Rhetoric

Doesn't shut up and doesn't respect others' boundaries

Rhetoric struggled to fit into Piedra's pride from the very beginning. She hesitated to adapt, afraid of losing her identity. The dark and unusual spectral eyed wolf watched in squirming discomfort as her once closest companion, her half brother, Tormenta slowly began to reject and shun Rhetoric when around other wolves besides Jeremiah.

Jeremiah was their hunting lead, and she was beginning to grow on Rhetoric. The colorful wolf with a blue nose may have control issues, Rhetoric observed, but she stood up for Rhetoric and Tormenta.

She was the first wolf that Rhetoric truly trusted. Rhetoric felt Jeremiah saw her for what she was and didn't push her away. In fact, Jeremiah seemed to be drawn to Rhetoric.

As Tormenta settled down with Question with No Answer and sired his first letter, and their half sister Fissure fell for Scheme, Question's elder son, Rhetoric felt lonely. Flynn did not show interest in her, and she didn't much care for him. Malek, the wolf she originally crushed on in the beginning of her new life in Borde de la Tierra Alta, was killed by a bison the first spring.

So Piedra, the brave wolf that brought Rhetoric and her two siblings into the pack and led with a determined stride, insisted she breed with a male outside the pack.

"Puppies?" Rhetoric asked softly, and it wasn't just her pupil lacking eyes that made her seem on another dimension as she stood in the woods one twilight as Piedra sat across from her.

"Puppies..." Now it was Piedra's turn to look distant, but her voice had at least guided Rhetoric out of the swirl of emotions she was swimming in. Rhetoric could see her leader was recounting some emotions for a brief second, looking uncharacteristically out of composure.

Rhetoric prompted her to speak with a low whine, shifting on all four of her paws and wagging her big tail. Her ears perked forward. She wanted to hear what Piedra had to say about puppies. It seemed like everyone but Rhetoric was having them now.

Piedra cleared her throat, her amber eyes returning to meet Rhetoric. Her steel resolve had returned. "Puppies will change anyone their love's touch, but especially their mothers," she leaned forward, and her expression was sincere yet dire. "They are the life of the pack. Being a parent is one of the greatest decisions you could make to change your life."

Rhetoric shifted her wait to her hindquarters, a forepaw rising up from the ground as an unsure whine. She stared at her leader who, as usual, was dead serious.
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