we must be swift as the coursing river

Avantika was going to do it finally. She was standing in the courtyard, going to tell Art the ideas she and Mercury had come up with for the continued fighting education of the many young pups the pack now cared for. Thinking of it, what did the Hallows have against having one litter of kids at a time? There had been another birth near the same time as Resin and Tamsyn's and now Fern and Rudy and Briar and Art were having children very close together as well. But that wasn't the matter at hand. What she was here for, hesitating before she actually made the call for her Aegis, was getting his blessing and his ideas for both a more organized training setup for those interested children and a practice raid they might have with either another Auster pack, if one was suitable, or with the Armada kids as Mercury had suggested.

Truth be told, she didn't really know why she was hesitating. She really doubted that Art would shoot her down; he was much too considerate to not at least think about her ideas and they actually seemed like things he would also think were good. Though he was her leader, he was also Art -- her brother and one of the kindest people she had ever met. He would be happy that she was making an effort to help out in a... more social way than before. He could hardly get angry at her for making suggestions after he'd given her a high rank where presumably she would be expected to have more influence over the fighting sphere of the Hallows. With that confidence-boosting thought, she called out for Art before she could convince herself to back down.

"Speech"