With butterflies in his belly Geoffrey answered the call of Abaven’s alpha. This was his first meeting since ‘joining’ the pack and even though things had gone smoothly up until now, Geoffrey still felt as though anyone who looked at him could tell he was lying.

He hovered on the fringes of the meeting and looked for his siblings. When it became clear to him that he was the first to arrive he swallowed his nerves, held his head high and stride into the crowd as though he didn’t feel as though all of their eyes were in him.

The young Adravendi settled down a comfortable distance away from Shaye and tried not to let his nerves eat him whole.

She looked to the members of the pack that arrived. She knew she was missing a few faces, a thought that added to her sadness. But, she had not been tendering well to the garden that was Abaven of late. With her sister and brother-in-laws death, with their children being passed on to her.. With recovering from the fire, her daughter missing. She had tried to keep Abaven running, but things were slipping through the gaps. Another reminder that passing this on to the next generation was the right thing to do. The Alphess was feeling her age, so very clearly.

“Thank you for coming,” she said, looking out at the wolves, seeing Vail’s children.. So many pups among them, and the adult members. She gave them all a smile. She gave Leonce an especially bright one, seeing sadness in his eyes, and the way he seemed to stand alone. She knew he had done his best to help during the fire, had she thanked him for it? She wasn’t sure… so much, slipping through the cracks.

“I want to thank everyone for the work they’ve put in after the fire. The Thicket is growing again, and before we know it it’ll be blooming as brilliantly as it once was. As some of you might have noticed, we have a lot of new, young faces among us. They are too young to go far from their dens, so if everyone can keep an eye on the little paws running amok, that would be wonderful. As some of you know, Vail and Solor are no longer among us.” she didn’t expand on that, she would not rub it into the little ones noses who where here among them, but the pack would understand what she meant.

“Now, some important pack matters… with the disappearance of Motif, Rhyme will be stepping down from Alphaship and searching for her” a sudden thought chilled her. She was told that was why Bass had left, to search for lost little ones, and he had never returned. But no, Rhyme would never… he would come back to them, she knew it. “Theory will be stepping up as Heir, as Poem will be helping Rhyme. I will be going through some vigorous training with her, and then stepping down to raise Vail’s children, once Theory is ready” and to give herself a chance to mourn she managed to say it and keep her composure, it was a start. “I will still be here, in a Tier two capacity, mentoring her well she learns. I know that everyone in this pack will help her along the way to learning. She said, looking at her members with pride. Abaven had been through a lot of rough patches in his existence, but they got through it, they always did. “If anyone has any questions or concerns, speak up so I can address them.”

Brandr frowned as the meeting started. His golden eyes scanned the crowd anxiously but he saw no sign of Corentine or Lucine. Were they just running late? Had one of them fallen ill? Autumn was an unfortunate time for sickness. Well, he'd have to do his best to take mental notes so that he could bring the news back to his family.

Brandr listened quietly, just taking all the information in. It was surprising to say the least and he realized how out of the loop he was with the going-on's in the pack. He hadn't heard about Vail, Solor or Motif but he was not part of the Destruction family so that didn't really surprise him. Theory would be the new heir and would take over as soon as she was ready. She had a lot of spirit for one so young but he still worried. Hopefully Shaye would continue to rule through the winter. That would be a rough season to test a new alpha. He didn't really have any questions or concerns. Fall hunting had gone well and the food stores were stocked.

They were late, very late, but they had good reason. Lucine's limp slowed them down and Corentine was not leaving her daughter in the dust. She was sure the alpha's would understand. The girls had been out hunting with Allegro and Lucine had gotten hurt. Her wound's were minor, but her limb was sore to put weight on. So Corentine moved along side her daughter, monitoring her pain. She had already treated her, but Lucine should have been resting. Neither of them were going to miss the meeting.

When they arrived they would pause at the back of the crowd as Shaye began speaking. Corentine listened as her eyes searched for Brandr. When she saw him she gently nudged Lucine to fallow before slowly working her way to Brandr's side (opposite from Twig). She quietly settled down and looked to Lucine as she settled into a sternal position, taking a much needed rest from their travel.

A rookie mistake had led to a sharp kick to her left shoulder. It hurt, like really hurt, but her mother ensured her that the injury was minor and that there was nothing to worry about. All she needed was rest and she would be fine. Resting was what she really wanted to do, but when the call for the pack came she knew she had to answer it. She was worried because she was not only making herself late, but her mother as well and there had been several times Lucine told her mother to go on without her. She just hoped the alpha's wouldn't be upset with them, they had been coming from outside of the pack territory and with her limping it slowed her down tremendously.

When they arrived Lucine's blue eyes looked around the crowd, taking in the familiar and the new faces. She had done little socializing since her arrival and had become even more withdrawn after her grandmother's death. Her mother drew her attention back to her with a gentle nudge and Lucine fallowed her over to were her dad was sitting. Once Settled Lucine would relax down into a sternal position to rest her leg while the meeting continued. They had heard a little bit about the changes and so far Lucine had no questions.

He was dragging the kill, a young elk. He had told both females he could handle it and managed to keep his pace, slow but even. The kill was to be added to the kill pile for the pack to share, and it was a good size for how young it was. It had given the younger wolf a nice hard kick, but her healer mother assured him that it was only bruised and would heal fine. He was a bit back from the two females and before they reached the meeting he dropped the kill. Then as he finished the distance he tried to clean some of the blood off of his white fur, but hadn't managed to get all of it when he arrived to the back of the group.

His eyes spotted his white brother first and he made his way over to him. Once reaching his side he gave him a light bump of the shoulder before setting down. Novel wasn't here yet, which worried him. She hadn't been the same since the fire and had been dealt more extensive damage then he had rescuing Twig. He had scarring on his rear leg, but Novel had a pretty scarred up face. Then he noticed the ducked form of his sister beside Octave and he lowered his form to look at her better. He wanted to say something, but it was inappropriate during a meeting.

"Speech"

Theory held her breath at Poem's side. The pack meeting suddenly made everything seem so real. It wasn't just a pleasant (if nerve wracking) private conversation between her and Shaye. Now she really was heir. Seeing all the puppies gathered gave her mixed emotions. On the one hand, it was wonderful to see Abaven blooming again... on the other hand, at what cost? Vail and Solor's faces were missing from the crowd. Where was Eulogy? Concerned, Theory searched for her in the crowd.

The meeting was a very real reminder of her upcoming responsibilities. Abaven was so large - some of these wolves she didn't have a name for. Would they feel comfortable depending on her? How could she ask that of them when she suddenly felt so young and unprepared? Theory gulped and put on a brave face, wondering if anyone would speak out at Shaye's invitation.

okay so she had heard the call for the meeting, but that was boring adult stuff. She hadn't made it easy to wrangle her to the meeting. Seeing as she was the more unruly of Eulogy's kids she was the worst to try to pin down and force to a place she didn't want to be. Not even uncle Rhyme would of been able to convince her to go on her own. As such here she was dangling in her mom's jaws forced to go to a boring meeting. Even as her mom arrived it was boring. the most boring. She could be out playing and exploring yet here she was forced to attend the boring adult thing.

Shaye was speaking and all poltergeist heard was blah blah blah. Boring..... When she was unceremoniously plopped down she tried to run for it but quickly found her rump on the ground and her tail under her mom's paw. This brought her ruby eyes to Rhyme's in an attempt to give him the puppy eyes to get out of this thing. Maybe he could be convinced to let her go and be away from the meeting.

As if being late wasn't the least of her worries she had to track down an unruly Poltergeist and force her to go. She had caught her easy enough and by the time she made it there the meeting had started. With Poltergeist in her maw she strode forward. Her ears folded and she looked at Rhyme apologetically as she found a spot in the back without anyone really near. Her head dropped as she dropped poltergeist at her feet. She expected polt to make a break for it and quickly shut it down with a paw on her tail. She was not getting out of this so easily. She had to learn to be part of the pack and that included attending meetings.

She looked up at the alpha pair or what had been a pair as they moved on. Vail and solor were dead, she hadn't known them so it wasn't a loss for her. Even if they had been family she had been robbed of the opportunity to know them by the slavers and Erovrare. But the news that Rhyme would be stepping down had her ears pressing flat and she was more than worried. It likely showed too. If rhyme was not alpha then how would she, the illegitimate daughter and sister be treated. Rhyme was her safety net. She lowered her head then, best to make herself as invisible as possible. She knew how those that were not wanted were sometimes treated. She looked to rhyme hoping he had some idea of what she could do to avoid the ire of any.