Speech // thought

She loved the summer heat, here it reminded her of the cool spring and fall days of her birthlands. She wouldn't call them homelands, she would call the Col, the Cove, and the Gorge her homelands now. Anywhere that was the Armada.

She padded until she found her Jamie. "My little James." She greeted and pressed the side of her face gently into her daughter's side, "I have an adventure for you! Want to come see?" She asked with a mischievous gleam in her eyes. "I found something in the Gorge, you might find interesting!" She exclaimed, attempting to lead her, not so baby anymore, girl down the tunnel from the warrens to their new territory the Gale Gorge.

Jamie glances up at her mother's voice, snuggling into Ignita's side for a brief moment of affection. not too long, however; she's too old for cuddles! wriggling out of range, she bounces eagerly on the tips of her toes, eyes twinkling with excitement. she hasn't explored nearly enough of their new home, and the promise of adventure is never one she can ignore. "i wanna see, mama! show me!" she hopes it's something really cool, something Cit and Kandor would be really jealous of. "will there be fighting? can i bring a sword?" ooh, maybe there'll be an evil villain to defeat - no one could dismiss her then, sickness be damned.

"Jamie"

Speech // thought

She treasured that tiny snuggle, how brief it was. She loved her babies with every fiber of her being. She would walk through every hell there was to save them if she had to. She chuckled amused at Jamie's eager dance. Oh, she hoped what she had in store would excite the girl!

"Oh! Not all fights need swords, my love!" She mused as she led Jamie down the long corridor to the Gorge. The area opened up before them. It had deep woods on one side and a babbling brook on the other.

"Some fights need spears!" She said leading Jamie down to the growing pond- "and some fights don't need weapons at all." She replied.

"Now look and watch closely." She said as they huddled by the stream. A beaver's dam had blocked the stream.

"This big stack of wood was created by beavers! They were a delicacy in my birthlands of the desert. They are my most favorite prey to eat and their fur is so soft." She said to her little one as they watched the beavers swim and drag a big log.

"If we mind their habitat then we can hunt them every now and then but I noticed something has been hunting them instead of us. I can't figure out who's hunting our beavers! What can we do to find out?" She asked her little Jamie, curious what the girl would say. Ignita already knew what was bothering the beavers but she wondered how her daughter might figure it out.

Jamie bustles along easily at her mother’s heel, wide eyes drinking in every detail with an eager glimmer. “what kind of fights wouldn’t need weapons?” she prods, nonplussed. but she falls silent as the stream comes into view, studying the ‘beavers’ with an excited little wiggle. how strange! Jamie has never seen anything like it! and they’re Mama’s favourite? “doesn’t the fur get stuck in your teeth?”

Ignita’s question fully encapsulates her attention, setting that little mind to whirling. silently, she also preens; Jamie can’t help but feel smug at this adventure, at the special attention Mama is paying exclusively to her. sometimes she thinks it’d be nice, being an only child. “umm…well, we’re in the mountains…and it’d need to be something bigger than the beavers, with lots of teeth and claws…”Jamie stares down at her own feet, wriggling her toes in the earth. not another wolf, or else surely Papa would’ve torn them about by now. oh, what was that story Spider had told them? “maybe…a bear?”

"Jamie"

Speech // thought

"Some fights are won with words," Ignita told Jamie as they neared the beaver damn. She let out a delighted cheery laugh at the little one's question about fur getting stuck in the teeth, "Oh darling, we have to skin them first of course!" She replied quietly hunkering down.

"Ooh! Good guess! Let's wait a little longer." Ignita nudged her daughter and hid in the reeds, watching the beavers bustle about then they quickly hit the water and dove beneath the surface. Across the stream, a lynx came bounding out of the foliage after a lazy beaver and quickly dispatched the watery rodent. Its scent came toward Ignita and Jamie.

"Hmm... What do you think Love? Wanna distract it while I chase it off or should we see if we can take it down?" She whispered conspiratorially.