Ayame's heart hummed with excitement, barely keeping her solemn pose on her knees. Her dark blue and silver kimono was spread around her on the ground like water, pooling against her legs. Her grandfather woalked around her in ever tightening circles, chanting and slowly shaking the sprig of burning sage he held gingerly in his clawed hands.
Ayame took a deep breath, clasping her shaking paws together. 'Soon,' she thought. 'So soon.' After 800 long years training with her grandfather, today she'd finally make the journey back to Kouga's pack and restart their courtship ritual his father had begun so many years ago. Her courtship gift, a jaded blue carved wolf on a leather lanyard, lay between her hands, waiting to be blessed by her grandfather.
Behind her excited aunts and cousins tittered and giggled behind their hands and a smile finally cracked Ayame's lips as her grandfather completed his last circle and turned to face her. The sage in his hand crumbled to ash as he smiled down at her and thumbed the courtship lines on her cheeks with the dark grey soot. "Be happy, little one." He whispered, happy tears welling in his eyes as he said goodbye to his only son's daughter, before turning to the crown and howling "May your hunt be ever true!"
"And your mate ever strong!" they cried back, some of the younger children stumbling over the words. The ritual complete they broke the silence barrier and began to celebrate.
The old wolf reached down to Ayame and lifted her up, careful not to snag her gown with his claws. "Good hunting, my child." He told her before leaning in close to whisper "and don't forget to change before your run, you won't find another kimono like this in the woods to impress your intended one, now will you?"
Ayame blushed deeply and her grandfather's deep belly laugh echoed around her as she took her bag and bounded off towards the woods, the happiness of those behind her speeding her giddy feet to the north.