So her mother was gone. So what? SHE certainly didn't care. Okay, that was a lie and she knew it, but it hurt less to deny it. Esti was getting better at pushing painful things aside, or maybe she was just beginning to forget. It didn't really matter which to her as long as she could be happy in the moment.

Speaking of the moment, Esti ran through the willows mindlessly, the branches whipping my her face and bouncing off her fur. The weather was getting cooler lately. Cooler weather meant more running. Esti was good at running. In her mind, she was the fastest in the world. No wolf was as fast as her. They would all bow down at her and ask if they could run by her side. She would lay in dens coated with grasses and pelts made by her fans after a hard day of running. They would all watch in amazement at her skill, for she was Esti Kigu, the best runner in the whole world. The pup bounded around, her tongue lolling out of her maw as her breaths came in heavy gulps that were just a beat off from her running stride. When running in a straight line got boring, Esti would choose a tree and try to turn around it sharp enough to hear her paw steps echo off the trunk, the lengthy branches shushing her belligerent behavior while the imaginary wolves in her head cheered her on.

Well this was interesting. The black-masked viking watched through the trees as the young wolf threw herself around in a frenzy of running. She wasn't running from anything, nor after anything that Katja could see. Training? That could account for it, particularly for such a young wolf. That was pleasing to see - it often seemed to her that the wolves of this land grew lazy and fat from the peaceful nature of the packs here. No one raided another pack for fear of breaking the peace. Border transgressions were treated delicately... in fact everything was treated delicately. Only one or two packs seemed interested in a war-like aspect, but they were the dregs of this wolf society, outcastes that seemed to be interested only in the killing, not in the honor. Slipping quietly closer, she waited until the pup passed closer to her to say a simple "Heil" to get her attention and see what she would do. "Speech."

Wolves cried out her name and begged for her to just glance at them. Esti was too busy, too fast, for things like that. She had later to talk to her fans and appease the masses. Her opponent was forever behind her, Esti glanced behind her for good measure, sticking her tongue out; her signature taunt. The wolves watching her went wild, calling her name, "Esti! Esti! Esti! Heil."

Wait, Heil? Who was that? A blur passed as Esti ran. That wasn't a tree. That was an actual someone else, and that someone else was a Heil fan. Heil! That must have been Esti's opponent in today's race; she hadn't checked before hand. Esti's head whipped back, trying to see the wolf who cheered someone else's name. Something about looking behind you while you're running makes it really hard to keep running, Esti found out, because the next thing she knew, she was tumbling across the ground, landing finally and sliding on her shoulders for a short distance. Her rump plopped down as she stopped sliding, her blue eyes scanning the spinning horizon for the opponent's fan, "Hey!" her voice squeaked as she started to right herself, "You can't interrupt a race like that! It's cheating!" the girl panted, not letting her lack of breath interrupt her words, but rather gasping for it at the end of her sentences.

Esti bounded forwards, finally sighting the cloudy-looking woman, "Who is Heil, anyway, and why aren'tcha cheering for the number one Esti instead?" The girl shook the grass and dirt from her fur, "Name's Esti, I'm the fastest runner in the whole world."

"Speech"
'thoughts'