Bearclaw Valley No More.

Set after Leo left Bearclaw Valley, all welcome!

After the moment that she watched Leo and Lusa go Scarlett was quick to turn around and rush down the boulder path. Her eyes slowly blurred her vision because tears were welling up. She loved that pup like her own son and now he was gone! Bet Xan would be ecstatic with the news. Scarlett was in misery. Yes, five pups were a lot to take care of but she loved it. She loved being a mother and she hadn't expected Leo's mother to come to their borders and demand him back. And she had to be her stupid honest self! She couldn't be selfish and she hated that. If she would have lied about the fact their found her son then they would still have Leo.

The fact that she lost a baby that wasn't hers and that she was a bit mad of herself for being a good wolf she was Scarlett started to sniffle. She slumped down in the high grass, not feeling the want of carrying her body any step further. She just wanted to lay down and mourn her loss. She was always so nice?! Why couldn't she just be selfish for once?! She could be more tough. She had to much empathy for others and it bugged her. Now her sad tears turned to more angry tears. Never again was she going to adopt a strangers kid. First Néa left her and now Leo. She had even fed him his milk, that was how tiny he was! That Lusa could rot in her dark forest. Scarlett didn't feel like she was a good mother at all. She hated that Leo had to deal with her. Poor boy. The only adopted pup that stayed was Adlartok. But-- No more. She was fed up with having to say goodbye.

This was the furthest Nanook had ever wandered from the rendezvous by herself, and she met everything with a wide-eyed stare. Every rock and swaying leaf, the little bugs that buzzed around her. She leapt and snapped at one, but the flying thing zipped away and her teeth clicked on air. Nanook scowled when she hit the ground, but the bug was quickly forgotten in favour of a new thing. Her gaze darted skyward again.

She'd seen clouds of all sizes before, but always fluffy and round. These ones were different, and Nanook couldn't take her eyes away. Row upon row stretched across the sky, like someone had twisted up their cotton fluff and lined them up. Or like someone had scored their claws through their huge fluffy bodies and had only left shreds behind. Or like a ton of wiggly worms, or super long tails -

Transfixed by the sky, Nanook ambled on, oblivious to the shift in terrain, the lengthening of the grass. The white giants of the sky had her mesmerized with questions and silly theories, so much so that she failed to notice the white giant on the ground. Oof! Nanook slammed sideways against her mother's back and ricocheted. She stumbled over her paws and landed on her side with a thump on the grassy ground. A burst of dust buffed around her, and Nanook blinked in a daze. She gave a rapid shake of her head, mind still partly in the clouds.

Nookie <3

Scarlett was so absorbed in her mind that she was quite startled by her own daughter. Her eyes were watery as she turned to look at the little rebel. She smiled through her tears and she then licked over her daughter. Scarlett curled around her and nuzzled her close. She kept sniffling softly because she was sad and angry at the same time. Somehow she couldn't stop those tears. She cuddled into her daughter, it helped. She lifted her head and looked at the beautiful little girl. "Are you looking at the clouds?," she asked, trying to see what Nanook was wondering about to distract her mind.

The red eyed female liked to think giving Leo up was for the best. He would have his own mother and his sister again. It was probably more quiet in those dark woods, and darker. She shuddered because she herself didn't want to live there. She wouldn't even want to have a baby there. She tried to dry her tears more. Just because it was kind of silly to cry about a pup, right?

<3 Sorry for taking forever, I spent the last two weeks applying to school and moving into a dorm, so there's that xD Just getting back into the swing of writing again.

The rough press of a tongue jerked Nanook out of her daze. Before she could respond, the ground scooted out from beneath her and the heat of mama's fur blocked whatever breeze the air carried. Nanook squirmed at the sudden loss of freedom, but mama held her tightly. A sniffling sounded over the silence, and noise that made the grey girl still.

Her siblings made those noises when they were hurt, Nanook knew that. Mama was crying, but the thought only made the grey girl furrowed her brow, because mama's weren't supposed to cry.

She twisted in her hold. Though she pushed her fur in the wrong direction, Nanook didn't think on that. Rather, she fixed Scarlett with a pinched look and a frown. Mama smiled, but she didn't look happy. Her eyes swam with something else, and her strange behaviour pushed the clouds from Nanook's mind, at least for the moment.

Nanook merely nodded in response to mama's question. "Hurt?" Only her siblings had acted this way before, and every time they had, they'd been hurt. So something must have hurt mama, though her frown only thickened at the thought.

Not to worry, M'dear <3

Scarlett sniffled softly and then turned her muzzle to Nanook that seemed worried about her. She was a sweet girl. She licked over her cheek. "Mommy is not hurt, just sad," she admitted and looked at her daughter. She wondered if Nanook would understand. She was a smart girl so Scarlett decided to let her know. "Leo's mommy came to pick him up," she explained. "Leo is gone." Scarlett disliked to think about the fact that the dark pack would raise him. Scarlett was not certain that such a dark pack could raise their children well. Raziel had hated the spiderlings and apparently Arthur did too.

Scarlett sighed softly and then cuddled Nanook close. "I just didn't think I would lose him," she spoke softly. "But luckily I have you and your siblings," she added and licked her again. It was just though for the mother to lose a pup that she saw as her own.

The pinch in Nanook's brow never wavered. Leo was gone? The young girl had never been close to the boy. Quite honestly, she'd never payed him much attention at all. He was just another change that had come with the flood, like moving from the den to Raziel's. He'd never been her brother - yet somehow, the understanding that mama had never been his mama was a new thought for her. "But you're mommy." And as far as Nanook was concerned, Scarlett was the only mommy in the world.

Mama's words that followed brought a tilt to Nanook's head. "But Leo's not lost." Though muted, her conviction held firm. She didn't understand what mama was saying, how she could know where Leo was but not know at the same time. If Leo was with his mommy - which was impossible, because Scarlett was the only mommy in the world - then he wasn't lost, right?

Scarlett looked at her daughter who was clearly confused. It was cute to see but the mother would try and explain what was going on better so the child would understand. "I'm your mommy, yes," she spoke with a nod of her head. "A female will become a mother or mommy when she has babies. Cute little babies like you. There are a lot of mother wolves, and they are all mommies. I'm a mommy too, and your mommy," Scarlett spoke kindly on her warm tone. If she thought about Lusa's tone... it was nothing compared to hers. Scarlett looked at her daughter and smiled sadly.

"Leo is not lost no. But I meant that we lost him as a family member. He lives in another pack now, far away. Maybe once he is big he will return to us," she spoke with a soft sigh at the end. "I don't know. Maybe the wouldn't because they made him mean. Leo's new pack isn't nice." How was she going to explain that? Well she wasn't going to tell her innocent daughter about Black Feather and how they tried to train spies and assassins. Nope.

"Oh." Mama's explanation made sense, she guessed, but if there were so many mommies in the world, why was mama the only one around? Where were the others? Her face remained perplexed, and she kept her gaze fixed on mama's face. "Can I be a mommy?" She had only begun to notice the similarities between she and her sisters beyond the fact that they were wolves. She and Sesi and Desna were like mama, and Xan was like papa. So if mama could be a mother, then that must mean she could be one, too, though she didn't quite know what to think of that.

Mama satisfied her confusion on Leo, but Nanook didn't think she liked the idea of him coming back if he was mean. That meant he would try to steal her food like Desna, or give her funny looks like Xan. Nanook didn't want any more of that, so she shook her head firmly from side to side. "No. No. Leo stays away." She knew well what she meant by that. If Leo was mean, then he couldn't come back, and she was certain mama would understand.

Nanook looked so adorably confused when she started about mommies. Scarlett chuckled when Nanook made that comment. "Maybe one day," she offered. "You will have to be all full grown for that to even happen. The mother laughed softly and licked over her cheek. She seemed more like a thinker than a chatty wolf like Desna, it was fun to see their personalities developing. Scarlett looked at Nanook, feeling so proud that she looked so wise while she was thinking things over. She didn't mind the silence.

Scarlett looked a bit surprised when Nanook said that. But she could only agree to that. "If he is mean I hope he doesn't return either," she spoke. Since she wouldn't want him to hurt anyone, though she doubted if they would do that. "Leo stays away," she spoke then to calm her down. She also wasn't going to accept Leo straight away. He would have to join them officially yet she wasn't sure if she wanted that after his time in Black Feather, basically the young pup would be ruined.

Nanook squirmed as mama rasped her tongue across her cheek. Why was she laughing at her? She hadn't said anything funny. A frown etched her face, and too many questions filled her mind. What about Xan, would he have babies, too? He was different than her - not a girl. But papa was different than her, and he had babies. But he was a papa, not a mama, so maybe that was what Xan would be, too.

But mama's quiet chuckling made her grow silent, and she saved her questions for another day. Instead she nodded along with mama's promise to keep Leo away, all too pleased with mama's willing agreement. "Good," she said with a firm and final nod of her head. For all she knew, Leo's mama was the storm that had washed away their first home. It was after the flood he'd shown up, after all, and it made sense, because the flood hadn't been nice to them. That sounded a lot like the mommy mama talked about, didn't it? "If Leo stayed, the water'd come again," she said sagely. After all, she knew if she was lost, mama would come after her, too.

Shall we wrap this up? :3 Edit; changing post since it is old and can be archived.

Scarlett was surprised how smart Nanook was to lay a connection between Leo and the water. Some might not even realized that. She often had those little surprises with Nanook. She was going to grow in a fine and sharp young lady. That was all she could say. She nuzzled against Nanook. She was glad she still had her daughter. "Thank you for making me feel better," she spoke. She knew Nanook never had been a cuddler but she was still trying to.

Scarlett pushed herself in a sitting position. "Lets forget about Leo. We are together, and I have nothing to do. Let us go to the den," she spoke. Hopefully this would have settled the matter and if the girl had more questions about the matter then she would be open for it.