The feeling that consumed my heart and mind was completely unfamiliar to me. From the moment my mother had learned the cruel taste of defeat, she had never masked her intentions to return and challenge for what was hers. If Tithe hadn't seen the challenge coming, well, he was certainly not the smartest wolf around. As soon as the thought crossed my mind I silently chastised myself. These past few months I had been working hard to be a more well refined princess, one fitting of the title that I was sure to regain soon. Maybe refined wasn't the right word. After all, it had been in my mind for as long as I could remember that I would become the strong warrior princess I was born to be. But maybe I just needed to learn to curb my tongue a little bit. It was something, I thought, that I should perhaps talk to Kalseru about. She was strong of heart and mind, but she held an air of grace that I hadn't quite accomplished. But was graceful really something I wanted to be, either? I shook my head, snorting air out of my nostrils as I paced outside the temporary den my family had taken up residence in. There were more important things to be thinking about then grace.

Mother had left late in the evening, and not long after that Kalseru had gone as well. It was later in the night when Visenya had gone, but for once I chose to stay where Mother had told me to. Part of me convinced myself that it was for Sansa - I didn't want her to be left behind yet again. But another part of me felt somehow tied to these lands now, or at least one wolf within them. If I left, who would look out for Hektor? He was my charge, mine to protect, and if - when - Daenerys won, I would be overjoyed to go home, but I also didn't particularly want to leave Hektor behind. I could always go and pluck Hektor from his den and take him with us, but somehow I had a feeling that went against the whole 'graceful' thing that my mom and older sister had achieved.

All I was feeling right now was a whole lot of anxiety, and it wasn't helped when I heard the distant call of my mom's challenge to reclaim what was hers. What was ours. It wasn't that I didn't believe in her. I did. She was so strong. But she'd been beaten before, and what was to say it couldn't happen again? I was nervous that she might get hurt even worse than she had against the last prick she'd had to fight, and I was angry at Tithe for betraying his Queen and not calling upon her to resume her rightful place as Protector of the Realm the day that the mountain people had spoken out and declared Roman was not fit to rule them. I didn't fully understand the politics of Moladion's packs yet, but the whole situation was just frustrating. When you pledged your loyalty to a leader, shouldn't you always stay loyal to them? Just because they'd lost one fight, did that negate your allegiance? Why hadn't more of the pack come with us to Diveen when we'd been pushed out of our home? There were so many questions that I still wanted to ask my mother, so that I could understand more fully what it was that would be my duty if I were to someday take her place as Queen.

I'm not sure how much time passed before a second, even stronger howl rang out across Moladion. My head shot into the air and hope gleamed in my eyes. All the questions, all the uncertainties, every drop of anxiety was washed away in the victorious howl of my mother. I glanced back, searching for Sansa, wanting to run with my sister at my side back home. But I could not wait forever. Whether she joined me or not I dashed away from the densite, suddenly happy to abandon it and leave Diveen and its red dirts in my wake. Even as I crossed over the borders my mind flicked to Hektor, but I could always come back for him. All that mattered right now was getting home.

My athletic bodice tore across open fields and splashed through rivers, my stride never faltering. Youthful energy propelled me home, and finally I found myself working my way up familiar trails that sported unfamiliar scents. That would be rectified soon. The pack could finally come home. Home. I was home! I put on a burst of speed, tearing up the mountainside and ever closer to the clearing that housed Daenerys' famed throne of rock. Only when I passed by the trail that would lead to the cave-like den where I had been born did I slow, trying to restrain my need to go barreling into the clearing and shouting my congratulations. Instead, I took a moment to gather myself, to catch my breath. Walking towards the clearing, I finally joined the gathering just as my elder brothers were backing away from my mother. I'd heard Visenya's call for a healer a few moments prior, and I was worried that the injuries our mother had sustained might be grave, but as the three young men stepped aside I could see that though there was a fair amount of blood in her fur, the wounds themselves did not seem overly dire. A smile crept across my features and I strode forward to greet her first, touching my shoulder to her uninjured one, sniffing at the wound on her neck and then placing a lick upon her cheek.

Happiness and pride radiated from my orange rimmed mahogany eyes, feeling no need to veil my emotions. No words were necessary between us. With a single nod of my head I stepped back, moving to sit beside Visenya and bumping my shoulder jovially against my sister's. We had arrived, and we were here to stay.