Emberwood carolina

The woman who approached was not pack.  Yet in this moment, there was no urge to drive her from here.  The pack that she now ran with held no claim in this place.

Above that, she was not Wealda.  None knew her as heir, as blood, as kin, or even as Redd.  No ghosts or shadows obscured her.  She was no one.  Only one of them.

It was a freedom unfelt since before her mother’s death.  And in other ways unknown all her life.

There was not much meaning she could glean from the statement but she let the words hang, unchallenged, as she turned to stare at the stranger.  She carried the stars in her pelt. Perhaps this was why she spoke like them.

She could ask who the woman was and why she was here.  Who the scents she carried were, how far she had traveled to be among them.  None of these felt necessary.  After a moment’s appraisal, Redd’s attention turned back to the sky, her tail giving a light twitch behind her.  It was neither invitation nor a dismissal.  The woman was free to do as she wished.