Broken Antler Fen stop time

A lot was happening, but the center of Eljay's life was his family, where he spent every moment that he didn't need to spend on tending to the rest of the pack's lives. It was this family — his family — he realised the other day. The pack. Teya and Bridget, and now Izumi (and presumably Reyes) were the only ones that weren't a part of the pups, but he considered them family nonetheless. It was the concept of the pack, of course, but it was more than that; it was a feeling, too. He felt as though Teya was like a daughter to him. Perhaps because of her age, and because she had needed him to be there so much through her grief. Perhaps it was something else. He couldn't quite tell. Bridget was different, but she was like the warden of the family; the loyal guardian who was there for the family through it all. He and Maia, and the five children, they were all the rest that the family consisted of, and so it was perhaps not so unreasonable or selfish to see this family — his family — as the core of the pack. As Brecheliant.

Something worried Eljay, and though he had kept it to himself to think it over for a few days, now Eljay decided that he needed to say it. Maia? he asked gently from the den's entrance, hoping that she was awake and that none of the pups were. He wanted to ask her. About life. But mostly, about how she felt as a leader. He wanted her to be here, but he wasn't so sure that she wanted it, too.

for @Maia, if you have time <3