Conference Call

Morning brought the end of a long night patrol for Gwenevere. While she'd been moving, the chill of the air - cold enough to form ice - hadn't bothered her much, but now that she was winding it down she was beginning to feel it. More than simply feeling a chill through her fur, she was beginning to feel her age more and more in cold weather. Her hips and elbows ached especially, and the joints of her toes made her paws hurt after being on them all night in the cold. Since her patrol ended on the far side of the plains and she'd need to pass by anyway to get to her own den, she decided to stop by the small fire kept burning in the pack cave and warm her bones. She had wryly come to realize that she was old fashioned enough to be indifferent to the changes the younger generations were bringing, but this particular innovation, she admitted, was worth the trouble at her age. Besides, she hoped to catch Aurielle before she left on her own patrol. Winter was coming quickly, and she needed to see what the young alpha wanted done to prepare the pack, and to advise her if she needed it. She hadn't seen many winters yet, but going into the winter without any young pups in the pack would allow for a more comfortable margin of error in preparing than if they had helpless mouths to feed. Her pups were old enough to be as much a help as they were a hindrance, as long as the adults of the pack took care to train them before winter hit.

She happened upon Amos on the way, and at her invitation the young man amiably turned from his own path to accompany her. It would be good for more of the pack to be involved in things like this - Gwen was getting old, and wasn't going to be around for much longer. Aurielle needed to have a support structure already in place, the rest of the pack as experienced and equipped to assist as she rather than passively drifting from patrol to patrol and meal to meal. She smiled encouragingly at Amos as they both entered the ravine and through the mouth of the cave. The wind chill immediately vanished, making her already more comfortable than she was, but did little to take away the ache in her bones so Gwen hurried on through the corridor to the caves in the back. The warmth from the fire there hit her like a soothing blanket as she turned into the cave, and she sighed appreciatively.

As luck would have it, Aurielle was already there feeding the fire. Gwen dipped her head to the young alpha, moving over to stretch out beside the fire to soak up the heat better. "Aurielle, I was hoping to catch you before you left," she said, smiling at the woman. "We were just talking about how fast winter seems to be coming this year and thought it best to come to you now and see what sort of preparation you would like us to be doing to get ready." Ah, the warmth of the fire seemed to be going straight to the aching joints, slowly soothing the cramping of her paws. She closed her eyes to enjoy the feeling. As she soaked up the heat, she began to muse aloud to marshal her own thoughts.

"Brandr might have some ideas about preserving more meat so we don't have to hunt as often. Winter kills have so little fat on them anyway that it does less to help us than if we store the fatty meats ahead of time. He needs to be tested anyway if you approve of him as a hunter so perhaps it would be worthwhile to kill two birds with one leap and have his test be part of gathering winter stocks. I would feel more comfortable with my pups joining in on hunts if they had lessons from a proven hunter, since they are large enough now to take part in group hunts - should I encourage Brandr and Laisren to hold lessons for them so they are better able to help with the hunting? I would feel comfortable with them standing watch on the borders at their age as well, to take some of the need to patrol off the adults so we can concentrate more on winter preparation."

She blinked her eyes back open. "Have you spoken at all with Paladin about what he and Justice might reasonably still be able to gather despite the frost?" She tactfully didn't add Aramis and Solveiga to the list of healers who might be expected to be gathering herbs - she doubted they were quite ready to be going back out herb gathering after their shared ordeal. Her eyes focused on the fire. "Ah, and wood I suppose. We may need to go out on a gathering expedition outside of pack territory to gather enough for winter without depleting the lands here." Celestial's plains and moor weren't exactly heavily forested, after all, and gathering too much would quite quickly lead to there being no deadwood left nearby at all. She frowned thoughtfully. "Though perhaps the wood can wait until the snows come and we can drag it more easily."

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