A Leader's Questions...

Codac had approached this strange gathering with a cautious sense of curiosity. He knew he had come a long way from Lake Fellworm, as he'd never seen such a wide assortment of wolves in his familiar mountains. Staying on the outskirts, he listened to the conversation with interest, before deciding to join in. The question made his ears perk up with interest, since names were an important part of his pack culture. 

"Codac is a name I gave myself," He explained softly, keeping his gaze fixed on the distant sky. "When I left my first pack, they called me Koda-"  There was a slight edge to his voice, and he felt himself bristle slightly at the memory. "It meant Traitor. No one left that place, even when everything fell apart. After I made it out, I decided that the wolf I had been died there, and I turned that word into my name." His expression softened, and in his eyes you could see a gleam of self-satisfaction before he turned to the next stranger. 

"How did you decide on the laws of your pack, if you have them?" 

The male was intrigued by the wolf's story, his ears perked. Codac's story sounded similar to that of one of his old pack-members stories. Though Scathos was sure there was more than one tyrant running around. So he shrugged it off and stepped forward to answer the male's question. "Most of the pack laws are based on keeping our pack-members safe. My queen, along with the Pack Lord, Lady, Herbalist, and Sage gathered to decide on the pack laws. Laws that don't have anything to do with keeping the pack safe, either have to do with breeding, pups, and those that wish to join the pack." He replied. "While some are strict, it's strict for a reason. I can not risk bringing danger into my pack."

He paused thinking of his answer, ears flickering as he thought. "Are there any ranks within your pack that others might consider odd, or just un-needed?" Scathos knew some packs had strange ranks, or at least strange names for normal ranks. So it would be interesting to hear the awnser.

Snowden bowed his head to the other leader and smirked “well I do have a elites den I keep my finest mates there” he winked and sat Straight smiling fondly “they are females who are seen to have the finest coats in all of the lands” he smirked “gorgeous gals really and the training they are doing will make any elk drop in their tracks” he chuckled softly “they will produce the next heir to the Sleeping Hollow pack” he zoned out a bit staring into the forest with a small smile, one filled with hope. 

Zoning back in the chuckled and nudged the other next alpha “so do you have a favorite member? One that makes your heart skip a beat every time  you see them?” 

Rain had zoned out from the conversation, and was brought back to reality by the male's nudge. She perked her ears as she heard the question, and became kind-of flustered. She had dipped her head and had a paw on her muzzle. "Well, I suppose that would be my mate," Her ears flopped to the side like an embarrassed pup as she spoke. "Crystal is honestly the best wolf I've ever met. And to be completely honest, my heart still skips a beat when I see her, though I've known her for nearly five years." It seems the gray shewolf was rather embarrassed by the question, but she happily admitted her love for the beautiful white shewolf. 

Rain raised her head and shook out her ears, clearing her throat. She wanted to change the topic, at least change the attention from her. She picked a wolf nearby at random, and tapped her paw to get their attention. "How do you feel about your children? Do you give them better treatment than the pups of other wolves? Do they get the same treatment and judgement? Are you proud of them? Or maybe disappointed? Do share." 

The huge female flicked an ear as she listened to the answer from Codac, slightly smiling for herself. It was a good story of growth, in her opnion. She turned her head at the tapping, facing the other skarn female before averting her yellow gaze to the ground as the topic got about pups.

"All the pups that I have ever beared either were stillborn or died shortly after." She softly responded, her black ears dropping a bit. "However." Katona cleared her throat, raising her head again as she spoke with a confident voice.

"I believe that while you of course love your pups more than anyone's else, you are still the leader. You CANNOT give them special treatment simply because of the shared blood link. It doesn't mean shit if they are endangering your pack's wellfare, and you shouldn't prioritize them more than the other kiddos. You might do so just out of pure instinct when danger arrives, and it sure as hell hurts when you loose your offspring. But, you have to think about your pack members. Do they deserve to loose their pups as a sacrifice to save your own? No one can blame if you do so, but in order to be a better leader, you might just have to do things like that.

Special treatment is a no no. My pack ain't no aristocracy where you can pull of reckless dumb shit just because of whose womb you slipped out from. I don't belive that it's a very good future you set up with dynasty like that for your pack's future. No one likes entitled brats, so I wouldn't want to raise any. I think I did a fairly good job with my partner's pup from a surrogate- Ah, sorry, I’m rather not reveal further information about that. 

You might disagree, but that's how we do it here." She concluded, now searching for a moment with her gaze before picking another wolf to give a question to.

"Do you strictly live in one area or do you change up the locations everynow and then? And why do you do so?  Perhaps it's too much a hassle to change, or maybe you follow after the prey?"

Stormstar looked amused for a moment, and said "We rarely change the location anymore, as we now don't need to do it as often as in the beginning. Yes, we weren't that good at hunting, so we went wherever the prey went, and that lasted until last solar cycle, when we understood that we didn't need to do that all the time, haha. Oh, those were confusing times... " She trailed off, looking up to the clouds dreamily for a moment. Then she shook herself and asked to no wolf in particular :" How do you make decisions in your pack? Do you have some sort of counsel? Or you leaders make all decisions without hearing other wolves' voices?"

Amaris was startled by this question ''Of course not, I would never make a decision without permission of the pack.''

She turned to her companion ''Isn't that right Blossom?''.

Enchanted Blossom looked at Amaris with a small smile,

''Yes it is true, Amaris always asks the pack before doing something that involves us. She is very careful not to endanger the pack by making a bad choice.''

Amaris held her head high after hearing this and was greatly pleased with Enchanted Blossom's reply.

She turned her head slightly and nodded ''You may ask the next question if you'd like!''.

Enchanted Blossom looked around and spotted a good looking wolf,

''How do you chose what wolf goes to what role, is it mainly about their skills or is it about attitude and passion?''

Zara had noticed that Enchanted Blossom looked at her. She had come here to gain inforamtion, hang out with other packs and have some fun. Shaking her black-and-white-masked head with an arnica crown atop it, she began to talk:

"I do niether. My pack is all about the family and support. Wolves sing up, I look into their predisposition that's bassed off of stats and try to fit them into a role where they may shine the brightest. Of course, if the wolf has a strong enough will for their wish, they're welcome to try and train. I never make my pack mates do what they don't want to and yet we are flexible enough to mix up the duties when needed and later return to our respective jobs when the dust lays down again."

Zara coughed a little and rose her voice:

"Tell me, what traditions your pack holds for the courting, mating and the time of and before birth? The Love Sunrises (Valintine) will soon be upon us, I'd like to know how does the culture of it look like in your family?"

Bucharest looks at the other male for a moment before nodding, the wings on his head flexing slightly with nerves. "Everyone that joins the bunker gets a choice to change their names and so do the pups when they get older." He says voice raspy and quite beneath the muzzle. 

He looks away for a moment his tail flicking behind him. "Pups often don't get named by their parents at all, they usually just leave it to when their older, they pups will often times just chose a name that their friends gave them or really just any name one of the older bunker mates give them." He explained. "More often than not pups will try to name themselves after their wing colors," Bucharest said a huff of laughter escaping him, "They get shot down for that one by Wintir due to an old bunker mate that chose a color and then got really confused because he became blind due to the air soon after."

A sad frown came over his face at that, "He never did get to see the color blue again.." He said quietly his eyes towards the ground in mourning of an old packmate.

Bucharest shook himself after a moment, he turned to a newcomer and smiled at them with his muzzled jaws, "How goes your training of younger pups? I imagine it's harder than our solution of shoving them off roofs and hoping they fly" He joked with a small smile.