Phoenix Maplewood Rain or shine, snow or sleet.

If you've got time!

Lagging about a day behind the raiding party, Tavi felt a swell of happiness beneath her breast when she sighted the Maplewood. The rabbit haunch was still clutched in her mouth - but it had gone a little rank, unfortunately. The thought to find @Saena and present this to her was there, but that seemed like it would convey the wrong message. So instead, the girl dropped it on the ground along the outskirts of the pack, and picked the good bits off of it. The less than perfect chunks she placed carefully in a small, hastily made burrow. After covering this with a bit of soil using her snout as a shovel, she took a deep breath and began looking around for a replacement gift.

She sauntered between the trees, lingering along the western edge of the territory before choosing to delve a bit further out. Tavi headed towards the moraine -- but before she got very far, she spotted something. Something moved sharply through her vision and this caused her to react, instinct overwhelming, and she gave chase. A few minutes later, a small grouse hung loosely from her jaws. It wasn't such a grand prize - the plumage was quite bright, but the bird wasn't as plump as she'd have liked - and she sighed through it. Perhaps it would suffice.

Tavi headed back towards the packlands, crossing back over the invisible line, and began to search for the Alpha.

Saena's attempts to limber up and work her aching rib into shape were, at every turn, hindered. Her elusiveness in the previous weeks had caused the injury to heal imperfectly—though that had been guaranteed from the moment she ran with it—and now, with pups growing in her belly, it was sure to take a good deal more time. Nevertheless, when the alpha female wasn't puking up her meals, she was loping through the maplewood, steering clear of the borders but ensuring she kept moving. After an hour of warming up, she had full range of motion in her joints, and the sweep of her gait only ached if she overextended at the shoulder.

She winced as she lifted herself over a fallen log and dropped to the snowy loam on the other side, jarring her flank but refusing to falter. She pressed on, coming across Tavi's trail quite by accident, but when she caught a whiff she avidly began to follow it, unaware that she was being searched for as well. The scent of meat drifted on the air, causing the alpha's stomach to flip-flop uncomfortably, but she was keen to find the delta. Now that she was certain of her condition, she had every intention of following her gut, and her gut was telling her to find Tavi and speak with her.

She would have hiked for hours before realizing Saena was right fucking behind her, nose full of the scent of the freshly killed pheasant and the rest of her attentively zero-ed in on her task. As fate would have it, the subtle change in Saena's scent was enough to make Tavi pause; she lessened her determined pace, and even placed the bird down at her feet to take a proper whiff of the air. The sweet scent wasn't off-putting, but it was different. Tavi scrutinized that smell, realizing it was getting stronger over time -- and then Saena was right there, coming up from behind a big old tree.

There you are! The girl proclaimed, a bit exasperated by her own silliness. I was bringing you this - hastily, Tavi grabbed at the pheasant. She forgot that one of her paws was pinning it down (a habit she'd gotten in to while hanging with Ukko) and so the head of the bird was peeled cleanly away from the body. For a second it hung from her jaw by a flap of skin. Oh. Oopth. Bleh. Down it went again. Fresh blood seeped out of the body and spread about the soil. With a pitiful look down at it, Tavi tried to find the bright side.

I ran in to your sister. She says hello... And this is for you, from her. Sort of. Hopefully it wasn't ruined.

Tracking, she was still capable of doing. Hunting was a tad dangerous for any pregnant female wolf, although it had never stopped her ancestors and it probably wouldn't stop her, but her nose seemed to work about fifty times better than usual. Sometimes it was detrimental and lead directly to her throwing up whatever she'd eaten in the last four hours, but sometimes it was helpful. Finding Tavi wasn't as difficult as she'd expected.

The grey delta turned, her paw placed with care over a lump of feather and flesh, and Saena's greedy eye was drawn immediately to the bird. Her stomach rumbled with a mix of hunger and disgust and she was just deciding which it was when Tavi reached down and severed the head off the thing with a muffled "oops".

Disgust. Definitely disgust. Saena swallowed a wave of nausea and grimaced against it while her ears fell back apologetically. She opened her mouth to speak, praying that she didn't throw chunks instead, but was pleasantly interrupted by knowledge of a sister. "Younger?" she guessed, for Junior was dead and Tytonidae might've been too for all Saena knew. It wasn't a hard guess; Wildfire was the only sister she really knew anymore, and that was almost an exaggeration.

"Thanks," she murmured, projecting the thought out to Wildfire but really meaning it for Tavi for not taking the bird for herself, which is what Saena might have done if someone asked her to bring it somewhere. "I, uh... I'm not super hungry, but I'll save it. You can have some now if you'd like." She seated herself as primly as possible, then said with a shrug, "pretty sure being pregnant is worse than being sick." Tavi was the first one Saena had openly admitted it to—even Reek didn't know with the certainty that Saena, and now Tavi, did.

"I actually wanted to talk to you," she told the delta, seeking an affirmative that now was a good time before continuing.

The look which passed over Saena's pretty face made Tavi rethink the entire gift idea. Maybe she should've just given her the rabbit haunch? It hadn't amounted to much, and it seemed like a good idea to play up the message she'd had to deliver. Except now, Saena looked as if she was struggling to keep her stomach inside of her body. She squeaked out a younger? to which Tavi nodded -- assuming the small red thing had been younger just on size alone.

Tavi licked the fresh blood off of her snout while the woman spoke, doing the smile-and-nod routine; Tavi paused when the final comment popped in to her ears though. What could she want to talk about? With the headless bird forgotten for the time being, Tavi stepped over it and came casually up to Saena's side - she couldn't help but do a cursory look-over, as if the Alpha would be any different because of her pregnancy. Sure, I'm all ears. A part of Tavi hoped it wasn't some kind of baby thing, because the entire concept of extruding a living person out of your nethers really squicked her out. They weren't close enough for that kind of talk, but Tavi was still leery of how vague Saena had sounded.

A small part of Saena knew that her present idea had not been fully resolved with Reek prior to this moment, but the petite Redtail wasn't exactly well known for doing things the right way. She had a gut feeling that had little to do with the pups forming in it, and if there was anything she learned as a leader, it was that gut feelings were like premonitions. Hers were not fine-tuned to warn her of danger, but she often felt confident in decisions leaning in the other direction, and so she felt positive about this one.

"I'm gonna be kind of a useless lump soon," she said, feeling a bit of souring in the back of her mouth at the thought of being tied down, "and, well, Reek's great but he stresses out a whole lot. We were kind of hoping... well, we had chosen a beta for that reason." It may have been untrue, but in the end, it had been Saena's hope that Ukko would rise to the occasion. But rather than rising, Ukko had sunk like a stone and left not only the maplewood pack, but also his dearest friend in Tavi, behind like so much dust. "It obviously didn't pan out, but perhaps we misjudged and chose the wrong wolf."

She didn't want to utterly disrespect Ukko by telling Tavi her real thoughts, so she cleared her throat. "I was wondering if it was something you might be interested in, because I think you could be the right wolf."

Saena plunged on ahead with the conversation, and Tavi was pleased to hear it wasn't about her pups or poops or anything particularly personal. It did surprise her to hear the Alpha speak of Ukko -- even as a vagary, the boy made her jaw clench and her stomach flip and flop -- but then, swift as the thought passed through her mind, she realized what Saena was getting at. Mentally Tavi was backpedaling, and hard. It had never been her intention of getting this far with the pack. She hadn't planned on joining any packs except for the one her brother might be in, granted she could find Lex. This was all Ukko's fault, she thought, although there was a lot less bitterness within her, suddenly. Ukko was gone. He was gone. That was something Tavi had not come to terms with entirely; yet now that she stood before Saena, she realized that nothing was keeping her here but her own willpower. Ukko left, and she could've followed. But she didn't.

I.. she began, but the sound of her voice cut out abruptly, and she swallowed a lump in her throat. Tavi knew she could replace Ukko and do a better job. Right now, anyone could do a better job than him just by virtue of being present. On that, the two ladies were in agreement. Maybe, she drawled, noncommittal. Tavi still believed she wasn't really worthy of a rank of that caliber. The most she'd ever been was gamma and that was in her home pack, on her own turf and surrounded by family. It wasn't something she'd ever earned, and this... This didn't seem like something she'd tried to get. I'm sorry, I'm just surprised. That wasn't a lie, but it wasn't entirely true either; Reek had approached her with a similar line of conversation and she'd dodged it by mentioning Desna.

I totally thought that I had more time. I was going to help Desna get her skills up to snuff, and hoped you'd uh, choose her. That was the first time she'd been one-hundred-percent honest with Saena, like, ever. Aside from talking about birds. But I'll do it, if you think I can do it. Because right now Tavi doubted herself too much, and she needed someone to back her up.

Saena's expectation that Tavi would rise splendidly to the occasion was soon flattened, for rather than graciously accepting the position Saena was poised to offer her, Tavi sort of stammered over it and then deflected the attention to Desna before half-heartedly saying she would do it. Well, that wasn't at all what the alpha female was going for. The last half-hearted wolf they'd made beta had turned out to be a complete waste of time, and she wasn't overly keen to repeat that experience.

"Desna is too young yet," she shared, having thought long and hard about the young huntress and her eligibility. Saena had begun this pack at the tender age of one year, but she had also been raised by leaders, even if her parents, the alphas, had left in the end. Dante, Lasher and Blue Willow had become like parents then—the thought ached and she hastily removed it from her mind—and so she had been well-groomed. Desna's mother had been Scarlett. While Scarlett had once led a pack as well, in life, she was not the same sort of hardened wolf that Saena fancied she was. Desna, therefore, was not groomed in the same way, or so the alpha female felt.

Besides, there was no rule that she had to allow young wolves to lead just because she had led when she was young. That would break her hypocritical code.

"If you don't want to do it, that's up to you," she said gently, reminding Tavi that the choice was up to her and no one would force it on her, "but I can't think of anyone better. I know you can, if you want to. Perhaps Desna will rise to it in time, but there's no reason it can't be both of you when that day comes." Until then, Saena wanted someone to take up the position, someone she could trust to aid Reek when she herself was unable to help him lead. She wanted that someone to be Tavi.

She was right, of course. Desna was young and needed more training before she could be of any use, and that wouldn't serve as an immediate replacement for Ukko. Tavi had been the gamma back at home, she knew what to expect from her current position. The fact that Ukko couldn't handle it played a small role in Tavi's view, but not enough to discolor the position completely in her eyes. Saena's admitted belief in Tavi's ability was thought provoking for her.

I'll do it. she finally concluded, licking her lips as soon as she spoke; I know I can do better than Ukko, and I'll do my best to keep everything in order until Desna -- well, that made her sound wishy washy again. Tavi just... Wasn't sure what to do with that much power. At least with her current rank she wasn't expected to do that much. As Beta, she felt like everything would change. She had never wanted to be in power. Whether she makes it to the rank alongside me or not, I'll do it. A smile spread across her features, a bit forced, but Tavi was genuinely pleased with the promotion. She would adapt to everything as much as she could.

"Anyone could do better than him," Saena said, but before she could get irritated and launch off into a rant, she managed to rein herself in and instead revealed, "but I think you'll do much better. Like I said, I can't think of anyone else I'd rather see with it than you." And why Tavi, exactly? Saena and the gamma wolf weren't all that close with one another, but she'd seen enough of Tavi's devotion to believe the woman would rise to the occasion. She hadn't abandoned them when Ukko did despite the close bond they'd shared, and Tavi was rather down to earth, if a little bit silly, from what little Saena had seen. Desna was the only other automatic favourite for the position, and even then, it was a tie broken only by the fact Desna was too young in the alpha's eyes.

"Thank you, Tavi," she said at last with a wide grin. It felt like a weight had lifted and she could almost feel the stress peeling off her shoulders. While there was still the chance Tavi would turn out to be utterly useless, something Saena highly doubted, for now she felt safer for having a beta on hand. "I don't have any pointers," she admitted, having never been a beta herself, "but just... help Reek when I'm not able to, I guess. Otherwise... do your thing, feel free to experiment with your style." Or whatever it was that betas did.

There were different styles? That... Made things sound less scary. If Tavi could remain her silly self but police the pack, or whatever was required by a Beta, she'd be far happier. OK. I'll... Figure it out. Thank you. And she was thankful, even if her enthusiasm was dwarfed by a new feeling of awkwardness. Then she remembered the rest of Wildfire's message, and wondered if it was appropriate to bring that up now, having deviated from the topic of Saena's sister already. Oh, uh, she piped up, tail whisking at her hocks at an irregular pace, I told your sister - Wildfire - about your pregnancy. I wasn't sure how close you guys were, or weren't, as it came to be but she said congratulations. She seems.. Nice.

"Oh," said Saena, who could only vaguely remember the last time she'd seen Wildfire. "We're not close. To be honest, I'm surprised she sent a message along at all." They shared a tense bond, one that always ended with Saena wondering if making an effort was even worthwhile. She could go off the hook like Junior and try to kill the usurper of her father's attention, but a small voice of morality always reminded her that Wildfire was not Fox, and she never acted on it.

"She is nice, though," Saena agreed. There was never any reason for her to consider Wildfire mean or rude, and she seriously doubted the girl had a mean bone in her body. It was a crying shame she was so partial to her family. "Anyway," hummed the alpha female, who had nothing else to say on the subject of Wildfire, "I'm off to soak in a stream. You're welcome to come, or not, whatever you want," and she let the invitation hang in the air as she turned to go, leaving the ball in Tavi's court completely.

A smile passed over her features, but without further conversation Tavi turned from Saena's retreating figure; she watched her go for a few moments, and then decided to let the Alpha have her time alone. She gathered her wits and slipped away as well, in the opposite direction. Her mind was full of too many thoughts now - contemplating her promotion, what to expect out of it, what to do next - and before long Tavi was off on a patrol.