know better, do better

Avantika was curled in her bed one morning, lazing around for once. She was... happy. Just simply, perfectly happy, content with the world and her place in it. It was strange. It was new. But she had no real reason not to feel that way. She had the highest rank she'd ever want, which was really just a sign of Art's trust in her, which itself was the most amazing thing she had to be grateful for. The training of the pups was going well and she was beginning to actually get to know a few of them as she taught them how to use their bodies to attack and defend. She'd spoken to Mercury, the wolf she'd not known at all before she'd beaten him in the contest for the Commander rank, and they were, while not quite friends yet, comfortable with and surprisingly understanding of each other. They would work very well together, she thought. She'd done everything she needed to do, and her heart was light for the first time in a really, really long time. Maybe she had never truly felt this safe before. Maybe only when she'd first joined the Hallows, knowing only that she was loved for the first time and that she had escaped one set of monsters, the only ones she'd known at that young age. Now she knew that there were monsters everywhere in the world, but that she and her family could fight them off anyway. She had achieved what she had always craved.

With that warming thought, she got out of bed -- it was nice out, and she still had a job to do, and she just didn't quite like doing nothing -- and headed out to go on patrol. It was one of her duties still, though right now it didn't feel as crucial to be out there constantly as it had not so long ago. She lifted her head to let the breeze ruffle through her fur as she walked leisurely through the courtyard.

"Speech"