Nattljus 🌿✒️

"We need to talk," her mothers voice was more stern than usual, "you can't have that attitude around Nypon, it's hurting her."
Nattljus was distraught when hearing this.
"I'm taking care of her, unlike you!" She lashed out. Her mother, Skivling, had been training and caring for Nattljus when she was younger, but when her next litter were weaned, she basically just left them in the packs territory and went back to her herbalist cave alone, "she needs a mother and you're not there for her!"
"That's enough! I'm taking Nypon with me so she can be away from your negativity for a while," Skivling said and left. Nattljus watched her walk away, and then sat down, still for a bit while thoughts rumbled in her mind. She had tried her best to be there for her little sister, but appearently she had only hurt her more than her absent mother had. This made her heart heavy. She didn't get to see Nypon for a long time, and when Skivling finally showed up in the territory again, Nattljus heart raced thinking she would see her sister again. But no. Skivling asked Nattljus to check in on a neighbouring pack. Nattljus did as she was asked, of course. The pack had no herbalist, and for some reason Skivling couldn't visit them. Nattljus helped them, and went back home. But something drew her back. The place they had her work in smelled familiar somehow, and as she sat there working on some cures, a very familiar-looking wolf peeked up at her. It was a small, young male, with deep blue eyes and dark fur, just like Nypon.
-
Nattljus got a nasty wound while hunting, and she did put salves on it, but it didn't seem to get better. After weeks of it getting worse, it was too painful for her to touch it herself and she could barely walk anymore. She decided it just needed time to heal.
She was wrong, and eventually it got so bad that she had no other choice, she had to go find her old packs herbalist.
She wasn't surprised when she found out who it was.
-
After getting healed by her sister, and catching up, and promising to be back soon, Nattljus limped her way back to her pack. She had been gone for longer than she had thought.
"There you are! Gunnela needs some help with her pregnancy," The oldest of the wolves in this family, Gärda, commanded her. Gunnela is pregnant? Nattljus was surprised, as this pack didn't interact with outside packs. As Nattljus was examining the pregnant belly and concluding nothing to be wrong at the moment, she made a passing remark about how nice it is that she found a suitable stud.
"It wasn't a stud," Gunnela informed, "Frode and I have been.. seeing eachother for a while now, I hope you're okay with that."
"Oh," at first Nattljus didn't think about it, then after a while she realized why this was turning her stomach. In her old pack, it was forbidden for the four royal families to mate with eachother, as they all shared one common ancestor: the original alpha, Tyr. The era of Tyr was so long ago, no one alive had even known someone who knew someone who knew her, so the royal families were almost not related at all, but it would be difficult to choose which family the pups would belong to and so it had been strictly forbidden and taboo. How did this matter? Well, Nattljus knew something that these wolves didn't know about themselves. Since Frode was the son of Nattljus' aunt, he was of the Ull bloodline. And all the other wolves in this family were descendants of Himle, who had once been a part of the Skade family. Those were two of the royal families.
"I don't care," Frode said when Nattljus told him. Nattljus couldn't help it, she pressed on, but Frode didn't even care that he was technically a prince! But the news got out, and this family couldn't handle such news. Every one of these wolves were extremely agressive, and each of them had a different idea of what to do. One of them didn't think the pups should live, one of them thought since they're royals they should take over the old pack, one thought they had a good ife as it is, one thought they should move back and be a part of the old pack, and many more. They didn't discuss, they argued, and a bloody fight started. Nattljus was in time to get two young adolescent woves away from the scene, so they wouldn't have to see their siblings like this.
When Nattljus emerged from the cave the next day, leaving the two sleeping pups behind, the den was eerily empty. The only ones left were Frode and Gunnela, along with Gärda, and some weird unrelated wolf they didn't know.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to start anything," Nattljus said as she was burned by Gunnelas orange fire eyes.
"It's fine. They were idiots," Gunnela decided, "Are the pups alright?"
"They're sleeping," Nattljus informed before nervously stating, "I should probably leave."
"No, you're staying. I need you to take care of me and my pups," Gunnela said and then she sighed, "especially if it is true that they might have.. complications."
Nattljus nodded.