Two Rivers Isle forgive me, Father, for I have sinned

Set after his encounter with Amber; he's been gone a few days since then

Dagfinn returned to Arthendal with something of a heavy heart. He knew that he would not stay long, though he longed to curl up in the semi-familiar territory and rest his head for a bit. He had a duty, now, and it'd been several days since he'd last seen Amber - Since I met her, he thought.

Everything had happened so fast - he didn't know who to turn to until he remembered that his alpha had kids. He was a father, had lived a long life. Perhaps he might know something of these things.

Intent now on having a heart-to-heart with the man (and not knowing whether or not heart-to-hearts were in his nature, or how the man would feel about what Dagfinn had done), Dag set out in search of @Burke.

Yay counselor thread for Burke!

Burke was busy sniffing out a scent mark. He thought it was new but it was just an old scent Shink left. The male frowned, unsure where the grey male went. He was one of their first followers and now he had abandoned them. Burke was not pleased about it. Luckily they had some other members yet they weren't as big as Black Feather used to be, or the general amount of wolves they had normally. He didn't mind a small pack but that meant that they were more vulnerable for threats.

Burke marked over Shink's old mark, he was not going to welcome the male back which he should tell Malice because they couldn't grow soft. He left so who knows what he has been doing in the mean time. Yet he did know info about their pack. He disliked deserters.

Dag found the man marking the borders, as task that he realized he had not taken to as perhaps he should have. He was a man, now, and could not leave it to his elders to take care of their lands as he had in the place where he'd been born. He could not believe that his mother and father would have ever run him off for it, but they would certainly here.

"Herra," he called to announce his presence as he approached. Head down, ears tucked back, tail waving slowly behind him, he drew near to the alpha but thought twice about bumping his head against him as he'd first thought to. He came from a tactile family, but not everyone had.

Floundering, now, he tried to pu words to the thoughts and feelings and questions that were buzzing in his head. Would Burke answer him, if he could ask? Could he, or did these worries and fears only live in his own mind? Would Burke think him strange or stupid or bad for having such thoughts?

Burke looked up when Dagfinn appeared, making his arrival known. The alpha male turned towards him and nodded in greeting. "Dagfinn," he greeted. Giving the male the opportunity to speak his mind. Burke ha this counselor trade but he was not sure all his new members knew this. In Black Feather it had been a fact.

The male also knew that he had not socialized much with Dagfinn yet. He was usually busy with other tasks and the male had only recently joined in his eyes so not much time for bonding yet. "What is it?," he asked as the male seemed to have trouble starting to talk.

Relief flooded the young male when Burke seemed to guess that he wanted to talk - and better yet, did not seem opposed to the idea. Dag plopped down and gazed imporingly at the older male, willing the right words to come out of his mouth.

"I think I did a bad thing," he said with a huff, realizing as he said the words that sleeping with Amber was indeed a bad thing. Something he should not have done. "I met a girl and she was in heat and I didn't realize at first but then we had sex and now she's pregnant and I don't know what to do!"

Everything came out in one breath, a whoosh of all the anxiety that'd been festering for several days, now. It felt good to get it all off his chest, but he felt decidedly worse knowing that someone else would now judge him for it.

At least it wasn't all rioting around in his head, now.

Burke raised his muzzle when the male spoke about having done a bad thing. He instantly thought that he had told someone from Black Feather about this pack, or worse about him. Burke didn't look pleased though as he started to speak Burke realized it was perhaps more innocent, depending on what he found innocent really. "Are you sure she is pregnant and they are yours?,"he asked calmly.

"Did you tell her about Arthendal, about us? About me leading these lands?," he then asked. Burke would not allow anyone else their pups in his ranks. Perhaps eventually Aeronwyn's because she was respected, but her partner would be respected to. Dagfinn didn't even have an assigned rank yet and he already went out of his way to father some pups. Burke felt like this male was still rather impressionable.

"What you perhaps fail to realize is with women who roam alone outside the safety of her pack, will perhaps had many other males before her that means you are not the first to have bred her. Another important fact is, she probably wasn't even allowed to breed. If she was an alpha female she would have perhaps let willing males in her pack do the job for her if she wanted young. Perhaps she wasn't even a pack wolf at all which makes this even worse. There is a good chance they aren't even yours. So calm down and forget this girl. You are better off without her or those young," Burke spoke.

The alpha male's presence was strong. He would not allow her or her spawn inside his territory. She was just a whore who didn't have the decency and respect for her alpha female if she had one in the first place. "Don't be all noble now. How long know the girl for? Like 5 seconds? Please. You will be fine.," he assured him.

More relief came as Burke's worries centered around not what he'd done with Amber, but with what he might've told her. Which was, thankfully, nothing.

"No, I didn't tell her anything about the pack," he said, feeling a guilty freeness flow through him - she wouldn't be able to find him. Even Burke said that it didn't matter, he should stay here, let her pack take care of her if she had one, they might not even be his. "So... it wouldn't be bad if I just... never saw her again?" he asked, hesitantly. If he'd misheard and it really was bad, he'd feel all the more guilty.

However, it sounded to Dagfinn like this was no big deal. Maybe it'd happened to Burke in the past - maybe this was just a regular thing, and Amber didn't expect anything from him, anyway? (Except she did - he knew she did. He'd made promises, or near enough...)

Burke let out one firm nod when the other confirmed that he had not told anything about their pack. "Good, this only confirms that she knows nothing about you," he spoke to the male on a more calm tone. He looked at the male as he was slowly nodding thinking about the situation at hand.

"Of course it is not bad. You should really think that she just used you. She wanted pups so badly she went out of her way to get them, and you were probably an easy target. You said that you didn't even realize she was in heat? Well, I can tell you. You know when a girl is in heat," he pointed out to the darker male.

"I think you should be angry with her for even using you that way, and then telling you that they are yours so you run the legs from under your body to serve her and bring her meals? No, Dagfinn. This girl just used you. Your loyalty is here with us. Not what that whore that tried to get you to do what she wanted," he pointed out to him, very compassionately so. Perhaps then those words would really make him think as himself as the victim here. "Forget the girl, you probably don't even know where she lives anyhow."

Well I know, now, he thought sullenly, though he chose not to comment as Burke went on to accuse Amber of using him. His heart wrenched and he utter a soft "Oh." Maybe she had been. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense - she'd been lying in wait in that pool, had called him toward her, smiled that sweet, beautiful smile of hers... but she'd also comforted him when he was afraid, hadn't she? But... but he'd been afraid because of things that she'd caused!

The hollow, empty heartbreak of first love unrequited began to grip the young man, but he soldiered on without shedding tears. "Do you really think she was using me?" he asked uncertainly, still unable to reconcile the sweet, gentle Amber he'd met with the conniving creature that Burke now described. "And what if they are mine? Won't that make me... bad to just leave her with them?"

Burke slowly nodded when the male asked confirmation. "Well I think so. Normally you get to know a female before her heat, and once it is close you talk about it. Perhaps with your alphas if there is a possibility for young, and if you are the alpha itself you look if pups will even survive if you would breed," he explained. Burke was being a bit of a hypocrite because he never did such a thing, but Dagfinn didn't know about that. "She was acting upon lust, not reason. You have your home here with us," he spoke to the male with confidence.

He could see that the male was perhaps a bit upset or shocked about what happened. Women could be deceitful creatures. "It will not make you the bad one. Because if she was smart and didn't want any pups then she wouldn't be roaming alone in heat. Besides if a female doesn't want young they will let you know. They bite... hard," he spoke, that he did experience. "So, i am pretty sure she just used you, along with some other males. Don't worry Dagfinn."

Burke spoke with a wisdom that befit his age, and Dagfinn - young and malleable as he was - was all too happy to have his guilty fears assuaged. His tail began to wag as his alpha's words became more final and clear, and though it seemed a weight had been lifted off his shoulders, he would later note that his heart felt no lighter.

"Okay," he said, taking a deep breath. "Okay, I will forget about her. Thank you, herra - I will know next time to run instead of... I will know to run."

Feeling much better about the situation, the sprightly young male hopped to his feet and and paced along the borders. There was a sense of unrest in his gut that he didn't like, but hopefully a good night's rest and a proper meal would fix that. For now, he decided that he'd better start pulling his weight around the territory. "May I accompany you on your rounds?" he asked, thinking that perhaps some border-marking was in order.

Burke was pleased to see the male feel a bit better. He had a smile back on his maw and his tail started to move. "Well I am a therapist after all," he explained to the male. "You can come to me when you are worried about something," he assured the other. Burke knew that his mental wisdom was going to be his forte seeing that soon his physical side would start the wither.

Burke looked at the set of trees he still needed to mark and then nodded. "You can. Are you interested in the mercenary trade? You are still undecided about your path," he pointed out. Perhaps the male was already more clear about what he wanted to do with his tasks here in this pack.

It comforted the boy greatly to know that Burke would be there if he ever had the need - such things meant quite a lot to the lone Ansbjørn. Perhaps there would be some semblance of family for him here, even though Lotte and Laerke were by the sea, and the rest of his siblings far and away. Maybe Burke could be his new brother - It even sounded kind of like Laerke!

"Thank you, herra," he said sincerely, "I will remember that."

Problem solved and matter now set aside, Burke went on to question him about his place here at the isle. Dag listened with an open ear, and nodded along when Burke made his suggestion. Although ranging would always be his first love, battle was something at which all Ansbjørns excelled. "Yes, I am interested in that," he agreed with a cheerful bob of his head - the word, mercenary, was set aside for further practice before he used it in the company of his elders. "I was trained to make war since I was a small pup - and I am not small anymore," he explained, grinning humorously as he used the same line on the father that he had used on the son. Indeed, he was no longer small - he towered above most wolves and had a fair bit of muscle and fat to cover his bones. All features that aided him in fights, but that did not make or break them. "But I would still like to travel, if that is possible - I promise that I will not come back again with such woes."

The reminder of his heartbreak caused his good mood to dim, but it was back in the next moment as he thought of all the places he still wanted to go.

Burke nodded, noting that the male spoke that word again. Herra. He was not sure what it meant, so Burke wouldn't beat around the bush to ask. "What does Herra mean?," he asked the darker rather cheerful male. The male continued how he was taught as a pup how to fight. Curiously so, because with his cheerful nature he wouldn't pick him as a fighter. But then again, who was he to judge about it?

"Well if you are interested then I'd say you can show that you are competent by earning the trade," he offered. "Patrolling borders and fighting whether it is defensive or offensive." Burke was eager to have a few fighters in his pack. It would always be useful if someone from Black Feather would find out where they lived and they had somewhat of an army. "You can have a secondary trade by being a scout perhaps?"

The question was surprising, though it probably should not have been. Dagfinn floundered for a moment as he tried to remember the appropriate translations. "Lord," he explained when it eventually came to him; "Sir." If Burke preferred, he would switch to the common tongue when hailing him, but it would cause him more pain than he thought made it worth bringing up. Burke would have to tell him if he didn't like it.

Dagfinn wagged his tail as the older male brought up fighting. It was a passtime he appreciated in almost any circumstance, so Dag didn't think it would be too much of a problem to 'earn the trade'. Too, it pleased him to hear that he would not have to focus entirely on battle, and that scouting was still something that he would be allowed to do.

Burke thought about it and nodded. "Good to know. I didn't know what it meant before," he returned, finding it very respectable of the other to call him lord. Burke was pleased, and he trusted that the male hadn't lied about the meaning of the word. He didn't feel like Dagfinn would be that kind of wolf really.

"You can decide later if you want to go offense or defense. But you should talk to Aeronwyn. She could really help you with this," he explained to him. He also remembered Issun wanted tone a scout but he seemed to have abandoned Malice, and him, again. So that was something Burke wasn't so pleased about. Otherwise Dagfinn could have gone to Issun as well.

Aeronwyn.

Dagfinn muttered the name to himself a few times before nodding staunchly. He would find and best this Aeronwyn, and then he would go out and do the same to every willing wolf he met. He'd prove himself to Burke until the man forgot that Dag had ever been a fumbling, nervous fool over some girl.

"I will talk to her," he declared, suddenly very excited about the prospect. "Thank you, herra!" he cried, darting off to do his bidding. Unfortunately, he would get distracted before his mission was complete.