Blacktail Deer Plateau PACKTIVITY — Then the quiet explosion

Osprey was still rubbing her head and snickering despite herself when her dad began to address the pack. She could feel the rumble of his deep voice against her back; it was soothing. He began by welcoming her home, then calling attention to Hawkeye's and Saēna's roles in her return. Junior beamed at the audience, punctuating Peregrine's words with a loud, "Yaaay for mama and Saēna! Hey, that rhymes!" After the goose attack of yore and, more recently, Saēna's part in the confrontation with the cougar, the last of Junior's antagonistic attitude toward her younger sister seemed to have vanished into the ether.

"His word is law!" she echoed her father as he finished, unaware of the weight of his words and, particularly, their possible effect on her mother. Aside from Fox's coloration, she really didn't care what the adults did or who shared her father's affections. Love simply wasn't a finite resource in Osprey Jr.'s experience and she had never been particularly prone to jealousy herself.