Bear It In Mind

She’d left the pack bounds and ventured northwest to the Dancefloor. It was full night, but she knew the pack was well protected, even though their numbers weren’t exactly teeming. The moon was bright in the sky, almost full, and aside from it and the stars, she was the only other source of light on the plains this night.

She strode quietly along, studying the land and contemplating. She hoped to hold another festival this year, but she was undecided as to whether it would be here, or located further east to give packs like Abaven and Ashen to participate without traveling as far.

She was glad that the Autumn seemed to have brought a return to the cycle of life after the volcano’s eruption. Her own cycle had been uninterrupted, and true to her nature, she’d been running herself off her paws in an effort to counteract the restive, frenetic energy brought by her cycle. And with the cycle came that emptiness and yearning. For the most part, she ignored it, focusing on her duties. She was used to it.

If she let herself stop and think long enough, though, she knew the feeling of pressure would overwhelm her. Her father wanted grandchildren, and while he urged her to find love at her own pace, she desperately wanted him to be able to rest having seen her happy and his first grandkids stumbling or bouncing around his big red paws. She wanted him to be utterly happy when he passed.

And far aside from that, she felt like her own window of opportunity was sneaking shut on her. She’d thought as a yearling that she surely would have been a mother, long before now.

Aurielle paused at the Rivershore, bending to drink deeply from the crisp, clear, cold water before stepping into it and sighing as the chill encased her paws. No surprise, it felt nice.

She didn’t get much time to enjoy it. A sudden violent thrash of a massive form crashing through the grass and into the river brought her whirling to meet the unexpected form of a bear. Automatically, she bounded to the side with an internalized snarl at her lack of attention. Had the bastard been asleep out of sight? How had she missed the smell of him?

Her paws sloshed through the water as she leapt forward like a vengeful star and slashed for the bear’s shoulder, grunting as the opposite paw of the beast clubbed into her shoulder and sent her staggering. But she tasted blood on her tongue, and knew she’d scored it.

She retreated, lunging with a bound for the shore and turning to duck and slash her long canines for the bear’s face as it pursued her up the shore. It bellowed as she scored deep gashes over it’s muzzle, though she missed the eyes, curse the thing.

Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Hear" ---- Think