The emotions are still there – they are just buried. I find it to be easier this way, to completely ignore what has happened so recently, it’s better for myself and everyone around me. There are times that I relapse but it is only when I am left alone and have time to think far too much. I awake late this afternoon and start my day with a widened yawn. Tri-colored eyes peer around the darkness of the riverside den and find… nothing. Except that wasn’t how it was supposed to be. Dirge was supposed to be here and he wasn’t.

I rise to massive paws with tightened and sore muscles, the remnants of another night of tense slumber. I shake it off once I have crawled from beneath the reaches of the tree roots that guarded the burrow’s entrance. Each step takes some getting used to as the muscles contract and release but I soon forget about all of it as I begin the search for my half-sibling. His scent is strong around the den site and the water’s edge but trails off to the west.

With determination I start off after his scent into the forest, uncertain of his standing within the pack still and not wanting him to get into any trouble on his own already. I move through the trees in quiet, the only sound being what is made by my paws crushing brittle leaves and sticks beneath the weight. I am a stocky girl by blood, my height being shorter than my siblings’ and yet my weight unchanging; not the most feminine thing for anyone to lay their eyes upon and yet there is an exotic allure to my image. A dangerous glint in my eyes and a pretty coat to draw anyone’s attention.

I move through a cluster of skeleton-like bushes only to find a strange female looking about rather anxiously. Her energy is off and her scent is not of the pack. I instantly grow another two inches as my hackles flare into a smoky display and my stance takes on an aggressive demeanor. I do not know her or of her history here but she is in the midst of a territory that happens to be protected by myself and those I reside with; I happened to be here first. ”Out.” It is a singular, malicious word spoken to her as indigo stricken eyes stare heavily into her own and dark gray tassel rises dominantly. I was not afraid to defend my home from this intruder and I would make it known.