Northstar Vale I returned to a stand of pines

Light rain fell from the sky, the last remnants of spring before it faded into summer. Celara's pelt was quite damp by the time she reached the cover of the woods. There had never been such trees back in her old territory. The trees there had been tall and thin-branched, always letting light in. Celara pushed the thought from her mind. That land was gone, and thinking of it would do nothing but hurt.

The wolf instead considered the territory. The mountains that surrounded the valley would make it defensible. The land inside was lush and green, rich with prey. It would never be like her first home, but perhaps she could forget about that place, given time. 

Celara was distracted from her thoughts by the scent of groundhog. They were slippery creatures, but if she were careful and quiet, perhaps she could corner it before it escaped.

Would it be alright if we date this to a current date @Celara?? if not let me know please, I can adjust!

After the meeting, Reiko had spent most of her time in the den. Tending to the children, dreaming, wasting away to skin and bones. She was thin, her hair was wiry and it lost its sheen or plush touch. The pups still needed milk for a little while longer, and she poured all her efforts into them - today tho, as they were growing more as individuals and were more mobile, she felt it was okay to leave them to find something to eat.

@Collision was gone, his scent was fading from the lands quickly. @Yuudai was nowhere to be found either. The last images of him she remembered were covered in blood - the sight made her stomach churn. She didn't quite know what was happening, uncertain of what to think or what to do; there was just the one thing she was certain of.

She needed food.

She had to feed herself in order to take care of the three little ones and seeing one of the newest members already hunting, Reiko quietly padded up to her and spoke softly with a smile as natural and kind as she could muster in her state. They're slippery little things, aren't they? At least with groundhogs, they didn't need to chase or really fight it. All they had to do was coordinate really.

Celara was surprised to hear from the empress now that she was part of the empire. Then again, she had recently had a conversation with another royal, so perhaps this pack was different. "They are." She responded, after making a slight gesture of submission. "Will you help hunt them?" Such a thing would not be unheard of where she had come from.

Without waiting for an answer, Celara began to creep toward one of the holes. Delicately and quietly, she began to scrape earth into it. To much talking might scare the groundhog into the hole before they could get at it.

As she looked back to see the she-wolf's response, she realized just how thin they were. It wasn't just that she wasn't pregnant anymore; Reiko looked like she hadn't eaten enough, like Celara had looked when she arrived. Was it the chaos at the meeting or just the pups taking a toll on her? Celara didn't know.

With an enthusiastic nod, Of course. She smiled, but Celara was already off to get into position. Apparently the woman already knew the drill when hunting for the things, though Reiko still had to wonder, what was their plan? Letting the new woman take control of the hunt, Reiko padded quietly to her own position where a mound of dirt signified that there was another hole that might be an exit for the ground-rodent. 

Looking up from her position near the hole, she watched for a signal from Celara to begin something. Was she to bark and alert the beast toward Celara, or would her companion so do instead and leave the bitting to the Empress? She waited for things to clear up.

Celara sniffed around some more, but she couldn't find anymore dirt mounds. Hopefully, they had gotten all of them. She packed a little more earth on the nearest one, just to be sure. Now, to find the beast itself. She could tell it was nearby. Good.

She put her nose to the ground in attempt to locate the groundhog, but mostly picked up the scent of earth. There- at last the smell was getting stronger. She would have to circle around it to scare it towards Reiko, or pounce on it and risk it getting away. Celara decided on the former, and attempted to signal it to the Empress without making any noise.

Patience would be a strange word to use as Reiko watched Celara prepare her side of the hunt. No thought truly went through her mind, nor did she feel the inevitable ticking of time trickle by as she stood there waiting for the dance to begin between hunter and the hunted. Right now, she just existed in the moment and paid enough attention to see that her companion was finally trying to signal something to her.

Was it to frighten the prairie-dog toward Celara? That's what it seemed to be... Well, at least she didn't have to do the killing blow, that alone she was thankful for. Once she was certain that was what Celara wanted, Reiko began her part of the hunt and began barking at the hole, digging, and hoping that her loud pitch barking would scare the groundhog toward her companion and not to some other hole.

Sudden barks sounded behind her. The groundhog ahead froze as Celara swiftly turned around. Stars, her signal must have been misinterpreted. She hissed at the empress "Stop!". 

The groundpig was fleeing now, but they weren't very fast. Maybe she could still catch it, or scare it back at Reiko? Of course, this all could have been avoided if she had just spoke out loud, or chased it herself or... She shook her head. The middle of a hunt was the probably the worst place to get caught in what ifs.

The moment she was told to cease, she did, immediately. This is why she would have preferred a plan of action before they had begun to take their positions - maybe this would be a good lesson that communication was important in even a small hunt such as this one so everyone would be on the same page. With flat ears she waited this time for what Celara might be planning, letting her take the lead hunter on this escapade. Had she already ruined it all already by misinterpreting the signals that were sent her way? The empress felt awful in not only ruining her own meal for today but Celara's as well. How incompetent must the leader now look in the woman's eyes? It was embarassing.

Celara leapt. The beast was not quick, but it was small, it had a headstart, and if she missed one hole it could escape. She soon caught up, but when she attempted to bite the groundhog, it lunged at her. Its teeth probably were too small to do any real damage, but it startled her into flinching back. She swept her paw behind it and struck it, forcing it to flee the other way. She knew she had filled all the holes in that area. Besides, this way she could get the Empress into the hunt.

Celara and the prairie dog tussled for a bit, exchanging bites of different polarity among themselves until finally their contact broke. The prey was herded toward the Empress this time and she would not fail as she did at the beginning of this hunt by misunderstanding what the other woman was planning. This time, she lowered herself to the ground, letting her ears try to listen in on the hog, watching the grass carefully until its fat little body was in sight and - 

Immediately the woman sprung into action, pushing against the dirt in a cloud and lunging toward the little critter with hungry jaws, it was the satisfying feeling of its squishy body between her teeth that gave way to the growing excitement and pride as she tried to hold it up for Celara to see. The thing was stocky, but heavy, and so she had to drop it eventually, offering a waving banner of white behind her instead to signal they had caught some food for themselves!

Celara watched with slight nervousness as the Empress sunk her teeth into the Ground-pig. As fragile as she appeared, it seemed she was still strong enough to hunt. Relief poured through the grey wolf. The hunt had been full of mishaps, and she was hungry. Of course, she doubted she could eat it on her own, and not offering a fellow hunter a share would be rude enough if they were just another packmate. "What portion of it do you want?"  She asked, with genuine curiousity?