He happened upon the pair by chance, just as his patrol was nearing its end. Both were easy to see against the snow, dark and vaguely familiar; he knew the smaller to be another of Potema’s children, whilst the other shared visual similarities with many of Blackfeather’s past. With a furrowed brow he advanced towards them, picking up on the end of Euron’s question. “What are you doing out here?” he asked the child first, glancing his way. It wasn’t long after before he was looking back towards what he assumed was a corpse, recognising it as someone he’d seen only in passing a good while ago.

The closer he looked, he noticed the rise and fall of his sides—oh, so he wasn’t dead. “Hey, get up,” he commanded. Any chances of him being wounded were disregarded, as Kove wouldn’t care if he was; he wasn’t someone of any significance to the northerner, just a potential waste of resources.

Up rose the obsidian creature, a stain splayed across the snow no longer. Kove watched his movements, the stumbling noted and the metallic scent in the air concerning; he did not worry for the health of the male, viewing him now as nothing more than a potential waste of resources. He glanced towards the child, then, his reason for being there successfully grabbing the man’s attention. Waving his muzzle slowly, he motioned for Euron to come closer before whispering, “Maybe you can still have it.” The last word had hardly made its way out of his mouth when he looked back towards Nightstar, unimpressed.

“What’s your reason for coming here?” he asked, choosing to not add in a back. Although he would swear on his life that he’d seen him in passing within the woods some time ago, the possibility that he hadn’t made him more careful with his wording.

The male explained, though his reason for leaving the woods was hardly a grand tale. If anything, he thought even less of him now, his mistake a foolish one. He opened his mouth to respond when he heard Euron’s voice, at whom his attention was then directed. “Some plants can do more damage than teeth,” he explained. “Where a bite creates a wound you can heal, some plants are so poisonous that there’s no helping you after you’ve eaten one.” Kove was far from an expert on the subject, but he knew enough to get by, including: “That’s why you shouldn’t eat any plants you find unless you know what they can do to you.”

Turning his attention back towards the traitor, he added, “Eating just any plant you come across reflects poorly on your intelligence.” The exception being Cicero, whose knowledge was greater than most and experiments never too problematic. “Letting you back in with your wound and carelessness would deplete our caches and create a greater risk than what you’re worth,” he decided. Their resources were already limited on account of it being winter, and what they did have would be used up quicker than necessary if he continued to make mistakes.

There was no battle to be fought or decisions to be defended as the male took his leave. Kove stared after him, watching the younger wolf until his attention was pulled towards the child; he kept an ear turned in the traitor’s direction just in case he made an attempt at backtracking and attacking. And at the boy’s question, he considered pursuing the other male so that the child would receive a new toy, but he never acted upon it. The Inuk was not the sort to attack to maim. When he fought, it was only ever because he was defending something or someone—only once had he played on offense, but that was a long time ago and now nothing more than a distant memory.

“Not this time,” he stated, accompanying his words with a slow shake of his head. “We will find you another tail, though. Soon.” After one last glance in the loner’s direction to ensure he’d gone, Kove turned whilst motioning for the boy to follow—and, should Euron do so, the elder would lead him along the borders in search of some tails. But should he not, then Kove would return to the woods alone, lingering just within the treeline—watching.