Coorah

    The gray she-pup glanced up at her father, her blue gaze looking for any clue as to what he thought of her performance. Hufen's yellow eyes were narrow slits peering out at her, unreadable. Coorah started to giggle. He attempted to hold his taciturn silence, but his face broke into a grin and he shook his head.
    "How do you always know I'm messing with you?"
    "Because you do it every time!" The little gray wolf smiled up at him.
    He told her she had done well as always, and then took his leave. He would have to go and lead a hunt about now, Coorah thought. 'Nice to have a little while with him for training, though,' she smiled and shook out her fur. Hufen was a good father. He always made time for his daughters, even though he was one of the busiest and most important wolves in the pack. Of course, he wasn't actually her real father, but that really had no bearing on her view of things. Coorah was one of the few foundling pups who had no recollection of her old pack or family. As far as she was concerned he was her father and that was that.
    Now, as she headed back toward the hollow she wondered if she would be able to track down her mother. Orynne was the other lead hunter of the pack, and she was... less adept at time management. 'I suppose it's just more good training tracking her down all the time,' Coorah smiled to herself as she arrived in the hollow and set about sniffing out her mother's trail, 'the daughter of two stalkers should have no trouble finding them out, after all!'

—

    Thorn whipped her sister in the nose with her tail as they walked along the deer path toward the river. Coorah snarled, contemplated giving the tempting tail tip a quick nip, then just shook her head. She would be nice since it was a family day. The silver she-wolf did swipe her dark-furred sister on the rump, though, just to let her know that she wasn't rolling over too easily. Thorn yelped, Orynne shot them a flat stare over her shoulder, and Hufen fell for it.
    "Coorah, don't mess with your sister! You're old enough now to know better."
    Thorn grinned back at Coorah triumphantly and the silver wolf blew out a defeated huff. Eventually the four of them reached their usual spot by the river and sat down on their favorite sunning rocks. First order of business was a nap, followed by some fishing. It was their honored tradition, and it was probably the only thing that kept their little family from fighting all of the time. Thorn, though bubblier and generally friendlier than Orynne, was as difficult as their mother where her sister was concerned. Coorah took more after their levelheaded father. Before Coorah and her sister had arrived in the pack, their parents had been coming to this spot to have some time away from the pack. Orynne needed cooling off regularly. After the two sisters had come to join the family, they had been included as well.
    Now, Coorah took this opportunity to settle in next to her mother, who actually turned and shot her a smile. The silver she-wolf returned it happily and they began to chat about the hunting they had done recently, and the fish that they each hoped to catch later on. Similarly, Thorn went to snuggle up with Hufen, but the pair of them just fell asleep immediately, enjoying the sun's warm rays on their fur. Orynne nudged Coorah and pointed, and the pair of them had a good laugh before settling in for their own nap. 'This is going to be a nice day,' Coorah thought with a smile as she dozed off happily.

—

    Coorah looked sidelong at the golden-and-blue-tinged wolf as they sat by the water's edge. She still wasn't sure what to make of him, but it did seem that there was more to him than a fumbly, happy-go-lucky breeding male. 'Breeding male,' she thought with a sharp exhale. That was both an important and an unusual job. He was clearly interested in her, but why? She was younger, ordinary, and rather inconspicuous. She certainly appreciated the attention, she had decided, but she didn't understand it.
    "So, Aleifr. What kind of a name is that?" She began haltingly, realizing that her curiosity may be misconstrued as rudeness.
    "Ah, well. My family is very into following naming conventions. My parents wanted something that followed my father's name well," he explained freely.
    "I see. Your... parents? I know that your father was a breeding male as well, did your mother live here too?"
    Now it was his turn to give her a funny look, "you don't like my job, do you?"
    "No, no! It's not that, I just... have... questions," she trailed off but he nodded encouragingly for her to go on. "I mean, did your father have a mate? How did she, well, share? And how can you be..."
    "Interested in you?" Aleifr finished her thought and she met his gaze with wide blue eyes. "Well, let me explain some things. For a start, no, my father did not ever have a mate. There were she-wolves that made repeat visits, though. My sister's mother was one of them. My own mother was possibly the closest he got. She came to stay with us when we were brought here and they became close." He looked away for a moment, thinking, then returned to Coorah's gaze, "my job is an important one, I suppose, but really all of our jobs are important. I would say, just think of what I do as peacemaking. We do what we do in order to keep the pack safe and that's that. Every wolf that does the job is slightly different, though. The first in this pack, Iaus was my father's mentor, and my father told me he quit the job after a while to focus on his own family. My father seemed to enjoy the job more. He regretted not having a typical family, but he was satisfied with the relationships he had with Ataahua's mother, my mother and the friendships he had within the pack."
    Coorah was looking at him intently now, taking in the very honest information, fascinated. The job of stud was a relatively unspoken about one due to the personal nature of it, so all of this was quite new to her. "What do you think of it?"
    "I think I am satisfied with the fact that I'm serving my pack. But, I don't feel much of anything for the rest of it. Negotiations are quite difficult, and I imagine they'll get even more so once I'm both the alpha and the breeding male. My father handled it quite well, but then, he enjoyed what he did. Making friends all over the place and, well, whatnot. I barely have the focus to do the job on its own, so I'm not sure if I'll keep it, you know? I mean, until recently I've just been goofing off so much with the lads that I hardly even spoke to my son or anyone else that's actually in the pack for that matter. I'm not sure if I can do the job, and what about-"
    Coorah leaped to her paws and barked sharply for him to stop. She was thoroughly bewildered. In this one conversation she had heard everything she needed to hear, and way too much more. He was this fantastic wolf who took his job so seriously, cared about others, was bluntly honest about everything, was going to be alpha, wait- Was going to be alpha? Did he say son?! "Y- you have a son? You're going to be alpha? You just cannot possibly be interested in me, no way. Absolutely not, you need to reconsider and I need to just walk downriver here and have a moment."
    And she did.
    About an hour later she was shaking her head at her reflection. She smiled slightly at the replaying thoughts of her earlier words. The conclusion had been reached that she had overreacted- rightly so, of course, but she had overreacted nonetheless. She would be lucky to have a mate like him, and she could learn to "share," which wasn't totally fair now that she had heard what he had to say, if that meant he could keep doing such good things for the pack. Just about then she heard soft footfalls shifting the pebbles of the riverbank and she turned to see Aleifr approaching cautiously.
    "I'm so sorry. I shouldn't've... just give me a moment to try to salvage this, please?"
    Coorah just smiled, closed the distance between them and said, "it's alright. I'm convinced. But I am meeting your son first."

—

    Coorah smiled uncertainly at Winnie in the foggy twilight as Aleifr gathered his party together and briefed them again on the plan. The younger wolf tried to smile back, but all he could manage was a grimace. Coorah knew he was upset that Ale hadn't included him in the party or the planning, and she understood. She wasn't going either, and Aleifr wasn't brining any real fighters with him— unless you counted Orynne, who could fight but was an elder now. She could understand the alpha's point that the other packs were bringing plenty of fighters and he was hoping to not have to fight anyway, but she still thought it was crazy and irresponsible.
    Aleifr finished his brief and made his way over to his family. He smiled confidently at them and got half-smiles in return.
    "Everything will be fine, I'm sure of it. Even so, I don't want either of you anywhere near this thing should it blow up in our faces."
    "Ah, right. Total confidence," Winnie huffed in an uncharacteristic bout of sarcasm.
    "I feel much the same way, especially since my mother has decided to go along, but I am confident in you, Aleifr. I know that if there is a way to end this you can find it and she can pull you through," Coorah piped up, nuzzling her mate.
    A couple of hours passed, and in an exciting turn of events the fog dropped and revealed that it was not in fact night, the missing wolves returned, and Raea even returned to her usual friendly, happy self. Coorah oversaw the check-ins with each wolf, and with Nila since she had been out in the fog. She couldn't say exactly about their health without Nicht, but their minds seemed to be sound and their spirits were high. After that, the silver she-wolf waited.
    Night fell and Coorah was still waiting. Most wolves had taken to their dens or sleeping spaces, but Coorah couldn't sleep. Aleifr and his party were still out there somewhere. The minutes ticked by and the she-wolf could feel herself slipping into sleep. Her eyes slid closed and she sunk down to the ground and curled up with a yawn. The next thing she knew she was being nudged awake and the sun was cresting over the trees.
    She groaned and looked up, wanting to go back to sleep. A familiar, colorful face grinned down at her and she scrambled to her paws to cover it with licks. Aleifr laughed, the sound bringing relief and comfort to the silver she-wolf.
    "I was sure you would be back! I tried to wait up for you, but I must've dozed off sometime. I'm so happy you're home!"
    "Of course you were. Your instincts generally tend to be right, you know," Aleifr told her with another smile.

—

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