Featherstep Pack
He was only out here because he'd caught a scent. His parents had been lone wolves, their pack decimated by raids and sickness seasons before he was born. They'd been content with their solitude, preaching that their own good company was all they needed, but Dot wanted more. He'd smelled other wolves roaming the crags, but he'd never ventured far enough to find them, never followed their scents to their owners. He'd been too young, in truth, to dream of leaving the comfort and safety of his parents. But, now, he was old enough to fend for himself, he thought.
He spotted a flash of brown moving between the grey and white of the slope. He barked a greeting, and moved forwards, hoping he'd correctly assumed the form to be a wolf. If it was a bear, he was screwed. He wasn't skilled enough to take one down, and he was already tired from the climb up here. He doubted he could outrun it.
Two glowing eyes, the color of the pinesap that leaked from broken branches, met his. Her face was a muted brown, her fur thick, and the flakes of snow that speckled her muzzle and back gave her an almost ethereal quality. As though only now realizing that he was not a threat, she made her way down the cliff face with a grace Dot thought belonged only to wolves of myth. She was beautiful.
Her name was Poppyseed, she told him. She was a lone wolf, too, and like Dottorel, she wanted a pack, a family. Her parents had died when she was young, leaving her to fend for herself. She'd lived through winter because of the kindness of a mother puma, who's cubs had perished to the icy blizzards that so often swept the peaks.
The two started traveling together, and what was once a partnership that was intended to survive the spring crept into the summer, and what was once a friendship became something more. Their pups were born in late autumn, a boy and a girl, Aspen and Chrysanthemum.
Realizing he could start a life here, despite the snow, the scarcity, the strife inherent in their territory, Dottorel began seeking out others who had no family to call their own. Finch and Passerine were the first, both capable hunters in their own rights. Starling and Kestrel came soon after. Starling was clever, and had a natural talent for finding and using the herbs that Kestrel found as she scouted their lands and expanded their domain. Starling's salves and tinctures saved their hides more times than Dottorel could count; when a cut near Chrysanthemum's eye began to fester, threatening the pup's vision and life, Starling managed to halt the infection in its tracks.
Aegolius, Meadowlark, and Songbird were all pups when Dottorel found them. They were frail things, shivering in the winter's cold. Poppyseed took them from her mate and nursed them to health in the warmth of her den, imbuing them with life and love where they had been bereft. The triad grew into capable pack members alongside Dottorel's own, and assured the lead wolf that the new generation of his pack would follow in his vision.
(9/2/24) - Chrysanthemum and Aegolius, both of whom had been longing for the other since their days as apprentices, made a pact between them, to love and cherish each other until the day they met their end. Their commitment inspired others in the pack, including Chrysanthemum's brother Aspen, and Meadowlark. Aspen took charge of Meadowlark's pups, treating them as his own, although they were not of his blood.
So too did Finch and Passerine and Kestrel and Starling form such bonds between themselves. Though perhaps unorthodox for two she-wolves to form such a pairbond, Kestrel and Starling cared not, and set new precedent for the Featherstep Pack. (Let's go lesbians!)
Seeing that his children had found in their partners what he had found in Poppyseed, who had proved herself a capable partner in love and in leadership, Dottorel decided that the leadership of the Featherstep Pack would follow in his line; all leaders to come would share his blood.
Note to Self: Feed your wolves!!
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