"There was no other choice, we needed food!" the Hunt Leader yelled defensively.
"And did you return with food?" Stormhawk eyed him coolly, her voice level.
"No," he replied, his eyes downcast.
"My lifemate, your chief, is dead from a shagback stampede; a hunt I never approved of from the beginning," Stormhawk growled. "Do not presume I will allow this to go unchallenged."
"Yes," Dewhaze spoke up, "Who will lead us now?"
"I will," Stormhawk suddenly announced. Gasps of fellow tribesmates circled her as Twin Blades stammered before her.
"You! But I am Hunt Leader! It is my right, my duty, to lead the tribe when the chief falls without an heir!"
"True, tradition says-" began Snowlight, the elder.
"To the humans' cook fires with tradition!" Stormhawk interrupted. "Snakethrower proclaimed himself chief when we split from the Mad One, no Hunt Leader took the title. Besides," she added, tapping her belly, "he holds an heir to the chief's knot here."
Twin Blades scoffed. "Snakethrower took the chieftainship because neither Bravestride nor anyone else would. I, however, am quite willing and able to lead the tribe. And as for this heir you refer to, how is an unborn cub to lead us?"
Stormhawk readily accepted the challenge, stepping in close to the Hunt Leader and poking him sharply in the chest. "This unborn cub already has more chieftainship than all the turns of your life!"
Twin Blades' fist reflexively struck out, cracking into Stormhawk's jaw. She fell back, collapsing into the dry grass as a stunned tribe watched on in disbelief. A growl growing from the back of her throat, she lunged back at the Hunt Leader, snarling like the she-wolf she was.
Spearcatcher and Dewhaze jumped in, pulling apart the two challengers. "Stop it, both of you! Only the cub will suffer from this!" Dewhaze pleaded, a still-struggling Stormhawk in her arms.
"Fine. Twin Blades, you want to challenge me? Then do it in a match of wills." She opened her mind, focusing on her opponent.
Twin Blades staggered back momentarily from the blow of Stormhawk's sending. Then he too quickly locked minds with her, channeling his will and desire into her with as much forces as he could muster.
Stormhawk shuddered, she was losing ground, and she could feel it. Her heart ached with the new sorrow of her dear lifemate's death and the angry terms they had left on. Her unborn son would never know his sire. Tears began to form in her eyes as her body started to crumble under Twin Blades' powerful sending.
Her cub. What would she do if Twin Blades won and exiled her from the tribe for challenging him? Surely he wouldn't be that cruel…
Then she felt it, a strange well of strength calling out to her, faint at first but growing steadily stronger as she reached its source. She grasped at the upsurge of strength and desire, combing it into her lock send with Twin Blades.
Now it was the other elf's turn to shudder and crumble beneath the force of the challenge. He faltered, trying to place the source of her newfound strength. Through sweating brows he stared at Stormhawk, holding her swollen stomach. Suddenly he snapped close his mind to her, lifting and turning his throat in submission.
"If he has that same passion and strength when he's born, I'll proudly call him chief." The Hunt Leader turned and walked away, leaving his fellow tribesmates slack jawed and wondering.
"Well, I guess that ends it," Snowlight said, not wasting a heartbeat as she made her way up to the still kneeling Stormhawk. She pulled out the lacings of one of the arms of her shirt and bound the younger elf's hair up into the age-old topknot.
"Let it be said that she who is now Chieftess leads for the right of her son and that he is marked with favour by the High Ones to have won this challenge today. Upon his birth he will be named Surewolf," the elder proclaimed.