Sunbeam Lair i have become death, the destroyer of worlds

the way she tells him that she's helping to lead a pack in 'the valley' — salvatore isn't entirely sure where that exactly is — but expects that a 'but' is following closely behind; he's not wrong as she speaks next. but i don't want to raise a family there. an odd thing to admit, he thinks, especially of a leader. though there is a soft furrow between brows scarred and immaculate he doesn't pry. he draws salmon pink tongue against his leg and paw once more and leans his shoulders against the cool cavern wall, back legs tucking close. why else other than a bad situation would a leader of a pack not want to raise a family in said pack?

still, even with that acknowledgment it seems a bit strange to him. she is a leader. if something happening there isn't sitting well with her then she has the power to change it; but he knows from his mother's and the loch's situation that, that was always easier said than done. anyone brave enough to rise against the tyrant king had met swift death.

her question draws him from his train of thoughts, ears cupping forth. ❝a place in the far north along the coast. whalebone loch.❞ named for the skeletal remains of beached whales that fed the packs during the harshest months of winter for generations or so the surviving elders had told him and frankie in the dark of night when the tyrant went to bed with his concubines. ❝she is,❞ salvatore agrees. ❝the wolves of the loch don't give her enough credit. a lot of them think her of as...odd i guess, because when she first arrived in the loch she had a baby raccoon she cared for as if she were a cub. my sister, frankie, is named after her.❞ salvatore admits. ❝the raccoon, i mean.❞ he tries many times to imagine it but can't seem to quite conjure the image of stitch arriving in town with a raccoon on her back. probably because she stopped fostering and raising woodland creatures in exchange for her own children.