Raalia

When Raalia brings you a gift with a confident smile, you know that they spent a considerable amount of their time picking the perfect thing. You appreciate it as much as the gift itself.

    Raalia shook herself and fluffed up her fur against the cold, her small frame shivering in the chill moor wind. Her pack had moved abruptly as was their custom and she had strayed too far from them playing to notice, so she had been left behind. Her mother had always warned her not to play too far away from her lest she come back to an empty camp, but she had never thought that they would really leave her. At first she had been afraid and hurt, but as the days went by she settled into the routine of staying focused and moving forward.
    She was an efficient little hunter already, the training regiment within her pack being rigorous and applied early. The large game of the moor was beyond her, of course, but there were plenty of little scurrying creatures to hunt as she traveled. She mostly followed the fast-fading scent trails left by her pack, but eventually those petered out and she was left wandering. Now she was considering going west as she was told never to do, because somewhere out there would be the edge of the moor and warmer weather, or, at least, less wind.
    Her mother had told her stories of their struggle against the packs of the valley on many occasions, always stressing the importance of staying on the moor if she wanted to remain safe. The packs of the west had more or less joined together in some all-powerful alliance or some such under a former moor-dwelling pack that had been chased away by a fire quite a few years ago. Historically this Redfeather pack was supposed to be a great enemy of the Cereus Pack, and they were widely known within Cereus lands to be quite evil.
    Raalia wasn't quite as sure as she had been before that Cereus Pack weren't the evil ones for practicing such abominable treatment of their members, so she headed straight for the valley that very night and didn't look back until she had already been scooped up by a passing patrol.

—

    Young Raalia trotted after her mentor excitedly. She dearly hoped that this time something would happen and she'd have a more dramatic story to bring back to her friends. Idrit kept an even pace in front of her, though, with no sign that he saw any trouble ahead. Raalia let out a little groan at the thought of telling Anahera and Raea that nothing much had happened on her mission... again. At this Idrit shot her a look over his shoulder, one eyebrow raised, and she quieted down before she looked ahead once more and her eyes went wide.
    Idrit shook his head, thinking this was just an attempt to scare him and cause mischief, but the exasperated look on his face was wiped away as he was swatted to the side by a big paw. He let out a surprised yelp as he thudded to the ground and began scrambling to his feet once more. While he struggled to get his bearings Raalia was left staring face-to-face at the largest brown bear she had ever seen— and she had seen some brown bears in her mischief-causing days. The bear let out a roar of hot, stinking breath and moved to swipe again, but Raalia was too quick. She ducked beneath the paw and scurried behind the bear, seeking to at least turn it away from Idrit so he could jump on it or something.
    Idrit did no such thing, however, and instead shouted at her to stop fooling around and run! Raalia stared incredulously at her mentor who himself was now scrambling into the underbrush, then just barely ducked another paw swipe and took off after him.
    The bear did not seem to think this was acceptable, as he came crashing after them with a hot rage in his voice as he roared. Before long he was hot on Raalia's tail. After a few close calls the young scout apprentice caught up to her mentor and gave him a hard swipe on the rump herself, calling him out indignantly for leaving her behind. There was no more time to think about that, however, and the two wove their way through the brush, narrowly avoiding getting their tails clamped in the hot jaws of the angry bear.
    Eventually the pair of scouts found a suitable cliff face to scrabble up, and while the bear took his time climbing it due to his immense size and weight, the smaller, nimbler wolves were up and away before he even reached halfway up. Raalia grinned as they ran, causing Idrit to grimace, but unable to contain her excitement at what her friends would say to this daring escapade when she got home.

—

    The scout padded through the forest silently, barely stirring the fall leaves as she passed by looking for anything out of order. So far she had found nothing, and, though her younger self would have been bored and appalled at the prospect of not bringing any exciting stories home, her current self was pleased. An uneventful scouting mission meant safety for her pack, she now understood. These days she was content to find nothing, and that she had. She had been out all morning, since before the predawn birdsong had begun, so now she was headed home and quite ready for some breakfast and a bit of a nap in the nearly midday sun.
    Just before she reached the hollow, though, she felt the stir of her hackles as a familiar hot breath touched her ruff. She spun around just as the giant paw came for her, it connected with her skull and sent her sprawling onto the ground. Her ears ringing, she dragged herself to her feet and shook her head, trying to clear it to no avail. The bear was advancing now, ready to pounce once more, so Raalia began to back away and then took off. The bear came roaring after her, and she knew better than to lead it toward the hollow, but she also knew that this bear really had it out for her to the point of tracking her down on many occasions, and so he either had to be led off for good or put down once and for all. For either of those options she would need some backup.
    As she came upon the hollow she let out a howl to alert her packmates to the trouble, and several wolves came running to her aid. They only balked slightly when they saw that the trouble of the day was the very giant bear they had been warned and told about so many times, and Raalia barked at them to shake them out of their shock.
    "We either need to kill him once and for all, or we're gonna need to take leading him away in shifts to get him far enough away that he won't come back!"
    Idrit fell in beside her and shook his head, "is that even possible? This is as much his territory as it is ours, and I'm thinking he won't want to abandon it just like that!"
    "I think it's worth a shot," Winnie piped up as he and Rasp joined the pack, "he's clearly powerful... I don't know that we'd defeat a bear like him without some kind of loss."
    Rasp simply nodded as they ran, looking back over his shoulder at the bear who was again closing the distance between them.
    Idrit nodded as well and Raalia knew he was resigning himself to the long run ahead of them. Hopefully this would be the end of her struggle with this guy, but she knew deep down he'd be back even if it took him a while to get there.

—

    When Aleifr had first approached her years ago about having a litter of pups Raalia had laughed and shook the suggestion off. However, once he explained his idea that the alpha and the best scout's pups would probably become great hunters for the pack she had seen the light of it. Now, as she watched their son trot back into the hollow with the day's catch she smiled to herself, thinking he would figure perfectly into her new plan. Her latest pups, Sorcor and Drelas, were going to be fantastically strong, she could tell, and they would make perfect alpha candidates when it came time for the pack to choose another successor.
    She, of course, would be working against the general rule— if not law, depending on who she spoke to— of familial succession within Hakaan's line, but frankly she didn't care. Her pups were made to be alphas, and she would see to it that they had the best. She had never been an ambitious wolf for her own sake, per se, but ambition on behalf of her pups was another matter entirely. She supposed it was partially out of fear that she put together these plans, and she knew that fear was largely unfounded because the Redfeathers were altogether more compassionate than her birth pack had been, but how could she not secure her sons' futures?
    She had told Arnfinn of her scheme and he had been angry with her. She understood, sort of, but then she also thought he ought to have his brothers' futures in mind as well. She had suggested that he might use his status as Aleifr's son to open the way for Sorcor or Drelas to take over, so perhaps he had been upset that she hadn't wanted him to take the spot? She had only figured that with his status he would be safe within the pack either way, and that the younger two did were not afforded such a luxury.
    "Either way, it seems I am on my own in this," she told her two sleeping sons as she sat in the shade of her den, "I do not fault him, though. We'll do just fine on our own, won't we?"

—

    Raalia smiled around her at the morning light coming through her part of the thicket. She gave a quick stretch and shook out her fur, picking her way out into the light of the hollow. A few wolves nodded respectfully at her as she emerged from the tangled bushes, and she responded in kind. They continued on their own way and she set off to seek out her sons.
    Sorcor and Drelas had taken to the roles of king and beta like fish to water. She was incredibly proud. As always, a moment of regret made her pause, and, as always, she allowed the feeling to wash over her. It had been unfortunate that her son had been taken in by her old pack's devious alpha, and it was even worse that his rise to power had driven out half the pack. She had never meant for her family to cause such problems for their own pack, but they seemed to have fed off of her ambitions for them and taken it too far. There was not much she could do about that at that moment, however, and she instead renewed her resolve to help Rasp, Faleeah and her gentler daughters to sway Sorcor back toward reason.
    She told herself that that would have to be enough, and continued on her way.
    As she neared the sounds of an argument, she felt a surge of confidence. Sorcor was liking the influence of the Cereus pack less and less the more she and her allies bolstered him toward independence and good. The Cereus alpha himself whipped his gaze in her direction, narrowed his eyes at her, and swirled into mist as she approached. Her son let out an exasperated sigh, took a deep breath and turned toward her with a tired smile.
    "Ah, I'm so very glad you saw that," Sorcor's tone dripped with the kind of tired sarcasm that comes with fond familiarity. Raalia could see that his poised and ruthless facade was slipping.
    "My son," the she-wolf began, "saw what? You were not the wolf to retreat."
    Sorcor narrowed his eyes in suspicion, "and your meaning is...?"
    Raalia only smiled and steered her son toward the mouth of his den. Once there she sat and he followed with a weary thud. She turned her face to regard him warmly, "you have your own plans, and you are unafraid to face those oppressive brutes down and continue doing exactly what you want to do. This makes you the victor, don't you see? They have no hold over you as is right, and you have no need of them."
    Sorcor pressed his eyes shut and took a deep breath in, "Raalia. Mother. We have been over this, they have gained control. Taking it back is going to take time, not to mention a careful plan. Do not rush me."
    Raalia could barely conceal the satisfied, and moreover relieved, smile that threatened to break out over her face. She simply nodded sagely and touched her forehead to her son's briefly. He was on the right path.

[657 Trained!]
[~585 Starting]