Shadewood all the saints of notre dame

She’d always loved the place where she’d been born and raised, though it had taken leaving Redtail Rise for Masquerade to truly understand just what it meant to her. For the first time in her life, she could choose it. And she was on the verge of doing just that over breakfast of days-old venison, her appetite suddenly fleeing as she worked up the nerve to break the news to @Riley.

As she chewed her final mouthful and tried to swallow it past the sudden lump in her throat, she gazed at the top of his bent head. Masque didn’t often speculate about their offspring, especially lately, but suddenly her imagination ran rampant with images of young wolf cubs, brownish gray with little red faces. She pictured them running after their father through dappled woods, with Masque herself bringing up the rear.

She choked suddenly. She pawed at her mouth, though luckily the hunk of meat came up easily and she managed to spit it on the ground without further complication. Masque recovered with a few deep breaths and shot Riley a reassuring look, though a strange expression lingered on her red face. She swallowed convulsively, both her spit and her words.

A while later, she wended through the woods, eyes sharp and nares twitching. Above the interlocking tree branches overhead, the sky was patchy. It looked as though it might snow. But every so often, Masque caught a fleeting glimpse of a winter sunbeam arcing between endless rows of stately elms and oaks.