And so it begun, as it always had. The tightening coil in her stomach and an unreachable itch beneath her skin. It was the second time in her life she had been uncertain what this signaled. While she was the leader and it was her right to produce more heirs, if it wasn't with @Renier, then she wasn't particularly interested. It would also be Celandine's first season as a leader, and so the pressure was off, as far as she was concerned. The scowle would have pups one way or another, or they wouldn't, but if life had taught her anything it was that not baring your own didn't exclude you from inheriting others as the year progressed.
She all but stomped from the scowle, tail waving from side to side, more a warning than an invitation. Given the large number of relatives among the ranks she hardly thought they would take it any other way, but she wasn't in a mood to pity the foolish. She continued her walk towards the eastern banks of the Lagoon, hardly expecting her trip to be any more productive than a burning of excess energy... until she slipped, the same elbow connecting with concealed ice that had suffered on her journey from the willows. "Fuckin'sonofawhore!"
She almost thought she caught a flash of brown and white in the corner of her vision.