Hope G2

How you manage to survive without pupsitters your whole life, and never being trained or even fed, is beyond me ;-;
Arrggh now I'm getting attached!!
Kinda fitting your optimistic lol

Hope's first memories of the pack were always from a distance. Her mother never allowed her to come into the packs camp, yet she still seemed to know that being near them meant safety. All attempts at trying to enter the camp, or to even approach her mother were met with failure, her mother making sure she stayed away. She no longer needed the milk, but she still very much needed her mother, and a family.

Looking back, she never really knew how she survived. She scavenged food from tiny rodents she managed to catch, or taking small scraps of meat from the packs hoard. Luckily she was born during the summer months, so despite having to sleep through the cold every night, it was manageable. She didn't know why her own mother drove her away, but she made sure to stay out of sight of the other wolves, in case they might harm her. However, there was this one red wolf who knew she was there. He never directly approached her, but there was always curiosity and a kindness there she never understood. He sometimes left pieces of hunts nearby for her, but she noticed how he also took measures to not let other wolves see this, namely her mother. Besides this confusing piece of information, these offerings were her first taste of bigger prey, she always ate well and went to bed full, those being the best days she could remember during her hard life as a pup.

She had been near the camp resting one day, when she was woken up by a commotion coming from the pack. Her mother had finally passed away. She had a hard time grasping what had happened, and all the pain from her abandonment rose up again. She was capable of speech, her having picked it up while still nursing, but just now she realized, she never once even heard her mothers name. She never worried about something as trivial at that when your a pup in a whelping den, but now, the chance long passed, it dawning on her, the fact that she didnt even know what her mothers name was. She was just as alien to her as the other wolves she watched at a distance all this time. All this hit her in the worst pain imaginable, but something else caught her attention. The red male who sometime brought her food, he was arguing intensely with a grey female, the one she already had guessed was the leader of this pack. A dark blue and black male stood nearby, sitting submissively, clearly looking ashamed and guilty. She wasn't able to pick up what they had been arguing about, but she does know that from then on, the red male stopped bringing things to her, and now whenever he looked at her, there was always a deep anger and hurting in his eyes.

Time passed. The red male had sadly passed away too. Her feelings were mixed and confusing, but did know that she owed him a great deal, and was the only wolf she had some semblance of a bond with besides her mother. The lead female had also passed, being replaced by a Russet wolf. She was very different than the intimidating pale grey one, but still had an air of strong authority.

She had considered several times working up the courage to join, or just leave for good, and try and make a new life, but always found herself being too scared to decide on either. However, After a strange meeting, she found herself not having to pick after all. She woke up in her den, to find the russet female approaching her from a distance. She immediately jumped to a defensive stance, not knowing whether she was here to talk to her, or drive her out once and for all, but the leader simply stopped a ways away and chuckled.
"Heh no need to worry little one. I'm not here to hurt you. Ive heard talk about a young red pup wandering around outside the camp for a long while now. I'm now rather surprised to find your not a pup anymore, but almost a young adult. Tell me, are you Redbriar's daughter?"
That question had caught her so off guard and hit her harder than a kick to the gut. She could only stare in shocked silence as her tail lowered and fur lay down flat. Redbriar?….Was that her mothers name? Redbriar…. She turned the word around in her head, whispering it to herself.
"Oh so you can talk" The she-wolf piped up. "I know pups learn to talk while still with their mothers, but I wasn't sure if you remembered any of it after…." She trailed off, looking away abruptly. regretting having brought it up like that. They both stood there a while, the pup seemingly frozen, and the she-wolf trying to figure out how to respond. The female finally took a tentative step toward the pup, and after no aggressive response from the red wolf, padded over and sat down beside her.
"You know, its almost unheard of for a pup to survive completely alone outside a pack. Let alone making it all the way to where you are now, unscathed. How'd you manage for all this time?" She asked softly.
It was a while before the pup responded to the question, her brain constantly turning. She warily sat down with her, then finally spoke. It came out as a croaking rasp, her struggling to talk after such a long time. "Just lucky I guess" she whispered. "On the days i got close to starving, a red wolf would come and bring me food from your hunts." She murmured guiltily.
"Inferno I'm guessing." Aster stated with a sigh "We have a lot to talk about it seems. I cant speak for the actions of Redbriar or any of the others, but maybe i can explain it to you. You more than deserve to know what went on." She stood and started walking away, toward the camp before turning back. "That is, if you want to." There was a pause of yet more silence before she continued. "You know you do have family there. A few of the wolves there are even your half-siblings. Your father is still alive too, albeit very old now. But we should probably have our discussion before meeting him. The offer is up to you." She said as she turned and walked away back toward the camp.
The pup could only sit there in shocked silence. Unable to speak and having a hard time working it all out beyond her flood of emotions. She finally knew her mothers name! And the name of the red wolf she owed so much to. Not only that, she actually had family, so close to her all this time yet out of reach. But did she want to know what had happened? Why her mother left her to die so long ago? Or would she rather let it all get buried and move on?
She didn't know when she decided, simply found herself running after the female, catching up to her breathlessly. They padded along side by side for a little while, before soon seeing the entrance to the packs camp in the distance. She recognized the smells of all the wolves she had seen from afar but never knew. The female turned her head and smiled. "I'm Aster by the way. What do you call yourself?" The pup looked down at the ground, unsure what to say. She knew the concept of names and knew that every wolf had one, that it described who that wolf was, but never thought about what to call herself. Redbriar never having bothered to name her. She pondered it a while before thinking back on her life. She grinned as she finally picked one that seemed fitting.
"I'm Hope, call me Hope."