one chapter ends

Things had been dreadfully quiet. So. Painfully. Boring. Half of the time, the lanky youngster didn't bother to try and find entertainment within the borders. With the runty lamb that was rapidly growing into a stocky, healthy ram, and the shrike that refused to do more than harass him, the boy had been venturing further and further from home with each new adventure. So it was only by dumb luck that he happened to be nearby when the powerful, authoritative summons of the King's call caught his keen ear. Moving at a steady lope, the dark furred Saxe boy made his way back home. There were a few familiar bodies already lingering around the King, but for the most part, it was just as sparse as the rest of the pack lands. The sounds of bated breaths, the scents of just a handful of their members, it wasn't particularly surprising. Regardless, he flopped over lazily beside Luxe and used the lamb's woolly flank as a pillow beneath his cheek while he waited. No doubt his father would show up soon enough. Perhaps some of his siblings, though he hadn't seen much of them lately either. Everyone seemed so keen to do their own thing nowadays, he almost missed the bustle of a whelping den.

Comfortably lounging against Luxe with Butcher plucking at the loose hairs at the end of his tail, Raven piped up with a friendly greeting to his uncle. "Howdy Alarr!" he trilled with that pitchy, awkward voice of his. He hadn't seen Alarr in a little while, but that didn't matter too much to him. Either way, the man was family, and that was the important bit.

""