Sleepy Fox Hollow Monsters and monstrosities.

When the scent of a bitch in heat flooded Diaspora territory some weeks earlier, Nyx chose to withdraw. She kept mostly to herself since, keen to avoid any and all interaction with Mahler and whoever he intended to court.

Her own time had not come, and she didn't expect it to. In the previous years her cycle had begun at the heart of the season, and the only one she'd participated in had yielded a Summertime litter. A creature of habit, Nyx expected to have weeks of quiet until her own turn with Mahler came around.

She couldn't deny her anxiety of it all: fearful of a violent reaction following the birth, there was a strong possibility that she could be evicted from her home (again). There was so much to lose that at times, she wondered if a second and more prepared attempt at motherhood was a foolish idea.

Nyx roamed the hollow in search of prey, nose to the ground where she sniffed almost frantically as she picked up on something worth following.

After she'd taken her fill from the caches, Brook had taken a much-need long night of sleep. She continued to slumber well into the daylight hours, and only in the afternoon did she rouse from her dreamless state to a bright new world. It would have been nice to have hope and a new outlook on life, but Brook lacked these things. She groaned as she got to her feet, surveying her new home, which she hadn't done at all the day before.

The place looked desolate, to say the least. It seemed fitting for her current emotional and physical state. She had eaten so much yesterday that her belly was now ballooning out to the sides while her ribcage remained narrow. To the untrained eye, she might even look as though she were carrying a litter. Lucky for Lakshmi, she wasn't of the age where such a thing could befall her.

Although the task she had been given was to find elk, Brook was immediately sidetracked by the sight of a wolf roaming not far from where she'd previously been sleeping. For all her time spent in Tortuga, watching wolves come and go, Brook had never really learned how to approach others in a manner other than awkward. Jogging toward the other wolf—and feeling her belly bounce up and down—Lakshmi wore a neutral expression. Um, hi. I'm new here. My name's Brook. Wasn't this what she was supposed to do? Introduce herself to her new crew-mates?

The scent, she realised, was an old one. Nyx huffed through her nostrils and lifted her to carry on, to continue her search elsewhere, when the approach of a young stranger caught her attention. Her tail straightened at her rear and raven-tipped ears sprung forward, curious as she tested the air, though relaxed upon realising that she belonged to Diaspora.

Brook. A pretty name, but Nyx couldn't look beyond her age. She was incredibly young, with a childish softness to her features; where had Mahler found her, she wondered.

"I'm Nyx," she responded simply, "are your family here with you?" She hoped so. Diaspora could use able-bodied wolves to pad their ranks and better support the cubs that would come with Springtime.

As soon as the words left her mouth, Brook wondered if she shouldn't turn around and go the other way. The way the woman looked at her, making some kind of judgment, was enough to quash whatever good feelings she'd had with her full stomach. Suddenly, the young girl felt selfish and stupid for eating without immediately giving anything back. Surely she would be caught and punished—or worse: kicked out of Diaspora entirely.

Nyx asked if her family was here, and Brook shook her head. No ma'am, just me. Her gaze was downward, not wishing to be even the slightest of threats. She felt the itch again to flee, perhaps flee the pack itself, but she stayed rooted to the ground, ready for whatever punishment was about to be doled out to her.