Redtail Rise XLV

thorn caller remained slighted.

augur understood enough spoken sounds by now to understand this.

there were no marks of red woman's now, scents to which he might gesture and indicate that she had created this hierarchy.

blacktail was the softest of them all and she had chosen him. 

there had been a redtail in leadership. sun jaw had been given it and the rise had accepted.

but he had thrown it away in the first moment he was needed as leader.

augur gazed at thorn caller. it was their lack of dominance which made them opposite the role. blacktail had remained where he was despite his preciousness to the rise and his status as sire. and it was only to that healer that augur could compare precedent. red woman chose warriors and hunters for her co-leads. why should more change in her absence? the resistance to it came from a place of instinctual anxiety, though augur could not convey this.