Dace

                      [Art by Cervid#14112] 

Born in the first summer of The Sanctuary Pack

Mother: Saturn

Father: Finch

Siblings: Grayling (brother)

Personality: A big, dumb jock, Dace can be rowdy- even a bit of a bully at times- but at her heart she's a loyal pack-member. She wants nothing more than to use her strength in service of her friends.

Naming Conventions: Fish, first generation. 

Dace's family passes down naming schemes matrilineally. Her mother, Saturn, broke the tradition of her birth-pack as a symbol of her departure from that pack. That old naming scheme- to name pups after celestial bodies- has been replaced with a new: to name pups after fish. Saturn also tends to give her pups names that represent traits she wants the pups to have.

Dace, the largest pup of her litter, was named after a species of tiny freshwater fish. Saturn hoped this will keep her from getting a big head about her size and strength.

Year One: 

-born a confident, strong, boisterous pup to Saturn and Finch

-increasing tension with her mother, Saturn, who’s uncomfortable with pups and didn’t want to have a litter. Dace & her brother Grayling both feel to some extent unimportant or unwanted as a result (tho they wouldn’t articulate it that way)

-watches her best friend, Rime, be granted full pack ‘adult’ status before her, planting the seeds of rivalry and ambition (part of ongoing complex about needing to be/seem ‘important’)

-begins courting Eight, her yearmate, who she has a crush on. The two briefly date, but break up soon after. Eight would rather be friends, and they’re both too young to take it very seriously anyway.

-sneaks off with her brother, Grayling, in a reckless attempt to prove herself. Needs to be rescued by her mother and father.

-granted full adult status in a rite of passage. Becomes full adult pack member as a junior hunter.

Year Two:

-grows increasingly ambitious, dissatisfied, and jealous of Rime, switches to being a scout to stand out and work on her own.

-has a pup, Perch, to a lone wolf

-becomes increasingly devoted to her work in order to grow stronger. grows distant to Perch in a similar way that Dace was distant from her own mother growing up. 

-leaves the pack for a full week when Rime is declared interim leader after Seven leaves on a long mission. 

Year Three:

-learns more on her scouting duties; grows more stable and mature, but still has that itch to prove herself and make her mark from her feelings of unimportance as a pup.

-Rime is declared as the official next leader, apprenticed under Seven.

-Dace puts herself forward as an alternative, arguing the injustice of the leader’s child automatically being the next leader. Her argument is shot down; everyone likes Rime, and the other wolves kind of see Dace as stirring up trouble where there doesn’t need to be any.

-rejected, Dace doesn’t see a place in the pack anymore. She strikes out as a lone wolf, intending to eventually start her own pack, though she doesn’t stray far from the sanctuary pack’s territory, unwilling to leave for good just yet.

-an illness sweeps the sanctuary pack. Pack Leader Seven grows ill.

-During Seven’s illness, Rime is thrust into the role of leader prematurely.

-Dace runs into Rime, and Rime breaks down, stressed and overwhelmed by her duties, and explains the situation in the pack. Dace offers to help.

-At Rime’s suggestion, Dace and Eight seek out a healer outside the pack, who helps them make a cure for the illness. They return, and the pack begins to recover.

Year Four:

-Dace returns to the pack unofficially- she claims she’s just resting up before she heads off again. She’s considering staying (the journey having reminded her how nice it is to be part of a pack) but is torn, part of her still wanting to be more ‘important’ (in her mind) and leave a greater legacy.

-Perch confronts her, Dace apologizes for being distant; it’s not made up between them, but they have slightly more common ground than they did before. 

-Seven recovers from her illness. Rime explains the role Dace played in helping the pack survive, and Seven invites Dace back to the pack formally.

-Dace is uncertain; Rime (who doesn’t actually want to be leader) says Dace is a better candidate to be leader than she is, and offers to step down if Dace will return and take her place as apprentice leader. 

-Dace rejoins the pack as apprentice leader

-weakened by her illness, Seven retires as winter approaches again, and Dace takes over as leader in full. 

Year Five:

-struggles to adjust as leader. She enjoys the work, and is good at it, but it's a lot to manage!

-young pack members verand, kit, and uno rebel, and Dace has her paws full managing their antics.

-verand is shot trying to raid a human's farm, drawing the humans into Sanctuary territory. 

Year Six:

-Dace makes the tough call to evacuate Sanctuary territory in order to convince the humans there's no significant wolf presence in the area. The pack disperses in small groups, the better to feed themselves in unfamiliar territory. 

-Most of the most experienced senior pack members retire, leaving Dace and her new, younger council to deal with this threat themselves. 

-Dace worries the pack won't be able to reunite or return home; that she's failed as leader, and the pack's been destroyed under her watch, that she'd relied too much on her senior council members and will fail without them.

-BUT she successfully guides her wolves through the worst of it, and brings everyone home safely. She blames herself for the trouble more than she's comforted by her success, but in her pack's eyes she's proved herself as leader by getting them out of the human's line of fire without anyone dying.

-having missed one another pretty badly when they were dispersed into different groups, Eight and Dace formally become mates again.