Stone Circle Willful darling, please listen.

Gunnar had spoken to Taktuq, but he also wanted a 2nd in command for her. Simply if something happened to him. He wasn't going to leave her high and dry if his age caught up to him. He felt pretty good, but you never really knew when your number was up, but he refused to worry about it.

So it was with a groan at thr hitch he headed on a search for @Tauris

She was clearing out the hull of her den, dust and roots spilling out over the edge in heaps behind her. She had plans to plie the base with grass and moss, something softer to curl up on at night. And to widen out the frame, too, in the case Skáld may choose to visit her and appraise her treatment of the quartz, which gleamed from its shallow earthen shelf.

A tread through the birch betrays an approaching wolf and she quits her burrowing to seek for a familiar face among the leaves.

“Gunnar!” She calls in greeting when his tawny figure appears. Though, he carries a serious look. She clicks her teeth nervously and parts through the dirt to meet him.

A wag of his tail and a small smile. Hello Tauris.

He stepped around her items fearful to break anything she was working on.

He looked her over glad to see her filling out and making a place.

How do you fare today?

“I am well, just doing a bit of… spring cleaning,” she excuses with a sheepish grin, returning a fellow flutter of tail. No one was meant to see the hollow in such a state. She shakes out her coat to rid herself of a dusty veil.

“And you?”

A soft chuckle. I should probably make time to do that myself.

He didn't mind the disarray it was how you got organized. There was always chaos first.

He settled to his haunches with a small shuffle. I won't keep you long. I'm seeking help in leadership. Taktuq will be beside me in leadership, but I'd like a second in command for her in case of. So i was wondering if you'd be interested.

The shock stills her tongue but rapidly she blinks and so too follows her tail with an anxious waver. Whatever preconceived ideas that brought Gunnar to her today had never included this. Her- a Nornir? The girl with an abrasive tongue and clumsy bearing? No hunter’s grace or warrior’s noble heart.

Bjarna had set upon herself to nurse the world. The only thing Tauris would nurse is a powerful grudge.

There’s a gripping sensation around her neck and the need to flee. She offers nothing in the way of leader to a pack. She cannot be what he wants.

“Faðir, that you would think of me, I’m honored, truly I am,” she forces words together but they carry rough over a throat gone dry. “But-” … But she’d made a promise, hadn’t she? To the wolves of Kvarsheim. Who’d taken her in when she needed help. Now it is Gunnar who needs help, to secure the future of their clan. He will not be here forever. Will she run from this? She cannot bring herself to. Even if every bone of her sinuous body wars against it.

“Yes,” She breathes, “I will uphold the promise I’ve made to you, and to Kvarsheim.”

Gunnar didn't care much for whether or not the she wolf had a certain skill set. No what he cared about was whether or not she'd take care of his family if something happened to him. That she would make sure those he loved were happy and safe and free.

There was a soft smile on his face and he looked her over. Tauris, please know that I chose you for what you bring ot our pack. I care more about the well being of my family. And you take care of all of us. You take care of me. That is more than enough. But bear in mind. That you can step down if you like, if you find it too much or anything. And I will never hold that against you. And none in this pack would either.

She nods, moved voiceless by his sincerity and warmth. It's the same compassion he’d held in his eyes when they first met along the edge of the seer stone circle. She would have her doubts, she always would. But for Gunnar and the pack, she would try.

Until Bjarna came home.

“Thank you, Faðir,” She offers first a revenant dip of head, then pushes  her nose into his fur, to rest her cheek against his own.

He held her there with a small smile, a hug to her forepaw with his own. You're welcome, Tauris.

There wasn't much else Gunnar could do but love those in his pack. Bring them back to life and allow them to grow. He hoped the best for them all, whether they were with him for the rest of his lifetime or just a season in his aged years.