Redhawk Caldera Whenever you hear the wind in the canyon.

Towhee watched Meerkat play with the pups for a little while, happy to see them reunited even if it meant giving up on the search for @Phox. Even if she hadn't hurt her paw, the Sovereign would not have sent her daughter out again. He would come back or send word when he could. In the meantime, she had a litter to rear; a pack to run; a life to live. They all did.

She'd already chatted with Meerkat about it, now it was time to loop in the rest of the pack. The Sovereign tipped her head toward the clear blue sky and howled, summoning @Bronco, @Ruenna, @Reyes, @Fennec and @Sifaka for an impromptu pack meeting. She then moved to take a seat directly in front of the Hobbit Hole's doorway, keeping one eye on her children and another peeled for the rest of the pack.

When Meerkat took over watching the pups, Ruenna had opted for a trip to the lakeshore. She waded around for a little while, letting the water wash up over her back and enjoying the momentary respite from pain. Her hydrotherapy routine had fallen by the wayside during the cold months, but now that the pups were beginning to toddle around, Rue's motivation had renewed. She felt like she owed it to the kids to keep working on getting better-- they were already running circles around her. But to be fair, there were three of them. 

Rue was summoned back to the Hobbit Hole by Towhee's howl, and she transitioned back onto land a little reluctantly. This was always the worst part. One step on dry land was all it took for the pain to return, intensified by the weight of the water hanging in Rue's coat. She shook--ouch-- and then began to move at her usual trudging, limping pace. 

Rue joined Towhee outside the Hobbit Hole, offering her a smile. As they waited for the others, she busied herself by licking at her damp fur, drying it and flattening it back into place.

He had not been far from his family when the call came. Soon Reyes would make his appearance carrying a long-legged carcass; he'd found the water bird wading near the western lake (Rodney) and chased it just for fun, figuring the racy old thing would take wing and be done with him swiftly enough. Instead when it had tried to take flight there was a malfunction of some kind, causing the bird to do a ridiculous hop and then crash; he had found it easily enough after that with a broken neck, clinging to life. 

As he carried the now dead body of the bird towards the Hobbit Hole, that broken neck swung like a dippy bird and occasionally caught on low branches. Reyes hastened along after tugging it free for the upteenth time and, tossing it down like a pile of sad sticks across the mouth of the hollow, set to work cleaning the bits of feather out from between his teeth.

A few feet away sat Ruenna, doing something similar. He caught her eye and then looked to where Towhee was waiting, prowling over.

Her call reached his ears quickly, prompting him to relinquish the partially eaten bone from his maw and start into a canter. Sifaka was left guessing on how to reach the den, the best he could do was follow the lakes edge until he met a thin stream separating him from a second land mass. Reluctantly he crossed and was spit out of the trees next to Ruenna as well as another unknown male, it appeared Sifaka was third to the call and must to wait for the remaining pack members to arrive. Second thoughts about leaving the bone at his den quickly rose but Sifaka shooed those childly thoughts away and settled in for the wait.   

Fennec really thought they'd gotten away with it. Not that she'd been thinking much anyway; that was the whole problem. But lately it was becoming more and more clear something was wrong, and the occasional dizzy spell had given way to some pretty acute nausea. She hid it best she could and hadn't even brought up the subject with Bronco yet. Mostly because she refused to acknowledge it herself.

She was still feeling a little green when Towhee called a pack meeting, but Fennec huffed and began to make her way slowly towards the gathering. She'd had a premium on Bronco's company lately, but she tended to make excuses when she felt like this, so she had been taking some air on the borders. It took her a bit, but when she arrived she sat down quietly to the side, ears turning to catch everything that was being said.

Bronco's on absence but I'm gonna vaguely infer he's here so everybody can be present for the announcement.

It didn't take very long for the handful of Redhawks to gather around the Hobbit Hole's entry. As they arrived and settled, Meerkat moved nearer and took a seat to her mother's right. The Sovereign glanced over one streaked shoulder, curious if the pups had gone inside to nap. She spotted movement at the far end of the den, though the dim interior made it hard to see. She shrugged inwardly, then faced her small audience again. She would get this done quickly, before the pups cottoned on and disrupted the meeting.

"Hey guys, thanks for coming so quickly. I just wanted to get everyone together as a group to let you know that I'd like to pick at least one Regent, maybe two. I could use the help." There was room for three, though Towhee wasn't sure she could fill them all, if there was any possibility of her brother's return. Besides, two had always sufficed. "Instead of picking and choosing on my own, I thought I'd put that out there and let all of you think it over. And please do think it over, carefully, before letting me know if you're interested. I'd like to fill the position in the next couple of weeks."

She jumped a little when she finished her announcement and abruptly noticed Caracal seated beneath her left elbow. "Em cock hole!" he "introduced" with a boyish grin, then looked up to his mother for approval. But Towhee hadn't caught what he'd said; she was still recovering from her spiked heart rate, one paw clutched to her chest.

To say he' been preoccupied was an understatement- and he had some lingering guilt over not informing the Glen wolves where he'd gone, but at the same time...He couldn't really tear himself away from the life he'd finally chosen for himself. He'd been nosing his way around the lakeside when Towhee had called out- her braying voice as difficult to read as ever, though there wasn't much room to mistake the fact that she was calling the Redhawks together for a meeting. He wondered if Phox had potentially returned- but when he arrived to the Sovereign's densite, he could see quite clearly that he hadn't, yet. He took a seat by Fennec's side, brushing his shoulder lightly against hers as he did, not particularly phased by who saw them together and what assumptions they made. 

Towhee cut to the point- and it saddened him a bit to hear that she wanted them to choose amongst themselves a couple to join her in leadership. There was a hole, there, where Phox was meant to be. And even a void left behind by Niamh, though it wasn't a role that he figured any of them thought she might deserve if she did return at some point. While he had stepped up to become Antares' right-hand-man for a while, after the landslide, he hadn't exactly kept up his end of the bargain there, and he wondered if that made him less worthy of stepping up now. He felt that he knew Towhee well enough, and the nature of the pack, that he could be useful but...Was he still worthy of it? And did he even feel like he should nominate himself?

He took a moment to consider this- but when one of Towhee's children (the tawny one, with a wry look on his face) spoke up, his words caught Bronco completely by surprise and in spite of himself he laughed quite suddenly. He choked on the sound almost immediately as he tried to regain some of his composure, aware of the fact he'd likely drawn some attention to himself. He'd have to take Towhee aside later and tell her what her son had just said, and why it was so funny. He sniffed lightly and shifted his weight a bit as he collected himself, and cleared his throat. He wasn't sure if this was the time to speak up about suggestions, though Towhee had insisted that they think their suggestions over in the next couple of weeks. So he did what he could to straighten himself up a bit, and nod in response. He had a few thoughts of course- but as Towhee had said, these things were best if they were well-thought out. 

He had to avoid looking at Caracal altogether in order to avoid breaking into another fit of giggles.

assumed rounds, lmk if this messes anyone up though! This may be my last post in here depending <3

She smiled slightly when Bronco sat down next to her, one side of her mouth quirking up, but she was too preoccupied by her mom's announcement to give anything else much thought.

At any other time, Fennec would have been too adamant about her own right to take that place to keep her mouth shut at this meeting.  In fact, she might have been hurt her mom didn't just offer it to her.  She'd wanted Fig to lead, right?  Obviously she was the clear choice.  At least... until dad got back.

But now wasn't any other time, and due to... circumstances, Fennec couldn't bring herself to speak up.  Shit.  She wanted it, but as soon as her mom found out, she was in a heap of trouble.  And she was going to need to tell her eventually.

Luckily, Bronco gave her an out by laughing like a complete ass at Caracal's outburst.  Fennec gave him a nudge, but barely contained a snicker herself. 

She had some things to think about.

It sounded right to Reyes that the pack choose new leadership from within their ranks. He had no idea what it took to run a pack and had never been inclined to find out; this place was very different from what he grew up with, at any rate. Rather than talk it out the wolves of Rusalka would fight until there was one concrete victor. Tortuga was only marginally different, but it was still a brawl of some kind, there was still bloodshed. 

Reyes wasn't sure what to expect from Towhee's announcement — but then their son chimed in and laughter peppered the gathering. He shot Caracal a look and shushed him by wrapping a forearm around him, tugging him close. Trapped between his forelimbs after that, the boy would make some noises and struggle a little, but in the end his father would win and he would be placated; a little rough fun. Reyes looked around to see who had laughed. While he recognized Fennec he couldn't for the life of him remember the man's name, and told himself to find out later.

Nobody was all that eager to put their name forward immediately. That or, maybe Towhee's advisement of thinking it over really hit home. Hopefully someone would step up and assist her with running this place. It didn't even enter in to Reyes' mind to offer himself up; he had always been more of a crew mate, not a captain.

Sorry, sorry. I didn't mean to hold things up, feel free to skip unless Sifaka is talked to

Sifaka knew nothing about the majority of the wolves in the Caldera and he was far too new to be considered a choice. As much as he thought of himself a prime candidate for the position, others had more support than he did through their own actions and time spent in the pack. Before Sifaka could begin to climb their social hierarchy, he needed to prove to each he held the necessary qualities to be in a higher place of power; and that would take great quantitates of time. 

Towhee was promoting new regents? Rue could understand that Towhee needed help-- it was difficult to simultaneously run a pack and raise a pawful of rambunctious kids. But had they given up on Phox returning, possibly with Niamh and pups in tow? What if Phox came back, and his position was gone?   

Perhaps she was overly optimistic, but Rue was holding onto hope that that Phox's lingering absence might actually indicate that he was successful. Perhaps he had located Niamh and the pups, and they had to wait until the children were old enough to travel before they came home. 

There were no immediate volunteers, but Caracal took care of the awkward silence by appearing suddenly and being adorable. Ruenna was so used to hearing puppy-babble that the crude interpretation of his words flew right over her head; she assumed everyone was chuckling at the fact that the child was so cute. She smiled and thumped her tail. 

Ruenna had some ideas about who she might like to see in the vacant Regent position, but she would share them with Towhee later. She didn't want to put anyone on the spot or intimidate anyone into keeping quiet if they wished to volunteer themselves.

As she slowly recovered, Towhee noticed the others reacting to Caracal and whatever he'd said. It must've been something humorous, or perhaps they were amused by her own startled reaction. She looked down at him only to see that he'd been captured by his father. Her lips twitched into a faint smile and she shook her head.

She couldn't be entirely sure if anyone had spoken in the meantime, though that was okay. Towhee didn't want anyone to volunteer on the spot. She wanted all of them to really think it over, sleep on it and whatnot. Literally nothing about this process would be done without due diligence, as there were some pretty big shoes paw prints to fill.

"Well, that's all I have. Thanks, guys. If you wanna come talk to me about this, you know where to find me." The Sovereign waved her tail to signal the meeting was over, then moved to snatch Caracal from Reyes so she could give him a solid noogie for getting the drop on her in the middle of official pack business.

You guys can post again if you like or treat this as the conclusion; either way, I'll archive it within the week. :)