Redtail Rise a valentine

The hunt lead was often gone.

Redd noticed this but said nothing.  She could not tell if it was to track the herds or because he pulled away, scouting other places, but silently she questioned.  She had never sensed the ambition that Lilia had shown.  Yet she had been gone a long time.

It disquieted her all the same.  Augur and New Snow offered something she could not - diversity of their bloodline.  Redd could not be glad if only Redtails remained.  Her children would never offer prospects for her mother’s.  She had allowed Lilia to rise, against her mother’s and brother’s wishes, in hopes she might be sated.  Her nature had demanded more.

Maybe the herds simply moved.  But she would range more for her own part, just in case the winter grew lean.

While tracking she spots Wealda and silently moves to join her, watching the scene with mild interest.  Two of them trying to prove themselves, one of them doomed to fail.  She settles down with patience that matches, and her eyes flicker towards her mother.