It wasn’t often that he moved along the edges of the valley, knowing already that the only way to actually get in was by going down the boulder-filled pathway. Still, every now and again, he found himself outside of the valley and walking parallel to the outer walls. It was fairly boring but, having nothing much to do at the moment anyways, he kept his silent complaints to a minimum. The farther along he went, however, the less boring things got. Somewhere in the distance he heard voices—young, high in pitch—and took off towards them, ready to warn them off; until he actually saw them, that is.

Moving up the wall of his valley, he spotted two grey blobs; they’d made it a decent ways up, he realised. Towards the base of the incline, he picked up on a familiar scent that prompted him to act. “Hey!” he shouted, tilting his head back with his muzzle pointed in their direction. “I wouldn’t go any higher if I were you.” Normally, he wouldn’t have bothered with getting involved. The lingering scent of his sister’s pack had him unable to just walk away, however, especially with the sudden drop that they’d likely encounter, should they reach the top. Whilst he doubted the children to belong to his sister—she wouldn’t have let her kids leave the territory, would she?—they were probably important to her in some way, so why not help out?

It wasn’t difficult to get their attention, eyes soon being turned to gaze down at him. Something pulled him forward—the desire to rid his valley’s walls of the children, perhaps—but he remained still, suspecting that a sudden approach might only force them in the opposite direction. He felt all the more confident in his suspicions once the darker girl’s response was noted, her behaviour bringing a smirk to his face. How ferocious, he thought, then shook his had and cleared the smirk on his lips. If anything, he should have taken the gesture as an insult to his status but, given how small the whelp was, not even Xan was able to perceive her as a legitimate threat.

Glancing back towards the more vocal one of the pair, he answered bluntly with, “Nothing.” There wasn’t anything at the top of the walls, for their secret resided within, not atop, them. “There’s nothing at the top aside from a sudden drop down into the valley,” he clarified. “If you continue going upwards, you’ll end up falling to your deaths before you even realise what’s going on.” Surprisingly, that hadn’t happened before—not that he could recall, anyways. He knew it was a possibility, though, and didn’t want to have to carry the corpses of his sister’s packmates back to her. That would be too much work, pups or not, especially if they both were to fall. Not to mention how Desna would react to that; he couldn’t keep the thought that she might blame him for it from crossing his mind, despite their recent attempts at reconnecting.

An argument wasn’t expected from the children, much less one that was backed by actual points. It took him a moment of watching them and seeing that they weren’t moving for the words to fully register in his head, bringing a frown to his lips. “I haven’t been to the top,” he stated, looking between them before his gaze settled on the lighter girl. “But I’ve been inside. I was born in this valley and live here currently, I see the drop from inside the walls every day.” The perspective given from within the valley made him lose interest in ever climbing the outer walls; any sort of incline made up of rocks and rubble wasn’t to be trusted, especially when the top presented such a danger even without the loose footholds.

Turning his gaze towards the other child—her demeanour and tone towards him making her weariness clear, which he viewed as a reasonable approach to have towards strangers, even if it annoyed him at times—he couldn’t keep his frown from deepening. “Have you ever climbed a mountain, or anything like it, before?” he questioned. “One wrong step and you’re falling. It doesn’t matter if you can see in front of you or not, the ground can give out at any moment and there’s nothing you can do to save yourself.” He almost wished that they weren’t in Desna’s pack, just so he could leave them to climb and, eventually, fall to their deaths without it coming back on him.

“Look,” he started, taking a slow step forward. “I know you two are in my sister’s pack—that’s the only reason I’m trying to help you two. I don’t want her getting upset over the deaths of some kids, so why don’t you just listen to me?” When seeing his sister’s stomach swollen with unborn whelps, he’d felt almost jealous. But now, whilst dealing with two kids, he couldn’t understand why anyone would ever want them.

When the lighter girl turned to her sister, Xan’s ears strained to listen but couldn’t pick out any of the words. Of course, he frowned, wondering what she was saying and if it was something that he’d want to hear—too bad he’d never find out. The other wasn’t as cautious with her speech, however, and in an instant, his eyes had snapped over to focus on her; she’d given him ample reasons thus far to dislike her, and her words only added another. And though he opened his mouth to shout something back, nothing back out, the words trapped in his throat by the realisation that these were his nieces. He closed his mouth, pondering what he should say—do—now that he knew. He definitely had to get them down and send them back home now, but how? It didn’t seem like they’d be ready to trust him anytime soon.

“I’m not surprised she hasn’t mentioned me,” he muttered, more so for his own ears than theirs. Shaking his head, he pointed his muzzle towards them again and said, “Whether you believe I’m her brother or not doesn’t matter to me—I really couldn’t care less—but what does matter is getting you two down from there and back home.” If they really were his nieces, Desna’s daughters, then he couldn’t let anything bad happen to them. She’d seemed so happy with the idea of starting her own family, he wasn’t about to let the kids’ recklessness ruin it for her.

“I’ll give you guys two options,” he stated, her order to go away ignored. “Either you two climb down now and go home, or I go to Easthollow and get your mother—you choose.” He didn’t think to just leave and hope they’d climb down on their own. No, that was out of the question entirely.

Two-toned gaze followed the lighter girl as she descended the wall, flicking back towards the more stubborn of the two only a handful of times. By the time she’d reached the ground he had already taken a few slow steps in her direction, bringing them closer together quicker than either of them might have anticipated; he let a few steps worth of space remain between them, trying his best not to spook her right back up with her sister. Yet, looking at her, he couldn’t help but take away from that distance, too.

“You look like Nanook,” he noted, only to silently question whether or not she’d know who that is. In a poor attempt at not confusing her, he added, “Your aunt.” Had Desna told them about her? About Sesi? He wouldn’t be surprised if his existence was the only one not mentioned, the history between him and his sisters a long one; although he was in the process of further mending things, that didn’t matter, it seemed. “But you have your mother’s eyes,” he pointed out, only just now noticing the shared trait. Absorbed in his observations of her, he’d nearly forgotten about her sister—but when he remembered she was there, he gave a slow shake of his head before pointing his nose in her direction and asking, “Is she always this stubborn?” It was another trait shared with Desna—himself, too, though he would never admit that aloud—he realised, but refrained from pointing out. They both likely already knew how much they resembled their mother, they didn’t need him commenting on every little similarity.

“Would you just come down here already?” he tried again, not yet ready to give up; Alexander had never been too keen on giving up, the act itself something that he could almost never commit. “What will convince you to come down? Do you want to hear stories about your mother? Your grandparents? I can tell you anything.” Bribery? Worth a shot.