Hushed Willows my heart is my armor

Tiny reference of the oncoming BWP. Open to anyone of course!

Since experiencing her first bout of false contractions, Tavi had been excessively paranoid about herself and the health of her unborn. She did not leave Warbone's side - or rather he refused to budge from her's - until the morning after that past event; then, in the days to come, Tavi began to scour the lands for a suitable place to hide within. She did not recognize the pull of instinct or the obsessive quality that biological need warranted. All she knew was, she didn't feel safe. She wasn't safe, and things were going to happen soon.

Today, Tavi had left behind the tree where she had been spending all her nights. She did not seek out the Crook where the bulk of the pack casually lingered and slept, but rather she delved beyond them. The trees swayed overhead, their long strands of sagging branches keeping her well hidden. Tavi found a few caches - and other spots which could serve as emergency caches - but her intent was not to hunt nor to eat; she paused a number of times and snuffled at the soil or tested it with her sore paws, but never lingered long. Nothing seemed suitable for her whelping den, and she was growing desperate.

As she drifted out from the shadows of the willows, Tavi paused. She heard something strange in the air that made no sense to her - something utterly alien - and looked out across the landscape to the north. There was nothing in the air but a subtle darkness on the horizon, and she promptly ignored it. It was probably just a spring storm on the way. Nothing to worry about, she mused to herself, and then turned back in among the tree line. Had she lingered a moment longer, she'd have noticed the larger-than-normal grasshopper leap to take its place where her paws once stood. In the next moment it was gone, and she was none the wiser.

Just realized they haven't interacted at all

Kunik slept fitfully the night before, a strange sense of foreboding deep in her bones. It was rarely wrong, the strength of her dread leading her to be worried. She was up before many of the others, rising from where she chose to sleep close to the other females and far from the scoundrel called Trick.

Leaving the Crook, she found herself eyeing the sky with worry, the storm clouds in the distance just didn't seem right. Something was off she just didn't know what. 

Spotting the woman called Octavia, she made her way to her cautiously. Octavia was like to be moody or snappish from her advancing pregnancy and Kunik did not wish to set off a soon to be mother's ire. Just as she opened her mouth to speak, she happened to glance past Octavia and spot the brightly colored insect that closely resembled a grasshopper.

Before it could leap away, Kunik pounced. She squished it with a slight crunch, examining the dead bug closely. Glancing at Octavia worriedly she gestured to the Crook, the swarm moving closer on the horizon. "Go, quickly!"

She was not aware of the other wolf nearby, having been so preoccupied with her hunt. And then there was a scuffle behind her. Tavi turned sharply to witness the tawny wolf chowing down upon something, and her brow furrowed. She thought of Reek, remembering the nickname she had once fondly given him - but the connection vanished swiftly as the stranger made to order her about. 

Go? she murmured, turning to look out at the storm cloud as it approached, but she didn't move. There was work for her to do, and time was running out. Why run from some bad weather? Tavi snorted softly and shook her head, ears falling back against it. I can't, I have too much to do. Her babies were not going to be born in the Crook surrounded by strangers, she wouldn't allow it. Instead of heeding the other girl's words, Tavi began to march beyond them, leaving them to chew at whatever critter they had pounced.

Kunik rolled her eyes at the woman's superiority. She was no one to Kunik, certainly not her Alpha. Octavia may think she was big shit wherever she came from but here she was just a pregnant refugee. Kunik shook her head in disdain as she moved away.

"Fine, smother in a swarm. I'm going back to the Crook." She didn't wait to see what the she wolf would do, moving to take shelter in the central den.

Whatever superiority Tavi was exuding, it wasn't on purpose. She had a mission set in her mind and she wasn't about to let anything get in the way of it. Not other wolves, not her own biology (as she felt the need to pee welling in her gut, for the upteenth time today) and certainly not a swarm of bugs that had barely begun to touch down upon the territory. There was some time. Her insistence - that she avoid birthing her babies in the heart of the Keep, in the damn Crook, which in her mind would shift her future children's belonging from Reek to Warbone — that feeling was so overwhelming that Tavi didn't even notice the other woman's comment, and took off as soon as she had turned away. Tavi was intent on finding somewhere safe, and would dig out a whelping den if she couldn't. Not even this mess of bugs could stop her from such an important task.