He woke up with a twitch once more, as usual.
But he was happy about not having any nightmares as horrible as the one from way back. Was it way back? He couldn't tell, and he didn't have the brains to figure out time other than the seasons changing. And if he was to make a guess, he'd say it is getting close to fall. Many of the leafs are falling after all, and new stuff is popping up too. Funny mushrooms and new prey to eat from. They look kinda like the ones he grew up around, but larger and harder to kill.
Well, not for him at least, but he did speak with Ibas and Duke about it, and it seems like it's only a problem for the others. And while he was more than happy to help the others get something to eat, but it was such a hassle to go find something every single week. Yet another good reason to go out hunting was seeing all the new pups jumping and playing around him whenever he brings something home.
There was also the new members to the pack that weren't direwolfs. Half-face, the bark bear, has been fully accepted by the other direwolfs after she helped defend against some massive cat. He still didn't know how she had figured out it had been stalking them. Her cubs were still too small to go either hunting or fighting properly, but they were still growing up well together with most of the juvenile direwolfs. He is pretty sure that the seniors of the pack, however, aren't quite happy having her and her children around. He doesn't really get the reason for why they don't like her yet after all that she has done, so they will just have to understand for him.
Crow, the crow, has surprisingly decided to stick around despite the fact it's getting more dangerous for it to be with them. It's only so much a bird can do against the beasts and monsters that roam around these woods. The beasts this deep were so far the usual stuff the other direwolfs expected to run into, but there were also a lot more bugs running around too. Crow, while flying around, got stuck onto a massive spiderweb that they had to rip him out of. Poor fella hadn't grown back all the feathers that were left behind to that spider.
And talking about Crow, the bird jumped down from his back and pecked at his ears. Balto tried to flick him away, which only made Crow double the effort of attacking his ear.
A low rumble from his throat turned into a truly massive yawn as he stretched his back, satisfying pops running down his lower back. He was still a little stiff around the shoulders since they travelled deeper into the World's Tongue. And it might have something to do with the small tree growing on his back. It seems that the red grass growing on his back was actual grass and not some weird hair that got all stuck together. And now a tree with red roots were growing steadily out of the spot between the shoulders that honestly? Didn't look too bad with how big he had gotten.
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Yeah, he didn't stop growing and hasn't stopped growing for a while now. It has, however, slowed down to the point that he is now sure that he's either an adult or had reached the weird middle-stage between cub and adult. He still didn't feel like an adult, but having the same amount of responsibilities as Duke and Ibas more or less made him act like an adult for the sake of others. Having to stand tall when something important and paying attention to exactly what happened wasn't easy for him. No, he still preferred to just walk around and look at the trees.
A tingle from his back, and he knew that the weird tree on his back also wished for him to move to another spot. How he knew, he had no idea. Ulva and the other more spiritually gifted direwolfs all agreed that a spirit of some kind had found the opportunity to grow on him due to reasons. Only time would tell if the tree was a good thing or not, but for now it wasn't really doing anything.
It sent another ping to his brain that carried the feeling of… Pouting? He wasn't sure what that would even look like, or how he knew the word for it, but that was the feeling the tree gave him.
Another yawn and stretch for good measure, and Balto was up. He positively towered over all the other direwolfs nearby, making it extremely obvious that he was awake. Crow jumped, flapped its wings once, before landing on the few branches the tree spirit had before cawing for Balto to get to moving. Not like that wasn't the reason for why he was standing, he had things to do, but Balto was still a bit sleepy. And for some reason, the tree found that amusing.
He walked for a while, since he tended to sleep much further away from everyone else, until he was being followed by the pups who played around his legs. He saw Radolf, who was still sleeping in a pile of other direwolfs, and remembered the look in his eyes way back. It was sad, they were pretty much rivals in a way when they were the same size. Now? There was nothing he could really do to become better than Balto. He tried to argue otherwise, Radolf was smarter than him after all, but it didn't help much. Balto sighed again.
Balto was good at getting hit and hitting back, but not much else. He didn't understand what there was to be jealous of.
Tired, emotional and having to think about important things to do, Balto reached the strange tree stump that Duke, Ibas and himself were holding their meetings in the mornings. Duke looked majestic with his silver fur and sharp eyes, a much better leader than himself. Duke didn't even look tired despite showing up first. They didn't exchange any words, simply looked at each other and showed their respect to each other. And as Ibas made his way towards them, they finally were starting the meeting for the day.