her that she'd heard what she thought she heard...But she heard nothing. She waited for a moment, but she couldn't just turn away from the possibility that her daughter had returned, could she?

...But she hadn't slept. And she didn't really recognize the voice. She half-convinced herself that she'd heard nothing at all, but she couldn't be a sergeant-at-arms who ignored a call from the borders, even if she did think it might've been a trick of her mind. She was patrolling anyway- so she didn't race to meet Nellie, she simply continued along her patrol at her usual pace, until she caught sight of a wisp of gold in the distance. 

She'd convinced herself by then, of course, that she had imagined that it was Nellie- but seeing a wolf with her colour- save for perhaps a slightly darker, more reddish tinge to her dorsal stripe- on the borders made Niamh stagger slightly again. She bolted toward the stranger, eyes fastened upon the youthful, blonde figurine at the border, before she came sliding to a halt with her ears pricked and tail flagging over her back- as though to warn off this possible spectre that she was in no mood for mindgames. She reached out tentatively, silently, her eyes still stern and teeth lightly bared in warning- yearning to touch the tip of her nose to the golden girl's...Just for proof that she was real.