There was something growing inside Bane's mind. It was something like a burning need to know what surrounded him. Swiftcurrent Creek had grown as one of the pack's main concerns after the battle. The ice warrior had expected them to be easy to take down, but that didn't mean they were away from other dangers. You can call it paranoia, but the silver warrior wasn't comfortable knowing that there were other packs that were even closer than Swiftcurrent Creek that he didn't know about.

It was easy taking the decision to leave the dark woods to explore the surroundings, it was his duty as Outrider after all; the hard part had been knowing that for as long as he wasn't in Blackfeather Woods his pups would be unprotected. This isn't safe from being considered paranoid either of course, the pack was the strongest and largest it had ever been, but Bane felt the need to be the only protector of the brood.

However, Bane had already crossed the Blackfeather borders once again, and he was already as far as Greatwater Lake, the place he'd chosen to spend the night as the setting sun suggested it would be better to find a good place to shelter from the cold winter night before it fell. His ghostly silhouette moved along the frozen coastal line, scanning his surroundings for any potential burrow without much success.

The search for a place to spend the night had been all but successful. Bane had spent hours sniffing around and digging in the snow, but there was not a single hole that he deemed safe to put himself into. Maybe it had been a mistake leaving the pack in the middle of winter.

Frustration had taken over the Pale outrider, killing his adventurous mood. He was now grumpy and tired, definitely not in a state in which you would want to cross paths with him.

The fuzz on his mind didn't let him see where he was going, and it wasn't until he heard the sound of ice cracking beneath his feet that he realized he was standing far away from shore on a frail spot in the frozen lake. He looked down terrified, and then around to take a step back, but the ice cracked again, leaving the heavy northerner petrified. It had definitely been a mistake.

If wolves could sweat, Bane would be soaked. He didn't move, yet all and each one of his muscles were tensed, he didn't dare move a hair for he knew how tricky ice could be. His eyeballs rolled around, looking instinctively for an escape route, but from where he was no path would be wise to pick.

He caught a figure in the corner of his eye. A female, safe on land while the floor beneath him seemed to be shaking underneath him. He slowly turned his head to look at her, and was already starting to build up strength to tell her to f*ck off when she decided to slam herself on the frail ice. No.. NO!NO!No!N..... the thunderous sound of ice cracking silenced the northerner, and with wide open eyes he watched as the crack stretched towards him, right where all his weight was concentrated. He leaped forward, jumped to run for his life, and he could feel the ice breaking behind him, almost beneath his paws. He raced as fast as his powerful body allowed him, almost tripping over when the spot in which he placed his frontal paws on one stride cracked open. But he made it. The last jump was long and high, and Bane landed a few meters away from the mischievous female.

"What in Sithis' name do you think you're doing!?" the arctic growled between heavy breaths. "You could've killed me there!!"

Bane stared disconcerted at the bicolor wolfess for a moment. There was something about those yellow eyes that screamed "CRAZY!", and Bane couldn't help feeling terribly uncomfortable for the way she was looking at him. "You filthy mudblood..." Bane hissed. He could tell by her factions that she wasn't a pure wolf, and it disgusted him. Coyotes were scum, and the only thought of a wolf mating with one of them was disgusting.

Bane's patience had a very limited capacity, and in just one movement Caiaphas had managed to pelt it. His upper lip curled up, clearly demanding for the female to get away from the Arctic warrior, and he pressed forward with slow steps, claiming the space with his tail raised high. "Why don't you try with coyotes instead? You would be doing us all a favor."

Although something instinctively did tingle inside him when the female so provocatively invited him do try it, he stayed firm in his statement... Which had never actually mattered until that moment.

"You gotta be kidding me!" Bane said with clear disgust on his face, "I would never get near a coyote bitch!" he spat to his left side incensed and stared with annoyance, curling his lip up to let out a rumbling growl that demanded the female's immediate departure.

The dark brotherhood was into more thrilling stuff. Specially Bane. And so far, Caiaphas had hardly given the male something to be excited about. She disgusted him, he despised her. Although Coyotes had never been something to worry about, Bane had a clear conception of them, not a good one at all, and breeding with one of them was sure one of the things he abhorred the most.

"Disgusting..." Bane sentenced before finally engaging. The line had been crossed, and the last minute was getting close for the coyote bitch. With jaws wide open, the tank-like male charged to chase Caiaphas off. He knew that would be enough to scare her, she was small and weak and Bane would crush her easily.

Bane didn't have any intentions of killing the hybrid either, he just wanted her to leave him alone to be able to look for a place to spend the night in peace. When she took off, like the bitch she was, the arctic beast halted to a stop and chuffed in annoyance before turning around to try and forget the witch's ghoulish face.

But he couldn't and it was annoying him even more. There was no chance that he was going to sleep tonight, the image bony framed behind was stuck between his eyelids, so he decided to just go back to his family, to Blackfeather and away from the crazy world outside of it.