Sunsettia

It was the beginning of fall when Russet passed away, leaving Riverpaw without his trusty beta by his side. The alpha spent that evening and night patrolling the perimeters of the pack's territory rather than resting. First, traversing the mountain peaks, then walking through the tall grasses of the prairie. Riverpaw weaved between the trees as he walked the border between the grasslands, the homeland of Russet's former pack, not daring set a paw on that soil under the weight of that night. He quickly made his way to the deltas and crossed the river, and in the first hours of a new day, he began his trek along the riverbanks on the edge of the coniferous forest with a tired mind and cold, wet fur. Just as he was nearing the edge of the forest, the stress and grief of the past 36 hours caught up to the alpha; he became fevered and lost his strength. As he lay there on the rocky bank, Riverpaw witnessed a large reddish fruit sprout legs and emerge from the gnarly branches of an old, fallen tree, and as the fruit slowly approached him, he lost consciousness.

The fruit was a wolf as it turns out, named Sunsettia and still an adolescent. Upon waking up, Riverpaw foregoes asking how she healed him, nor does he wonder why she is alone. He simply declares that he dreamt of this pup becoming pack leader in his stead and brings her with him to return to the pack. When they returned it quickly became evident that Sunsettia was not accustomed to interacting with other wolves, however she is exceedingly evasive when questioned about the circumstances surrounding her isolation. Sandtail, the alpha's first-born son and current stand-in for beta, coordinated a diversified training regimen to prepare Sunsettia for the responsibility of succeeding alpha role. She shadowed a different pack member every couple weeks to learn many different skills, and to essentially force her to get to know the pack members she is going to be leading soon.

Six months after the passing of Russet, Riverpaw also succumbed to the eternal sleep. A ceremony was thrown by the pack to celebrate Riverpaw's excellent leadership and to welcome Sunsettia into her new position. It was a high-spirited event, and the wolf of honor was presented with the gold collar worn by the former alpha, as well as beautifully preserved flora carefully chosen to match her pelt. Together, the pack feasted upon their best kills, drank the juice of aged fruits, and sang a joyous song until long after the moon was high, and thus Sunsettia began her lead of the Silver Star Pack.

The morning that the Silver Star Pack was set to relocate to the Coniferous Forest, Sunsettia awoke to the sight of a Mountain Bluebird flying overhead. It's song heralded their journey, and the unusually confident bird remained near the pack, keeping them all under his watchful gaze ever since. It was this keen birds-eye view that led Sunsettia to find and adopt 3 fox kits that strangely, do not seem to age with the passing of moons.