Chio led Ann and Mel back through the tunnels to large burrow usually used for meetings. No one spoke as they hastened over to Ruth and her son and his mate where they waited.

Ruth looked so very careworn, it seemed some of the warmth and brightness had left her. She still managed a tear-filled smile when she saw them walk up.

"Mel, Ann, thank you for coming." she said. "I wanted you all here so we could discuss what will happen to the colony...and my granddaughter, now that my daughter and Bami are gone. I think you all know that I had planned to step down soon, and I had chosen Clea to succeed me. I know this is not a monarchy, I could have chosen anyone, but I chose the female in the colony I thought most fit for the job, even if that meant keeping it in the family. What I am asking of you, my close friends and remaining family, is to help me decide what to do in this situation. Do I step down as planned and choose a new successor now, or do I wait a
while longer and stay in power until a suitable candidate is found?"

When she had finished, they all looked around at each other, Mel and Ann both especially honored and surprised to be asked their opinion.

Ann spoke up first. "Ruth, none of us wants to see you step down just yet, you have been so wonderful for all of us. But if it had come to it, I always thought you would choose Kavie."

"That is one of the reasons I might want to hold off my decision. Right now, Kavie and the rest of her female peers are far too young to be considered. Further on in the future, though, one of them might show the qualities essential to be a leader. As for Kavie, right now I do not think she has any desire to be matriarch. She is probably unsure of what she wants to do, like so many pups are." Ruth said.

"I don't know if you should wait though, Mom." said Lee.

"Yes, why mess up your original plan?" Molly spoke up after her mate. "Why don't you just choose someone now?"

"Molly, what if the female she picks isn't fit? She obviously wants to wait, and with what she said I think she wants to wait for a
younger female." said Chio.

"Yes, but why?"

"It is not that I do not want to choose from any of the adult females, and I did not mean to offend any of the present females here. I was merely thinking that if I chose someone now, I might be taking away the chance from a female who really deserves it later on."

"Then it seems like you already made your decision, what did you need us for?" Molly said, in a surprisingly rude way.

If Ruth had noticed her daughter-in-law's tone, she did not show it. "I needed to know from you all, my trusted friends and family, what you thought."

"Well, I really think you should wait, Ruth." Mel said. "It does seem like it would be best for the colony if you stayed on for a while
longer. You are one of the best leaders we've had in a long time. Plus that is what you seem to want to do, and you are still matriarch."

"I agree with Mel." said Chio.

"Me too." said Ann.

Ruth looked around at the five of them, it seemed most of them did agree with her. "Well, then, at least that's settled. Now, about Kavie; I have decided to take over Kavie's adult training. It might be difficult with all of the other things I need to do, but I think she
really needs her Grandma right now. However, I need to consider who will care for her and teach her if something were to happen to me."
"Lee, Molly," she indicated her son and his mate. "I know you have expressed reluctance toward the idea of you being the ones to do it. I don't really understand why..."

"It's not that we wouldn't want to..." Lee interrupted, but Ruth continued.

"I am sure you have your reasons, though."

"We just...don't think we'd be up to it, Ruth." Molly said quickly, nudging Lee.

"Yes, right." said Lee, understanding whatever it was Molly was trying to convey to him.

Ann and Chio looked at each other, and Chio nodded. "If something were to happen to you, and since Molly and Lee are uninterested, I would be glad to care for and teach Kavie, Ruth. Its only Scruffy and myself in our family, so we would have the room."

A flash of her old spark graced Ruth's face. "Thank you, Chio. Thank you all for your help. Now, since we have finished I think we all
should go on to sleep. I now I need some sleep, this has certainly been a trying day." Ruth said.

Listening to her, they all quietly disbanded. Chio went with Ann and Mel to recover Kavie and take her to Ruth, and Lee and Molly went elsewhere.


"Well, that was absolutely pointless!"

Molly stormed into her burrow with Lee following timidly. She was obviously not happy with the meeting that had just occurred.

"Now, come on. Mom needed our help deciding." Lee said.

"No, she had her mind already made up. You heard her!" Molly continued yelling.

"Is this because she didn't appoint you next in line?" Lee said cautiously, he knew asking this was probably just going to flame the
anger.

"Well, yes! I mean, why not pick me? I'm the only adult female left in the family!"

"Well, she doesn't have to pick a family member, remember."

"Oh, will you stop defending her!? I know she just looked over me because she has someone already in mind. It probably is one of the young pups. I wouldn't be surprised if it were Kavie or that friend of hers. Why else wait?"

"If you remember, she decided not to step down yet because the colony needs her, as well as giving the younger kids a chance."

"I understood that! You don't need to tell me again! You and I both know those aren't the real reasons. She's trying to keep me from being matriarch by any means necessary! Well, we'll just have to wait for an opportunity to present itself, and then I can just slide right into the leadership role I was born to play!"

Lee tried to calm his mate down from her rant. He sat down next to her as she continued fuming.

"Molly...dear. I really have never understood why you wanted to be matriarch so badly."

Her voice was filled with a tired anger now. "Oh, you remember Lee. My sister became matriarch of our colony and then kicked me out. I didn't do a thing to her. Wait, there was that one thing about failing to watch those pups I was sitting and two of them got killed...plus I tried to undermine her and become matriarch myself...but other than that I didn't do a thing."

She put her head on her mate's shoulder. "I know its pretty petty, but if I could just become the leader of this colony, it would just fulfill my dream Lee darling. Plus it would show my sister who's who."

Lee patted her shoulder. He always had a weak spot for Molly, and couldn't really say no or confront her on anything. It had been like that pretty much from the moment they'd met.

"I'm sorry for upsetting you." he said.

"Its ok." Molly was now calmed down, but she let out a slightly-fake sigh. "But like I said, we'll just have to wait for the right moment."


Author's Note: And there is chapter 5. Hope you enjoyed it. I'm not sure if I can pull off all this serious layered story stuff, but I'm having fun trying! Hope the handful of you reading are enjoying too. :-) If you guys that have just been reading and not commenting would comment, that'd be really nice.