Hideaway Strath Garage

though jhala was not necessarily sad, she had not been herself since the move. she continued her normal duties as any packmate would, but she felt useless-- like she had nothing to do. since the grotto, jhala had grown accustomed to micro-managing everything. she was a newly born leader, and wanted control of everything. she refused to be taken advantage of ever again... but here? as a subordinate? there was nothing to control, nothing to lead. she was once again a follower, and though this time she trusted her leaders (not that she'd never trusted reek, but his moments are hiram were troubling), she felt a bit out of place.

@Reek was her only solace. in a place where she felt utterly powerless (naturally, of course), reek was her stone. his presence reminded her of life before leading, before controlling. her family was her home, and it didn't matter who she was as long as she had them.

after a particularly troubling day of patrolling, jhala sought out her mate, her ears pressed against her skull.

Is slow :P

Most of this is just rambles.

Like Jhala, Reek also found the transition from leadership to subordination difficult to get used to. However, it was not an entirely unwelcome change in his mind. For too long, Reek felt himself crushed under the weight of responsibility. He worried not only for his actual family, but also those bound by his family by proxy, by pack. Now, he found himself able to breath again. He became a better father for it, and also a better husband. A long extinguished healthy spark returned to Reek's eyes.

Teaghlaigh seemed a nice place. It's ruling couple were competent -- and better yet, their family oriented ideals aligned well with Reek's own, so he found it easy to follow them. But after paving his own way for nearly as long as he could remember, following did not come naturally. Nevertheless, Reek gave respect where it was due.

No matter what he did, whether it be stocking a new herb cache or tracking small game, Reek kept the scent of his mate close by. She sought him often, and so did he when he felt he needed support. Hearing Jhala's approach, Reek turned and smiled. "Hey!" he chirped brightly. Her expression was troubled. "Everything alright? 's on your mind?"

love some reek rambles !

when jhala saw him, he was turned the other way-- and a childish thought ran through her mind. she slunk down a bit further, but he must've smelled her before she got the chance to attack ! because he greeted her with a friendly hello and a waving tail. she straightened, sticking out her tongue and quickly padding up to nuzzle beneath his chin. "you're too aware-- bet you i coulda scared some pee outta tapat," she muttered in good-hearted, faux annoyance. she lingered for a few moments before retreating from his arms so she could better look at his face while she did her usual complaining-- surely whatever was coming was no surprise to reek. but still, jhala needed to do some venting.

"i just wanna like, i dunno, beat someone down," she said, doing a few little mock jabs with her forelimbs as she plopped down on her rump. that was probably the best way she could explain it today, but depending on her mood her usual 'i feel useless today' varied in phrasing. her nose scrunched up. "i used to be such a good subordinate... i did all my chores and felt awesome being helpful. but all my border patrols are stupid now. if someone came to the border i'd have to be like 'bleh lemme call the alpha i don't have any power cause i suck' or something like that... that sucks, dude," she then said, in a long and clearly bitter ramble. reek usually was a man of few words, which was both good and bad when jhala had problems... it gave her extra time to let all her salt seep through. she pursed her lips, ears falling again.

"why does all of this feel so lame? this used to be my favorite life," she added with a small huff, less angry this time.

After a happy little moment, Jhala started to unload. Reek settled in and listened all while secretly hoping that Jhala wouldn't direct her aforementioned beatdown toward him -- perhaps some other subordinate maybe. He hmmed along and nodded in the way folk do to show that they're actively listening. "Oh, I know," Reek wholeheartedly agreed. "This whole thing is definitely hard to get used to." It was a hard transition from being the head-honcho to the little guy again. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but Reek sometimes found himself almost falling back into old micromanage-y habits.

With a few steps forward, Reek turned to settle along the ground against Jhala's flank. "You can still boss me around all you want. You know -- If that's what you miss the most." Reek tried to keep a high spirit about it. Bruised pride aside, this was all for the good of his family. "I guess it's just easy to get used to calling the shots. I mean, I can barely remember the times when I didn't." His brow scrunched and Reek thought hard. It had been years since he had been just a subordinate, and memory faded fast.

"We could always, uh -- pull a Coup D'etat or something," joked Reek, knowing that his days of pack raiding were now behind him.

jhala smiled. still laced with defeat, it didn't hold it's usual warm, contagious feel to it, but clearly reek was doing a decent job at cheering her up. she gave him a gentle bump to the muzzle with her own, followed by a soft kiss to the nose. "well i would boss astik and tapat around, but tapat just forgets everything and astik is old enough to make his own decisions by now." she scrunched up her nose, her nose scrunching with mock agitation. "i bet he's more adulty than i am," she added-- how dare her son grow up so well-mannered and level-headed. 

"it's just... after the whole kekshit... raas.. priest hoohah or whatever his name was thing-- i dunno..." she began, in a sort of ramble, trying to explain something but not really wrapping her mind around the words. "i like leading, i like being in charge. it feels good," she said, backtracking, "but i can't ever feel as helpless as i did when all those wolves were running around-- they were going to tear us apart, reek, and i can't lose you or the boys... never."

the smile had been completely wiped clean from her face after that group of rambles. the dust settled for a moment around her before she gave a chuff at reek's second comment, eyeing him with an amused gaze. "yeah? you, me, and what army?" she replied, still goodnatured. taking a soft breath, the corners of her lips lingering in a smile, she nosed his shoulder again.