Sun Mote Copse among the trees

@Wraen 

Heskja wandered among the trees of this forested area in awe and fear. Having grown up in the tundra of Alaska, she was unused to trees, even with as much traveling as she’d done recently. Of course, it had been stupid to leave the safety of her birth pack in winter, but enough was enough. She was tired of living under the domain of her alphas, so she’d decided not to stick around and wait for spring. She’d rather die out here of exposure in a foreign land than have to live with those damned wolves any longer. Unfortunately, leaving when she had meant she needed to find a new pack to stay with at least til the spring, if not longer—as long as her new leaders weren’t terrible, that is. And so here she was, standing at the edge of a claimed territory, nervously working up the courage to call for whoever owned this place.

Eventually, she tilted her head back and gave a low howl. Afterwards, she sat down, tail curled around her body with nerves. She hadn’t come all this way just to be pushed around again, so if whoever answered her call ended up being an asshole, she’d have to leave. Leave and risk dying of exposure and starvation… She grimaced at the thought, wondering if, either way, she should at least stick it out til spring.

Wraen was usually outgoing and liked people, but even social-butterflies can get very tired. And after Firebirds had acquired six (possibly seven) new faces in a short span of time, the Sovereign found that she had no capacity of meeting each of them personally and talking to get to know them better. Maybe next week she would feel like doing it, but now was not a good time at all. One can easily imagine that she was not too thrilled to meet yet another person, who wished to join their ranks. Though the statistics board said that they still had room, Wraen thought that there was more than enough of people already.

She came face to face with an unfamiliar white she-wolf, who looked as if she had travelled for a while, and bore no tell-tale signs of belonging either to Blackthorns or Towhees, which would render any discussion about joining useless. They would always have a place, because they had the right connections. If Wraen herself had not been guilty of accepting family members in the ranks, then she would have protested that it was not fair. Now, however, she simply slide and let things happen.

"You called?" she asked politely to the stranger before her.

Sorry for the wait and also what I’m about to do. I’m dropping Heskja so Ima have her chicken out about joining a pack rn. Which I feel is something she would actually do given her background with terrible past leaders (not saying Wraen is a terrible leader).

Heskja’s entire body went rigid as the she-wolf stepped through the trees and appeared before her. ‘You called?’ the woman said, an expectant tone in her voice. 

Heskja swallowed, opened her mouth to speak, and closed it immediately. She swallowed again. Gods, why was she so nervous? She was better than this. She had left her own family pack in order to find a better home somewhere else. Well, here she was, on the verge of a better home, and she couldn’t do it. She stared awkwardly at this dark woman, her mind reeling. “I—

She swallowed again, the third time. No. No, she just couldn’t do it. She had subjected herself to other wolves’ rules for too long. And now she was going to be beneath someone else again? She just… couldn’t do that to herself. She’d rather starve or die of the cold than sit around in some stranger’s pack waiting for her chance to move up the ranks all over again. What if this woman’s pack was just as bad as her family’s had been? No. No. She shook her head.

“Forgive me,” she stammered, forcing the words from her throat. She bowed her head, turned, and fled quickly, feeling free, but ashamed.

[Exit.]