Whilst it was often either the borders or the forest that held his attention, Alexander found himself venturing towards the rendezvous that day. When the children were younger, he’d frequented it more often but, now that they were big enough to move all throughout the territory, he spent less and less time there. But he still checked it out every now and again, as he did most reaches of his land, needing to assess and confirm with himself that all was as well as it could be. It was meant to be quick, a glance tossed here and there, yet he realised immediately that he was not alone—which was a curious thing.

The sight of his daughter made his heart jump, her appearance something that would always haunt him; he did not resent his child nor wish her any harm, but a large part of him did wish that she might start to resemble someone else as time went on. Nevertheless, he pushed away from his thoughts and redirected himself so that he was approaching her instead, asking, “What are you doing laying around here?” as he closed the space between them.

The girl did not rush over to greet him, leaving Xan to go to her; he was still getting used to the idea of having children—that there were pieces of him running around. There were many things that he might never understand or even think to  try and understand but, as his daughter’s breath fanned out over his muzzle, instincts seemed to kick in and encouraged the pieces of the puzzle to click into place:  she was hungry. Too bad, the albino had not brought anything along to offer to her, and he just wasn’t a fan of the whole regurgitation thing; that which he ate he felt should remain within his own body. But there were other options to satisfy the child’s hunger, and one in particular that he was far more keen on the idea of.

“I don’t have anything,” he admitted, bumping his nose against her muzzle in a somewhat apologetic manner. “But we can find something, if you’re interested in that.” Honestly, he had no idea how early was too early to encourage the further development of a whelp’s prey drive—but he assumed now was as good a time as any, either way.

She seemed interested in his offer and he prepared to lead her away, only to stop mere seconds later. In an instant, his hackles were raised and his body was rigid, gaze scanning their surroundings before falling onto his daughter. He relaxed as soon as he saw that she was not under attack, though the relief in his expression was short lived as worry engulfed him. He closed the space between them, head low and nose twitching whilst he inspected his eldest. “What happened?” he asked but neither waited for nor expected a response. Rather, he continued to look her over, ensuring she was otherwise fine, before redirecting his attention towards her presumably injured limb. The look he was given went unnoticed—his attention was on her injury—but, had he seen it, he would have assured her that she had nothing to feel sorry for.

Acting as if he had some sort of medical experience (he didn’t), Alexander motioned for the girl to raise her limb so that he could take a better look at it. All the while, in the back of his head, he wondered if he should call for someone a bit more qualified.

Had it been any other wolf to grab him so casually, he’d have lunged for them immediately. But since it was his daughter—his own flesh and blood—he merely shot her a look, reminding her of his role both as the head of the pack and as her father. It didn’t last long, however, and he was right back to looking at her injured limb; he knew something was wrong, that much was obvious, but Xan was far from being a medic. The specifics of her injury were lost on him—he did not know how to help her, nor was he too sure, anymore, of who could be called in order to help.

So he stayed silent.

Alexander, much like his child, gradually lowered his body until he was laying opposite to her. No longer did he intend on taking her out to hunt, nor were there any other plans on the horizon. He was content to just lay there with her and keep an eye out whilst her limb was given time to heal up. And this he further clarified as he flopped over onto his side, body relaxed and eyes on Nunataq.

Alexander’s reflex was to yank his paw back the moment he realised what she was doing, having never been the most familiar with the concept of play. Slowly, though, it dawned on him that he should perhaps partake in something like that, especially when it was with one of his children. Thus, it was with only a slight amount of hesitance that he reached his paw back out and waved it towards Nuna, aiming to gently knock it against her.

After the nip was delivered and she moved away, he half expected the child to flee. When she came back, however, his brows furrowed in confusion at what was brought along with her. “What...?” was all he managed to get out before the pieces clicked together and he shut his mouth.

She wanted to play.

With a little less hesitance than before, Alexander took hold of the other end and gave it a gentle tug. He couldn’t remember having ever played this game—or anything similar—before but, surprisingly, he was eager to learn.

Along with learning to play, Alexander was also still learning how to be a parent. He didn’t quite know how it worked, even now, and so he didn’t know what he was supposed to do—how he was supposed to let the child win, how he was supposed to boost her confidence instead of tearing it down. He did not know these things, as no one had ever taught him, either in his youth or adulthood.

And so, he yanked back on the stick—

—and he yanked hard.

The object of their play did not snap back to him. Instead, a puppy was brought along with it. Xan let out a low, playful growl in response to this, and promptly stood up to yank her back some more; he didn’t intend to hurt his daughter in any way, he just saw her grip ad a challenge and he planned to compete against it. Like a puppy just discovering a tug rope, he yanked and yanked and yanked some more.