Dragoncrest Cliffs is the fairest thing on the black earth,

She wasn't prepared to hear that her Maman wanted her to take on a leadership position. Perhaps this was merely a thought about the distant future, or perhaps it was simply something she was saying to calm Chacal's spite, but it took her by surprise to hear such a suggestion after having been denied a place in the first round of wolves chosen to participate in the Seafoam Run. Chacal found it difficult to recover from that sort of whiplash. Perhaps she simply was so surprised by the idea of ever being a leader that she hadn't noticed that Erzulie had suggested that there was a catch- she could only be a leader when she was able to be one. Clearly, Njord was. 

But he had been in the running, and she hadn't. And it didn't feel right for the decision to be changed so hastily to include all wolves, after delivering such an insulting blow to her ego when her brother was deemed fit but she was not. She also failed to see what swimming out into the ocean and back had to do with being responsible enough to join the leadership. Was it physical strength that they wanted to see? Because she was small, and she was fleet on land- but against such strong currents, she might never have a shot simply because she wasn't as strong. She wanted to ask her mother why Njord was more qualified than Valravn, simply because he was a better swimmer- but she didn't have the words, and that frustrated her. Her expression darkened. For all her mother said about the process being fair, Chacal felt she was finding plenty of things about the whole affair that weren't fair at all. 

Her display on the beach apparently hadn't been clear enough though she should have considered that had she chosen to participate, she would have been clearly indicating that she wanted to be in the running for the leadership of the pack. She considered for a moment, ruefully, that she might have made a mistake in choosing not to participate, though when she thought for a moment about Valravn...She felt more comfortable choosing solidarity over her own ambitious goals. 

She tried to speak again, but her words were jumbled and tumbled together, which made her growl softly. There was so much she wanted to say, but it wouldn't work. How could she say whatever this 'silent word' was if she couldn't even make a loud one that made sense? She wanted to challenge the notion of using a swimming competition as a means of determining a wolf's potential to lead, and she wanted to vouch for Valravn. She wanted to make it clear that she wanted to be considered important, and that she wanted to seize her opportunities, but not when it wasn't a fair playing field for all. She tried once more only to fail, with only one soft syllable of "Rav" being somewhat indicative of what was on her mind...But it could have just as easily been lost with the other nonsense. She fell silent and stared at the ground. Her brain was cruel.