Her paws always lead her back here. No matter where she wandered, they always brought her back. The glen would welcome her on her worst days, and she would leave feeling less hopeless about the world. But she always came back.

Orange eyes fixated on her namesake as she walked into the glen. The dianthus flower seemed to mock her, pretty and pink and entirely fragile. While she was a wolf, the opposite of those things. Dianthus stared at the flower, stared at it long and hard. It mocked her. She dropped her head, cringing away, before trotting into the glen. Around her, the aroma of flowers brushed into her coat and smeared over her legs as she walked, a path only she knew. Petals and scents whisked and twirled in the air in a playful dance, only meant for them and the bees. She watched them for a moment, before continuing her trot through the flowers. She stopped in front of one, biting her lip. Gladiolus flowers. Immediately, she sat back, then flopped onto her side. The dark female rolled onto her back, looking over at the flower, then up at the sky.

“It looks like you” She said, glancing over at the flower, then back up at the clouds passing over. She could almost imagine her mentor's face in them for a brief moment, but it was quickly whirled away by the wind. Her face fell, her ears flitting back, before she caught herself and groaned. It had been so long. “Why does this still affect me? Its been moons!” She snapped at the sky, getting to her paws. She tore into the flowers, kicking up a storm of insects and birds that whirled about her form for the briefest of moments. She danced among the petals and spring air, springing high into the air, twisting and turning, graceless and graceful all at the same time. Her dance was hectic, angry, but freeing all at once. Everything felt alright for the time she danced, her paws striking the ground at an even pace. A hop here, a leap skyward here, before she eventually stopped, stumbling over herself as she came to a halt next to the flower again.

It wasn't fair. They took away the wolf who knew her best. But Dianthus had been coping for a long time. Maybe it was finally time she got over Gladiolus. Maybe it was time for her to become the Beta she was supposed to be. To stop letting the shadow of a long dead wolf dictate her future

Or maybe she could grieve a while longer.