New Leaves on the Trees [Pack Meeting. Mandatory]

Artur had been making himself scarce while he dealt with his mother's death in his own way, but sentry duty was an unavoidable and necessary evil, and he had just been finishing up a stint on the wall when Cairo had found him, much to his displeasure. Not long after, the warned-of meeting was called, and for a long moment he simply sat there, considering not going just to show that he had the freedom to make that choice. But in the end he set aside the childish impulse and made his dignified way inward from the wall to find he was one of the last there. He sat alone, sweeping a glance over the gathering... then paused, thoughtfully. In the anger of his own grief he hadn't been thinking. He had left his siblings to grieve alone, because that was what he wanted in his grieving, but none of his siblings were really like him. So contrary to his own desires, he stood back up and moved to sit at Geoffrey's side, a stiff and stoic presence but still a show of solidarity and support for his siblings. If they didn't have each other, who could they possibly depend upon?

He twitched in surprised anger when Aurielle brought everyone's attention to them, his ears hot with anger and embarrassment. He didn't want their pity. Who were they to pity him? To assume they knew how he felt? That his mother had given everything for her pack and this was what she got, a moment of thought and pity before moving on to talk about Aurielles family, who never even bothered to contribute, too afraid to even stick their noses out of their den. She had been wasted on them.

The alpha went on to talk about their allies - and told Caelia that she would be accompanying her, a show of favoritism so blatant it would have put Artur's hackles up had he not been immediately distracted by her explanation of their new rules concerning their allies - allies so precious that being disrespectful to them was apparently to be a banishable offense from then on. Artur nearly stood and walked away right then. Instead he restrained himself rigidly,blue eyes like diamonds as he returned her hard stare, and said nothing at all. Did they need their allies so desperately that their alpha would banish them for being disrespectful to someone who happened to belong to those packs? Were they so weak now?

Artur listened with only half his attention to the new structuring of the pack, only enough to see that only the names of the ranks had really changed. He already knew what he wanted in life - to be a fighter. He just wasnt sure that here would be the best place to learn anymore, now that his mother was gone. Bitterly he took note of the few warriors, few of them impressive fighters, that he had to wait to pick out their apprentices, or for Aurielle to assign him to someone who hadn't been interested before - because it wasnt clear that it would be a system based entirely on favoritism rather than ability or suitability or anything.

Suppressing the ripple of his hackles, Artur waited silently for the meeting to be over.