Under One Sky (tag young Tortugans)

Having returned from the orchard, from meeting Flamesong, Qanik was unsettled. Always put your pack first, that was something she'd believed whole-heartedly all her life. Yet her she was, enjoying the company of a wolf from another pack, when she had done nothing to help her own packmates. It was selfish and wrong of her, and she needed to put it right.

Laying in her den beneath an old fallen redwood, Qanik came to a decision. Most of the Tortuga pack was made up of pups and yearlings, vulnerable and impressionable younglings who would need guidance if they were to grow into strong members of the pack. There were few adults available to train them, few willing or able to be someone the young could depend on to listen and support them through their youthful tribulations. She wouldn't be able to teach any of the young hoping to be healers or trackers the trades, but she could teach all of them the basics of hunting, and of how to defend themselves and their pack - important knowledge for any wolf, healer and warrior alike - and she could find wolves willing to teach the skills she lacked. The young were the future of the pack; this was her best way of helping Tortuga. It occurred to her that she should discuss it with Deteste first, but surely he nor his ranking wolves would object to her wanting to do this, and she desired to put her plan into action without any delay.

Qanik slipped out of her den, shaking the soft redwood debris from her pale coat as she did. Raising her nose to the sky, she howled, a long low note, summoning the young of Tortuga to her. Pups, yearlings, young adults - all who would need to learn and practice the skills that would keep them and their pack alive and healthy.





speech.