Council in the holt-glen

[Kris]

Oct 5, 2008 15:48:48 GMT -6 Anna said:

The child giggled and hugged Sunsong before darting back to Icemark's side. "So!" she agreed, grabbing a handful of the leafy greens from his basket and taking them to Sunsong. "You make flowers, I feed you leafs!"

"Delicious!" Sunsong accepted the offering and immediately put one in her mouth, cheering with every sign of pleasure.

Stormfire snickered. *Is that your favorite treat now?* she sent to her friend. *Whirlwind and I will bring you back baskets-full if so.*

*Oh, hush, Stormfire. It takes so little to make the cubling happy.* Yet Sunsong tipped her head back and ate another leaf as if it were the most succulent root ever found. Stormfire buried her face against her knees, giggling as Whirlwind and Tallspear joined in the mirth.

*Sunsong, you treewee!* Whirlwind half-scolded, laughing. *Eating leaves like a caterpillar! Next you'll be spinning yourself a cocoon and hatching out with moth-wings!*

*We could always wrap her up in a hide and have Evenstar make her wings,* Tallspear slyly suggested, winking up at the treeshaper. Sunsong's delighted laughter brought attention from all sides.

*Now is not the time for play, cub,* Waterdance sent sternly, still attempting to console a quietly weeping Quickflight.

*What would you have me do?* Stormfire sent back defiantly. *Behave as if I'm about to be exiled? If I can't laugh when I'm facing nothing worse than this, I'm pretty poor stuff to send out on my own.*

Waterdance's frown deepened, but she settled for shooting her daughter a disapproving glare. Stormfire met it, rankled. She loved her mother dearly, but Waterdance always seemed to want to keep her as tied down as a human's near-wolf. I sometimes wonder, Stormfire told herself, if Waterdance really wanted a girl-cub or just a cubling's stuffed leather poppet.

[Viola]

Lightgaze was about to reply Sunsong when Quickflight came out of her den, and she stiffened up. The female's eyes were swollen, she apparently had cried a lot just now, and Lightgaze hated that they could only guess about what it was.

Longdusk grabbed her hand, because the commotion near the chief's family had startled him, as well. He didn't know what had happened, but it confirmed his thoughts that this council was serious. He couldn't imagine Quickflight crying when it was not serious.
He laid his hand on his mother's shoulder, squeezing softly, and she placed her hand over his.

[peachbug]

Softling buried her face in Snapbone's fur, growling to herself. By the High Ones, what was going on here? The tension made it difficult to think, and yet pressed her to investigate, something she very much wished to avoid. 'All chatter and no talk!' She thought to herself with a heavy huff. 'Won't somebody say something that makes any sense?'

Flintfire observed his daughter's quiet tantrum with some worry and soothed her with a gentle locksend.

She nodded quietly without looking to him, and straightened up some to listen.

[Anna]

With the hunt successfully completed, Windsoft led Oakstaff and Redthorn into holt-glen. The stag they'd found was strung between the other two, and Windsoft was smiling widely with pleasure at having it to offer for sharing after the council. It had been a while since they'd been willing to hunt so close to the holt, but the stag was at the end of his life and had little left to offer those of his kind. His death would nourish the tribe now, just as their deaths would one day nourish the pack and the forest.

The tension in the glen, however, quickly banished her high spirits. She traded glances with her companions and they silently delivered the stag to Sureshot before retreating to join lovemates, lifemates, or family members. Oakstaff knelt next to Sunsong, absently plucking the flower she'd grown and tucking it into her hair. Windsoft and her wolf-friend found an unclaimed spot and settled in.

After a moment of silence, Oakroot looked around and realized the tribe had gathered. "You called council, my chief?" he asked quietly when it seemed likely the wainting - and tension - would continue to stretch on unbroken.

[Kris]

Normally Journey would have flung himself on his mother the moment she returned--just desserts for making him remain at the holt while she went hunting. Part of the punishment was the chief's doing; staying home was supposed to rid him of the taste for slipping off on a jaunt away from the holt without telling anyone. All it did was make him more eager to leave--and more careful in planning how he did it.

But by the time his mother took a place with her wolf, Journey's mouth was sour with anxious anticipation. He sat behind her and leaned his chin on her shoulder, watching Sureshot comfort--and confront--his family. His two youngest sons, who'd taken places by Mist the healer, were fixed by the chief's stern gray gaze; they quickly got up and moved to another bole on the Father Tree. His lifemates watched him, Waterdance with calm patience, Quickflight with tears--and Journey couldn't remember ever having seen that chieftess cry.

In the heavy stillness, Oakroot glanced around at the gathered tribe, and then turned to Sureshot. "You called council, my chief?"

Sureshot stepped forward. A light breeze ruffled his thick brown hair, and he waited until it died. "I've brought you here tonight to tell you that the tribe is about to be parted."

Parted? Journey sat bolt upright, ignoring the gasps of dismay around him.

"We've had good years here," Sureshot continued. "We've made our holt, had our cubs, lived and died and kept the Way . . . but, perhaps, we've done too well." He stopped, his eye falling on a recently Recognized pair, whose cubling stopped sucking his thumb long enough to stare up at the chief. Sureshot smiled, but turned grave as he looked again at the tribe. "We've multiplied like ravvits," he said, "and I daresay that if we continued, we'll end like ravvits, caught in any number of snares. The humans still attack us when they can. We've had foaming sickness. And although the game is still good . . . who can remember when it used to be more plentiful than it is now?

"To keep the Wolfriders alive, we will have to send some away." Sureshot spoke now to tribemates who hung on his every word. "This is no exile. The oak grows strong, and spreads his branches wider than an eagle his wings. The acorns which drop are his children, yet only by leaving the shelter of the great oak can they grow themselves.

"And so I am going to send a number of you to new lands, so that you can grow strong and live well."

Commotion broke out at once, as Wolfriders fought to show agreement or dissent with their chief. Journey ignored them. He could see Sureshot had only one question he intended to answer . . . and there were four possible answers.

"So who will lead us to these new lands?" he called out.

[Anna]

**Hush, cub,** Windsoft lock-sent, reaching behind her to take his hand. **Draw no attention to yourself. You are not in his good graces at the moment.** She looked back at him and knew, instantly, immediately, what he would want. He was well-named, was her son. Perhaps...perhaps.

She sighed quietly. There was no perhaps. Whoever led the offshoot tribe, Journey would want to go. She was not yet ready to part with her cub, which meant she would have to go. She eyed the chief's sons and daughter and worried.


Oakstaff felt his jaw drop in shock. Split the tribe? Well, yes, it had been done in the past when their numbers grew too many, but...now? As the idea sank into his stunned brain, he started to smile. This could be quite interesting. Challenging. New territory, new game... Depending on how Sureshot was choosing to lead this little adventure, it could be well worth the going. He eyed the chief's offspring with a careful eye. Now, just who would he choose...?


Mist had known what Sureshot had called council for. He already knew he'd be going, as a favor to his chief-friend. Mist disliked changed, prefering the safe stability of the familiar, but there was no denying that those venturing into unknown territory would have more need of a healer than those remaining. He folded his arms across his chest and tried to maintain a serene demeanor. His decision had already been made.

"A new holt? How exciting! Oh! You'll need a plantshaper to shape the holt! Who's going? Who will be chief?" Sunsong's excited babble of words merged with the other comments, questions, and demands being voiced by the tribe. She turned her wide, blue-green gaze towards Stormfire and immediately some of her eagerness faded. Stormfire did not look happy.

Sobering instantly, she quietly stood up and circled around the outside of the gathered tribe until she could come up behind Stormfire. She put a gentle hand on the shoulder of the chief's daughter. **Stormfire?** she lock-sent gently. **He has chosen you, dear friend?**

The voices of their tribemates continued to sound around them, but Sunsong ignored them, ignored Stormfire's gathered family, and simply waited for her friend to confirm or deny.

[Viola]

Longdusk eye's grew wide as he heard the news, and he tried to make up his mind as Sunsong asked who would be their new chief. He sought the chief-cubs with his eyes, but couldn't really focus on what he wanted to do. The tribe was large, too large, and to him, it had too many memories he was willing to put behind him. A trip like that would be dangerous, especially when they would wander in unknown territory. The threat of humans was there, predators... They would need a skilled hunter. Someone like him could be of use.
His mother's hand tightened around his knee, and he tilted his head to look her in the eyes. Lightgaze was worried, and he could sense that she knew. **You're leaving,** she stated, and he just stared at her.

He loved his mother, and it would be so hard to leave her. Longdusk felt she wasn't happy about this, but it seemed she knew him better than he did himself. **Yes. Apart from you... there's nothing for me here.** It felt like the right thing to do. **You don't want to come?** he asked his mother. He wanted her to come.

Lightgaze bit her lip, and then slowly shook her head. **No. My life is here. My chief is here. I'm not sure I can follow another by splitting the tribe. But you can.**



Firecat fell utterly silent when Sureshot announced his news. Hazel wrapped his arms around her. "Don't be sad that a part is leaving. It's healthy for us all." She let him hug her, but it wasn't what she was thinking about. It would be a change of scenery, without the strains that she felt were here. Particularly Hazel's. She'd grown to like him, a lot, and she started to feel uneasy near him. She would have to convince him not to come, but she knew that was absolutely possible. She knew how to get her way.

Her eyes sought out her sister. What was Evenstar thinking? Though shallow as she might seem to some, she didn't want to be seperated from her sister. She would follow her sister, whatever she chose. **Evenstar?** she sent privately, mentally asking her what she wanted.

[oddsong]

A little way behind Windsoft, standing, leaning on his spear, Thornberry felt a sudden and powerful twist in his guts at the chief's words, and noticed that his fingers around the long wooden handle were white. Sureshot's words were a great shock, but, more surprisingly yet, not a painful one, and on second thought, almost obvious. Split the tribe? ... yes.
He'd felt it for a while now, creeping like the cold into bones, and didn't know what to name it: more than a discomfort, but a profound feeling that things were not right as they were. If only it had been something as simple as scarce game, a hard winter, a sickness! Something that was truly wrong, instead of things simply being too right. But there were too many of them, they ate too much and made too much noise and too much waste and took up too much place, almost like humans.

One glance across the council circle, and he caught Shimmereye's gaze and knew she was thinking the game. Her son sat by her feet, still a half-grown stripling. She surely couldn't go, he mused, and if she didn't, then neither would Cleartrail. But in her eyes, he saw a flash of hunger

**It's the obvious solution,** she sent to him, a trace of that hunger in her mind-voice.

**Aye.** He kept his answer brief, focusing on Sureshot now. Her unspoken desire was getting to him. The chief seemed to stand fast, secure in his decision. A few tribemates had already spoken up, but it was Sunsong, babbling away as ever, that asked the question that most concerned Thornberry as he digested the news. Perhaps the most important question of all. What was a body with no head, after all?

"Yes, my chief, who leads us?" he called out, his eyes sweeping across Sureshot's cubs. Would it be Longtooth, Keenedge maybe? Skystrike was useless, even the stripling girl had taken that one... but surely not her?

[peachbug]

'No!' Redthorn thought first, the words like the cry of an infant cub in the back of the huntress's mind. She was flushed with surprise at her own emotions. She knew why these things were needed, she knew Sureshot was a wise chief, and she trusted him. 'But...' She knew why this was necessary, but there remained a deeper question she trusted only one to answer.

Redthorn turned to Icemark, violet eyes bright with something not quite fear, and looked back at her still twirling, giggling cub. **Dei?** She sent to her lifemate, the sending implying far more than the question.

Evenstar remained frozen, rigid to her seating beside the healer Mist, even as her sister's sending echoed into her mind. Her heart beat in her throat and she spun a piece of grass in her fingertips. 'Separated? A broken holt?' She thought. The cold trickle down her back was a waterfall of emotions, feelings, memories, then...a spark of something... joy perhaps? This revelation grew on her slowly, a warmth spread through her long limbs. 'Strange! Wrong! Can't...' It must have been her wolfblood howling to her. She put her forehead to her knees. 'What a chance!' Part of her called, a smaller, but insistent song. 'Think of the stars!'

**Firecat,** Evenstar sent smoothly. **Sister, I must go.**

[Anna]

Oct 8, 2008 17:40:50 GMT -6 peachbug said:

'No!' Redthorn turned to Icemark, violet eyes bright with something not quite fear, and looked back at her still twirling, giggling cub. **Dei?** She sent to her lifemate, the sending implying far more than the question.

Icemark caressed Redthorn's cheek gently, looking into her eyes and smiling reassuringly. **Our holt is with you, lifemate. Either here, or elsewhere. Our chief will not force any to leave. Wait and see; he'll ask for volunteers.** His thumb brushed her bottom lip lightly. **It is your choice. My choice is to be with you.**

He put his arms around Redthorne and turned his gaze back to Sureshot. There was no rush in any decision. Sureshot would surely give them time to think, to consider - to decide. The only thing they really had yet to learn tonight would be who led the off-shoot tribe.