Mortis had been… mopping more than a little since Halo had left. He started to find it a struggle to go about his usual jobs. Patrols were agonisingly long, and hunting for his family took longer than it used to. What he was able to catch, he gave to his kids. It was starting to show in his weight, and the lack lustre that was beginning in his feathers. Some might call it depression.

But he woke up today, and realised he couldn’t let his children fall into this lifeless rhythm as well. He hunted one down, and the first he came across was Wynter. He ruffled her forehead, before planting a soft kiss there. “Hey Kiddo. Have you given any thought to what you want for your future?”



"Speech"

Ever since their mother left with Whisper and Warden she felt like they were kind of going through the motions. It almost made it hard to be around her father because she hated seeing how badly it was affecting him. She knew he was probably hoping they wouldn't notice, but it was hard to ignore how little he was eating or how his coat and feathers weren't really as shiny as they used to be. Still, no matter how much she hated seeing him this way, she tried to spend what time she could with him, hoping that being around her and her remaining siblings would help him in some way. Of course they all had tasks to tend to and he had to do his patrols and the like so she couldn't be with him all the time, but she did what she could when she could, even when it was hard.

She was making her way back toward their home when her father approached her, making her look up at him with a bit of surprise as he lifted a paw to ruffle the fur on the top of her head. "Daaaaad..." she grumbled a bit with mostly fake annoyance at him messing up her fur, but the kiss he followed it up with made up for it and she smiled a bit as she looked up at him–though not nearly as much as she used to. He was still quite a bit taller than her–and probably always would be, she was beginning to realize–but not nearly as much as when she was a little pup. It made her realize all of the sudden just how much she had grown which felt oddly thematic when he went on to ask her if she had thought about what she wanted for her future.

"Just jumping right to the hard hitting questions, huh?" she joked with a chuckle. "I kind of have... I know I want to be here with you and the rest of our family. I know I want to do something important for the Armada. Exactly what I want to do is a little more... ambiguous," she admitted with a thoughtful frown. She enjoyed fighting well enough, but she didn't think that the dream she once had of being a big, fearsome warrior like her grandfather really fit her any more. "I like to meet wolves and study and learn different things about them. I like being sneaky and coming up with plans. I'm just not sure how what I'm good at translates into being important and helpful in the pack."

"Wynter Carpathius"

Her exasperated ‘dad’ served to make him grin as he looked down at the young wolf. Her, and her siblings were so much more than he had ever expected from life. If helping them find their right direction was his next step in life, he would take that step with pride.

He settled down to listen when she admitted she did have an answer in mind - she just hadn’t followed it to its logical conclusion yet. “Sounds like the rank of diplomat might interest you. You’d get to meet a lot of wolves, gather intel, possibly make plans based on that intel, and make judgement calls on the current events going on in the land. Do you think that’s something that might interest you?”


"Speech"

Her father was able to take all the bits and pieces of what she liked to do and seemed to be able to condense it down into the Diplomat rank. She blinked with surprise at the idea–partially because she had never thought of it and partially because she felt silly for never considering it. As he listed off all of the things that a Diplomat might have to do she began to realize that one of the reasons why she had glossed over the rank so quickly was because she thought that it was just someone that went to other packs to deliver messages and that was about it. She hadn't realized that the Diplomat had such a say in things or how much their input was considered. It had also just been difficult to put herself on any kind of path once her dreams of being a powerful warrior had fizzled out. She hadn't wanted to ask her dad for help, but now that he had given it she was glad that he had.

"Yeah... Yeah, I think it does," she replied after a moment of thought when he asked if being a Diplomat would interest her. She looked up to him with a renewed grin and leaned up to kiss his cheek. "Thanks, dad. That helped a lot." Well, if she was going to be a Diplomat then she had a lot of work ahead of her, she supposed, to be ready for that kind of thing. The first thing that came to mind was the fact that she hardly knew Basilisk and if she was going to picked for any kind of position that seemed as important as that one she better start getting on his good side. With a renewed sense of purpose she hopped up to go find Basilisk right away–but paused and looked back to her dad for a moment, giving him a smile. "Maybe we can train later? Or go on a hunt? Like old times," she offered. She still worried about him deeply and wanted to do her part in making him feel better too.

"Wynter Carpathius"