Horizon Ridge chasing the sun · pack meeting

Akhlut's grand speech ended with a brief description of jobs, which of course was mandatory in a meeting of a newly put together pack. Jinx's eyes were set already upon Warrior; it was her calling as a Kesuk and as Nanuq's daughter to fight. She would prove herself in days to come, and would one day be the pack's first offensive defender, who strode upon the borders with strength and dignity both boasted in her straight posture and her fierce bearing.

Next was the giving of gifts. Akhlut presented his first, and Jinx took the initiative second to come forth with hers... As rank dictated, she supposed, she go second. She shuffled her gifts awkwardly along the ground, and though her eyes held curiously on Pied initially, she chose Kisu first. Kisu was a friend to her, who had helped her harvest the oak bark from the woods to defend their pack with... And to him she wished no ill.

"To you I give this amulet of protection," she murmured, lifting it to set it before him. The oak was the smaller of the two, but she hoped he would not take that as a slight. "Oak guides the elements away from itself, and the leaves banish lightning and chaos. Salt for amplification." A simple explanation, but hopefully sufficient.

Next she turned to Pied, her bearing hesitant for only a moment; how would she take it? She nudged the birch branch forth, so that the catnip pressed with care into its crooked center was visible. "For you, an amulet of fertility." A less unusual wolf might have looked around themselves, uncomfortable with these presents, but she came from a land of magic and voodoo where this was customary. "Catnip, for fertility and protection in sleep. These others—cinquefoil, hensbane for vigour, bryony, birch, and salt—will all amplify the effect of the catnip." There was the small matter of catnip being bad for pregnancies (but only when ingested which she didn't know), but Jinx kept that to herself for obvious reasons.

At the conclusion of the mating ritual and the giving of gifts, she rose her head to howl with her pack, as of yet still confident of their success and strength.