441 -__-__-__-462-472-486-504-522-546-568-595, 625, 659, 732, 774, 818, 865, 910
This wolf is now level 20!
+2 Max HP, +7 agility, +16 speed, +4 wisdom, +7 smarts, +6 strength
Xelia had finished some much-needed re-organization.
It had taken several months, but she (and the pack) had hit a point where it became obvious that the teams and structures her grandmother had set up were good, but not quite what Xelia needed to successfully run the pack in her stead.Â
She had disbanded the original hunting parties, and opened hunting trials to the entire pack, including some of the adolescent wolves in the preliminaries. Every interested wolf tested for a place in the new parties, eclectically named after the elemental chakras.
Many of the wolves from the original parties passed the retrial, including one of the most well-known hunting pairs -- Fex and Ren. They, along with former scout Iris, Kerowyn, and Moomin Valley stud, Kotobuki made up the strongest and craftiest party -- Wind Chakra. A lot of wolves groaned at the name, but Xelia needed something she would remember, and chakras would be hard to forget.
The Fire Chakra party was made up of some of their younger, promising wolves -- like the impressive but bumbling Starfall and Orvethi -- and some older, more experienced wolves -- like Sapphire, Damen, and Orchid.
Last, and temporarily least was the Lightning Chakra party. These wolves were less naturally gifted for the hunt, but showed intense drive and determination to grow as hunters. Xelia banded them together to foster their drive to improve and support their pack. In the meantime the critters they do manage to catch are wonderful meals for the young pups in the pack.
Xelia sighed, and scratched a weary dewclaw over her snout. How had her grandmother done it? The needs of the pack seemed endless, and despite her hard work over the past two seasons, she still felt as though she lacked the strength and stamina to keep everything up and running.
They had been running short on prey for several months now. Everyone was getting fed -- barely. Sometimes they had been resorting to trading with neighboring packs for prey -- and this was in spring and summer! How were they going to survive winter at this rate?
She gently thumped down, and let the cool stone alleviate some of the summer warmth roasting her, even in the den. The situation wasn't hopeless -- her newer hunters just needed to keep at it. Some of them were showing some promise -- a sign the pack was breathlessly awaiting after the anxiety of losing some of their best experienced hunters to retirement as pupsitters. The problem was -- they learned the most from hunting larger prey, and, if they were able to take it down, they fed more of their pack members with them. However, the newbies were still learning mastering use of their claws and teeth, and their fumbling at critical points in the hunt meant even medium-sized prey still regularly escaped the hunting teams. Additionally, Xelia herself was still struggling with managing the hunting parties. How had Andromeda made this look so simple? It was a miracle if the hunting parties managed to attempt 3 hunts each today. Under Andromeda sometimes the hunting parties went on as many as 7 hunts each per day! Xelia took a deep breath and huffed it out. The recent pack meet she had called would help. Some of their older wolves had agreed to leave and try to join some of the neighboring packs. They were the loners who never found their niche, or those with the itch to wander. A few more pack members were considering. She knew one or two of the younger wolves had been making eyes at some of the other neighboring wolves during their last food trade. . . . A quiet boof came from the den entrance. With a shake, she stood and strode out to meet Damen. He would have news from the hunt.
