Redtail Rise years ago,

New Snow moved to one of her first dens, where her first children had been born. Absently she sniffed at it, knowing Bobcat had not returned—wondering if Thursdays Dawn ever would, but also having long since accepted the truth that the wilderness had devoured her. She sighed out a weary breath at nature and her savagery before she began to move to where her second litter had been born and raised. 

Different, but moved due to the location of the first being known. That and this space had, at the time, felt safer. Now New Snow sniffed at it and contemplated this. For the first time she wondered if Mountain Boulder and herself would be allowed that; Red Woman’s cubs had grown, and perhaps several of them might want cubs of their own. 

New Snow had never seen Red Woman behave unfairly—her brutality, to New Snow, was what set her atop the rest. Red Woman was only a little less aggressive than her own mother, though… perhaps not! This season would surely tell—her own mother had ousted sons and daughters to breed. 

Which was what spurred the thought. Would there be enough mouths to feed the cubs of Wealda and the cubs her children might rear, and their own? As she sniffed at the earth, seeking the scent of their wayward daughter, it now seemed to click—the reason that Mountain Boulder had scouted so many spots. 

She exhaled another heavy breath. The Caru would likely not travel to the Bloodwood to feed any but for their own, here on the Rise—presuming they themselves did not have cubs they might bring up this year! The thought warmed her; she had seen Blood Spot grow into a wonderful wolf, and thought they would make a good parent. 

She began to stride away from the den. Then and there she had no compulsion to search out a new one within the Rise, but sought company to hunt or rest with.