Ouroboros Spine sure would like some sweet company

How poignant, that Kukutux had been so close with her mother in life that they continued to speak now, even after she was gone. 

"She must have been very wise," Rue noted. If only the memory of her own mother could provide such direction! Avis Redfern had been kindhearted and loyal, but also a rather timid and self-effacing-- perhaps exactly what Rue herself would have become, had she stayed behind in Redfern Grove. 

"Freedom?" Rue echoed thoughtfully, taking a moment to consider. She had always considered the search for freedom to belong exclusively to young wolves, because the older she grew, the more she found herself enthusiastically sacrificing her freedoms for the things that were more important. 

"I suppose," Ruenna concluded. "I have more liberties, but also more responsibility. So who's to say whether that really amounts to more freedom or not?" It was a habit of Ruenna's to divert personal questions with philosophy, in an attempt to avoid answering honestly. When she caught herself doing it, she tried her answer again, knowing Kukutux deserved better from her than equivocal philosophizing. 

"In Redhawk Caldera, being a leader is not quite the same as being a Redhawk. Those who are named Redhawk.. they are the ones who are most free." It felt a little slimy to speak critically of her home pack to the leader of another, and Ruenna fell into a ponderous silence. Ruenna wondered if this was a reality she would be able to change, herself being the only wolf in quite some time to hold a leadership rank who was not named Redhawk by birth or marriage.