Gotta Grow Up Strong

Regulus fumed silently in his mind as he trotted alongside his sister into Emerald Valley. Leaving his mother alone, when the whole family seemed to have up and disappeared felt like sacrilege. Okay, so their father was there, too, but according to Zuriel, their father refused to leave the den, and was hardly eating; which meant he’d be useless if their mother were attacked. His reasonable side argued that it was highly unlikely that they would be attacked. His stubborn male side snapped back that bad things happened when least expected.

He paused slightly in his stride, before continuing on. It was so short a while ago that he was a carefree puppy; a master adventurer. The recent events had whittled that puppish bravado down to a cold, hard fact: he was nothing. Yet. He needed to grow up; for his mother and sister, and his father, now, too. Grandmother wouldn’t be there anymore to guide them and give advice. So he had to shape up, get strong, and make it so that he could face anything that came to pass.

The scents of elk and bison brought him out of his reverie and he slowed, sapphires scanning the valley. Mother Night they were huge. Some of the bull elk had huge racks tipped with sharp points. He glanced around, looking at Zuriel. No way were they going after an elk. No yet, at least. So he gazed around the valley, trying to get a fix on something they could bring down that could feed four wolves. ”Anything jumping out at you, sis?” He saw mostly big, strong elk, and even bigger, stronger bison. Their kind seriously hunted those things? How many got out alive?