Moonspear The truth is, walls guarantee no one's safety.

In the presence of Mahler and their young daughters, Nyx had been reluctant to share the truth behind her family's relocation in any great detail. She'd never spoken ill of Wylla in front of him, though he was well aware of how uncomfortable his fellow Eisen made her feel. Things had been easy when Ciri and Elke were infants, when the others of their pack dudn't bother them and they needed no one but their parents.

She'd been a fool to hope that such simplicity would continue.

That night, when the sun had set and her babies retired to well-earned rest after their long journey, the lioness sought the company of @Dirge. It really was wonderful to see him again, to see that he'd found his place in the world, and warmed that he could be so willing to share it with her.

"He has other cubs by his co-Alpha," she told her brother of Mahler when the opportunity presented itself, "who was leader of the pack I ran with on the coast a few years ago. Her name is Wylla." To say it left a sour taste on her tongue, and her brow creased as she looked down in guilty consideration of Ciri's stress. "She was never fond of me back then, and I was not perfect." Nyx breezed past that story, one with an outcome that her littermate knew well enough already. "We managed to avoid each other for all this time in Sagtannet, but... Ciri and Elke are growing up. I don't think that she'd have hurt them, Dirge, but I doubt she would ever accept them."