Katja perched on the half-fallen wall of her den, mind preoccupied as she stared out over the steppe. Raisa had left her with a lot of things to think about, a lot of things to worry over. The pack, with its common-tongue ranks she could barely understand and a structure she could still barely comprehend let alone govern. The pack members, with their disparate cliques that would need to be drawn together if there were any hope of the pack's survival. But most importantly, her pups.
She had long ago taken it upon herself to begin their training. Val she had planned to mentor herself if Raisa had not, and Sigmarr had approached her months ago to begin his training. She appreciated his bold ways, so much like a viking he was. Val was gone already, her first failure as Raisa's appointed guardian, and the other pups lost and confused. Svet was heir now with Val gone, and she would need the sort of training she could not provide her. She would need to depend on Raisa's second in command for that, Vaughan. Kassander was a healer at heart, and Sindri she was still uncertain of. But Sigmarr... Sigmarr was a spirit she could understand.
And even she, strong as she'd always been, could use that camaraderie right now with Raisa gone.
A low, questioning invitation rose from her muzzle into the sky, asking the boy if he would join her. If she felt this lost and alone without Raisa, how must the boy feel? She had been his mother, after all, and no one would miss her as much as her children would.
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