Whitefish River Summer dress

@Bagheera Whitefish River. Set sometime during Jinx's week-long trip to Silvertip. Being vague about her status 'cause her Alpha chased her down.

The Wilderness was grand and sprawling, and reminded her of home in all the best ways. Though Jinx wasn't situated on the coast as she had been in Shearwater Bay, she nevertheless would always be able to see it and visit it, so close did it linger to the mountain. At the backside was Neverwinter Forest, which once had commanded her respect but since had been abandoned by its pack. She still was in disbelief that Chakra had left her wolves behind, but Jinx imagined the spider queen had gone on to find something even better. It was the only logical explanation.

Her travels took her worn paws to the valley floor for some much-needed rest from the mountain's wearying trails. Had she been born elsewhere, like Kindred's territory or Tartok's, she might have been a true master of the mountains. Her paws were suited to walking on shifting beach sand, her body accustomed to weaving through dense forest. Her skill set for mountaineering was lacklustre at best, but she knew in time she would embrace it and tease out the hidden mastery belonging to her breed.

She paused at the edge of a slowly meandering river, where she dropped her head to drink deeply. It was only just noon, but it felt like evening was fast approaching. Her body was tired from exerting itself on the mountainside. Surely, Jinx thought, that would eventually become less of an issue as well. For now, the pale Kesuk settled herself sphinx-like on the riverbank, allowing the gentle murmur of the water to lull her into security for just a moment.

Bagheera DeMonte, unfettered.

Seasons had passed and his mind had long since been set, but he was no less deeply wounded by being forced to yield his life-long home, duties and in some part, family. His father's legacy would never be his. Had he been younger, he would have taken to the horizon bordered only by temperamental seas and vast oceans. As it was, however, he had no intention of heeding the persuasion of wanderlust that so many of DeMonte lineage had found temptation in before him. He was getting undeniably on in age and had long since passed that phase. Now he had fewer options, and his chosen path was a search for replenishment.

A drab veil of clouds swallowed the lofty sun whole while the day was still young and the presently lone wolf worked to survey the foreign wilderness in which he freely roamed. The craggy peaks in the distance were, for him, welcome familiarities of how he'd spent his winter, and not physical opponents to be conquered. In fact, they were his primary objective since leaving Splintered Spine, and his current path had him weaving through a particularly dense thicket of leafless deciduous trees. With Whitefish River so near, the desire to quell his thirst prompted him to emerge from the tangled brushwood and proceed towards the river.

The striking female could not have been more than fifty metres away when the behemoth stepped into full view. Bagheera angled his predatory gaze to watch her for a few moments as he crossed the short distance to the bank's edge with even strides, evaluating her with the impeccable scrutiny of a hawk. After dipping his noble head to drink, he turned again and this time approached her in a direct line along the river without so much as a hint of hesitation, but did not close the gap entirely.

Quite cozy? he rumbled as he came to stand before her. Her scent was vaguely irritating; he found he couldn't determine based on that alone whether she was solitary or belonged to a pack.

The moment passed, and vigilance once again claimed her. Her ears, always angled opposite of one another, switched back and forth to sweep her flanks and rear, while her eyes peered at the pebble-strewn shore across from her. This river was the longest in the Wilds, and would serve not only her wolves, but those of Blacktail Deer Plateau, as well. She had nearly forgotten her qualms with Hawkeye, so pressing was the need to snuff out the Vale's ignorant and arrogant wolves, but being in the plateau's vicinity once more reminded her that there were enemies everywhere.

Like, perhaps, the tall and shadowy beast padding along the river's edge in her direction. In recent weeks, Jinx had suffered much, so it was no surprise to her that wariness crept into her heart and steeled her gaze at his straight-forward stride. Yet when he came within earshot, he only made an observation. Harmless enough, then, unless he intended to do something about her perceived comfort.

"Who is it that asks?" she wondered, her voice for once devoid of the acidic bite normally found there. It was simple curiosity, for the scent comprising his masculine aura carried nothing familiar about it. Jinx was relieved that he didn't smell of Xi'nuata and Raheerah, having had entirely enough of the Vale wolves to last her a lifetime, but that didn't mean he was necessarily a friend. She wasn't prepared to be attacked, but she never forgot he might also be a threat, being a loner and therefore lawless.

A lone wolf very often did not care with whom it was he spoke unless it was somehow to his benefit. Bagheera had never experienced the threat of shadowed, lurking enemies, but a lone wolf could cover such an expanse of ground that it was only an incredibly determined foe that would bother to keep up, much less actually be able. She wasn’t a traveller, but her scent still concealed something from him in that it was not necessarily aligned at that moment, and plainly, he wondered why she would ask for his name before asking him why the fuck he was there in front of her in the first place.

You have enemies, he observed again, with inflection that lacked question and was meant to exonerate him if she wasn’t particularly suspicious. Closer now, he could see the proficient muscles beneath luxurious northern fur, the arresting way in which polar white became a shock of black on her paws alone. Her fiery eyes might have come across as wary at that moment, but he had no doubt as to the fervour that could consume them. She had enemies because she was capable, and because she was combustible, though the details could not be guessed.

Bagheera asks, he drawled out of perfect roguishness, Bagheera DeMonte. I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if you knew my family name. If she did, she would know he was not simply throwing on a mask. His looks were strikingly DeMonte, through and through.

He was perceptive. Jinx wore battle wounds plainly on her thighs and collar, but these were healing wounds from the cougar that Swiftcurrent Creek had attacked. It was plain as day that the marks left on her weren't of wolf origin, so Bagheera could not have derived his conclusion from only those. She was not well-acquainted with his kind, but the trademark pragmatism of the DeMonte lineage would have made a wonderful complement to the fire of the Kesuk lineage, and she was impressed by his perception alone. Her kind was not terribly intelligent, but they had a fire that could consume them and render all logic useless. They asked questions later, if at all.

A pragmatist would therefore be useful to Jinx, who often leaped without looking. For now, she was more interested in where he came from and where he was going, and what bargain she could strike with him. Things of use to her, and probably to him as well. "Bagheera," she repeated with a thoughtful frown, "what an unusual name." If only because Jinx was well-acquainted with names comprising only two syllables, and therefore extraordinarily easy to pronounce in comparison.

"DeMonte, you say?" She drew herself to stand, finding he was taller and broader. The name would have come up in her memory if she had wracked it hard enough, but the DeMontes must have been most prevalent elsewhere. Though they had landed in the Seahawk as well, she had never met them, but Jinx could assume much about them, all obvious things, if they were all like this wolf. "I have not heard of it. It is a strong family?" Once, Jinx had made th is same assumption with Chakra. The pale Amazon placed a lot of value on a wolf's family name, sometimes more than on the wolf themselves. "I am Jinx Kesuk. You may have heard of mine as well. We are well known in the north."

Or maybe not. The large families seemed to occupy their own separate niches in the world. The DeMonte family hailed from the Salvaje Valleys south of here and inland. The Kesuks hailed from the Seahawk Valley, north along the coastline. These families were bound to meet and interbreed one day, but when it would occur, nobody could know. At present, she knew only of her large family and the Nereides, her family's fated sister pack, who had likely been the Kesuk family's undoing when they travelled to Echo Cove.

His remark on enemies had been answered easily by her non-answer. Standing, the arctic Amazon's bearing was similar to his, lacking only the nearly excessive stature, though she was long-legged in her own right. She naturally exuded authority and what was likely earned confidence, appearing then to have shaken off her former reservations regarding his sudden, disruptive presence, a progression which suited him thoroughly.

Had she recognised his name he wouldn't have blinked an eye, but he wasn't any closer to doing so when she hadn't, either. The sight of some DeMontes, unless the rooted variety, could be stunningly fleeting. He flashed her the smirk of a knave. So strong they can afford to run off to be mercenaries, chasing the sun and skirmishing with dragons, he informed her, his voice a growl of drollery. Dragons, of course, were the mythical creature of choice in many of the stories he'd been told as a child. He had in turn taken great care to pass on his own wildly extravagant variations of these to his younger siblings.

He regarded her features more carefully at the mention of her name, comparing them in his mind against any that had left a mark in his memory. Chewing it over briefly, he came to the conclusion that he couldn't recall actually meeting a Kesuk in the past, although someone somewhere must have mentioned the name at some point, if they abounded at all the way the DeMonte line did. An overwhelming number of individuals had come and gone around Lilac Valley, and despite being painstakingly mindful, Bagheera's attention had often been diverted by more significant responsibilities than cataloging names to faces. I hadn't, he replied candidly, intentionally past-tense about it. He would remember her.

The panther's paws remained still for the moment as he was assuredly not complacent to part ways with the company he'd collected. If your bloodline is well known in the north, why have I found you on this spot of riverbank? he queried, something she could just as easily turn around onto him, and likely would. Her answer stood to be any number of things, and he sought information then above all else. He knew very well it was entirely possible those mountains he'd had his eye on in the distance were not even worth reaching. I'm all ears, you'll find.

"Dragons?" wondered Jinx in a voice that was devoid of any undercurrent of condescension. The young Kesuk had grown up on stories of bears and spirits and loa, with no room for dragons, and so she had no concept of what a dragon might be. The word was unfamiliar to her, and so she asked with the curiosity of one who truly did not know rather than the scepticism most adults might supply.

Though she hadn't met any mercenaries herself, having always lived amongst wolves who were more grounded, she could understand the term. The notion was attractive, and more than once Jinx had entertained a fantasy of running off into the sunset and offering her services for food and protection, with no other responsibilities. Sadly, she had never been much of a wanderer, would find little adventure past the horizon, and was much too ambitious besides. It was no life for her. Bagheera wore about him the look of a man who could handle himself in the wilds, but she was ignorant of what little signs told a lifelong vagabond from a momentary traveller. Every wolf residing in these lands had wandered to get here, yet what features made a mercenary, she could not tell. She could assume from his looks that they were ruggedly handsome, perceptive, and strong... But not much else.

Having been whisked away in this brief fantasy, Jinx's concentration on what was really happening had become scarce. She caught only the most obvious things Bagheera said and did, not noticing any of his smaller, idler habits, should he have shown any. He drew her attention back with a question whose answer was much more vast than she could tell. Lately, she had opted for drastically shorter versions of her history that left out a lot of the details of her faith and former pack.

"Only if you tell me why you are," she began with a sly glance, but continued regardless of his answer. "Large families require large plots of land," Jinx began, gesturing for him to walk with her along the river side, if he pleased. "My sister and I were too alike in our ambition for the territory of our ancestors. When my mother abandoned the pack, we were both appointed its guardians, but it wasn't large enough to contain the both of us. The tension was too high, and my sister was bigger, fatter, and stronger, so I chose to find my place elsewhere." There was a lot of other back-story about jealousy and Gods and spirits and visions of fire that she left out intentionally. "I have my eye on the solitary mountain to the west. It is not so large nor hospitable as some of the other mountains, but lacks the hornet's nests that are the eastern packs."

Oh, yes, Jinx never hesitated to drip in a drop of poison regarding Blacktail Deer Plateau and Northstar Vale. Gossiping had never been one of her favourite activities, but now the two enemy packs seemed to come up at least once in every conversation, likely due to her frustrated fixation on the wolves who had bested her in combat from them both. It was, pettiness aside, a selling point of Silvertip Mountain for her.

Stories for cubs, he clarified without patronising her. There was not exactly a textbook in existence for referencing such things, so there was no way to know unless told. His education had simply started early, as a DeMonte kitten himself. And teeny-tiny he'd been, hard as that was to believe at the rate he'd grown. Colossal reptilian creatures with monstrous wings, deadly spikes, claws and teeth, capable of breathing fire and spewing smoke. Altogether unpleasant to meet on a jaunty walk, he assured her, his expression tight-lipped and grim, shaking his head very slightly. He gave no indication that it was anything to laugh at.

Bagheera was not only acutely aware of his surroundings, but fairly self-aware as well. In passing, he considered the fact that he had given far more effort to define the concept of a fictional, legendary beast than he had to explaining where and from what circumstances he had come in the last year to anyone. Previously, he’d played the line of mercenary and no one had questioned the already daunting wolf further, nor had they needed to, as he’d played the part precisely. His service had been exceptional. Bagheera was glad of the fact that though Jinx had inevitably asked for reciprocation, as he knew she would, she had indulged him in his wish first.

He didn’t let a word slip by, and his powerful, heavier stride brought him to walk shoulder-to-shoulder with her along the fluent river. The feralhewn male listened to the recount of her early family life and reflected on how similar their origins were. Large families could be typical as such, with competition running fierce and ceaseless. In the end, only one dominant animal could thrive. More, and the potential for harmed relations was ever increased in frequency. This was exactly why Bagheera had fought tooth-and-nail to ground his brother, believing most in what was best for the entire organism, more than for himself. But the story had brought him here.

I stood guard for a pack in the mountains this past winter, to the south, a place called Splintered Spine. The mountains you indicate now were where my planned course was to lead, he confided easily, then turned his wild mahogany gaze towards the lone mountain she spoke of specifically, considering it carefully before he proceeded to uphold his end of the bargain he’d made for information. Coincidentally, not only are our paths similar, but our pasts. My brother and I were contenders right from the bloody moment we were born, and when our father died last year, the violent storm came to a head. We fought— he paused mid-sentence, jaw clenched, and more brutal than wounded pride and heart was knowing that the wrong wolf was leading Lilac Valley at that very moment, —and he bested me. I did not choose to leave, as you did. I was exiled.

There ended the first telling of that story by Bagheera DeMonte.

Looking at you now, I’m surprised you didn’t fight, he had the audacity to add. Perhaps she had and refused to recount it, but if that were the case, he would let her have her ending. It was not his to take. Or, perhaps her family had not been worth fighting for the way his had been. In any case, he put a pin in the knowledge of the other existing packs and continued to walk at her side.

"I see," breathed Jinx, who could not imagine reptilian creatures much larger than the little lizards that hung around the hot springs. Giant lizards with wings and spikes would have been terrifying and monstrous. The Kesuk thought they would also make wonderful gargoyles, but suspected wolves would have more trouble than just trespassers to deal with if dragons existed. Despite the almost humorous way Bagheera spoke of them, Jinx was too busy thinking how troublesome dragons would be to find amusement in it.

Bagheera went on to explain a little more about himself, this time without the involvement of dragons. She picked up on the similarity of their past, just like he had, though of course she was a little slower to do so. Jinx let him finish without interrupting, though began her follow-up with, "what made you leave this Splintered Spine? Did their needs no longer coincide with yours?" Some insight into what he was after would be useful to Jinx, for more reasons than one. Though it wasn't in her nature to be altruistic, at times she would lend her aid to others, particularly those who seemed worthy of respect and often as part of a bargain.

"I am sorry you lost," she said, subscribing fully to wolf law and therefore not necessarily of the opinion that the stronger wolf of a pair might not make the best leader. Where she came from, the strongest wolf was always the most superior. Even though this brother Bagheera spoke of was the better leader in Jinx's idea of the world, she still knew how it felt to be second best, and could sympathize. She couldn't sympathize with exile, although Kaskae surely would have exiled her if she had done as Bagheera had with his brother. Exile was as foreign a concept to Jinx as dragons and mercenaries, though she knew it happened frequently. Shearwater Bay had not exiled anyone, and even Akhlut had not exiled her from Horizon Ridge when she attempted to usurp his throne.

"I knew my sister would kick my ass. I was a lot skinnier then." This was said with a wry grin. She had beefed up a lot, though most of it was because of her terminated pregnancy. "Thought I'd save my hide the inevitable beating by not fighting for it. Not the most honourable choice, I admit."

Although he'd spoken nearly mockingly of mercenaries when mentioning them previously, he was not beyond accepting that he had become one after exile. He filed very neatly into the very simple definition; he just wasn't about to remain there. I joined them with the intention of leaving in the spring, as I did, was his simple answer to her question. Few leaders would allow wolves to enter their ranks who admitted to only passing through, but this one had suspected he would be useful during the harsh winter months. Bagheera had utterly kept his word to him in return.

Also, and I can’t imagine why— he drawled dryly, pausing a moment for effect,—but it would seem my continued presence comes off as a threat.

The sympathy Jinx expressed was met with silent acceptance. He hadn't expected it, nor had he actually wanted it, but there it was. Circumstances might have been different if any one of a hundred elements had been altered, but it all came down to the fact that they’d been at this throughout their entire lives and Bagheera had lost during the most important confrontation. That same fact was also why Sabor had been forced to exile his brother, even if it had just been blind rage driving him like a stoked locomotive. His actions had been unavoidable. The two brothers were living proof of the outright folly of two natural alpha males coexisting. Bagheera immediately understood the past of the polar-white female he now walked with by instinct and relation.

He nodded in acknowledgement after she affirmed that there was truly nothing more to the story she'd let him in on. She’d left to spare her skin, albeit with some lingering though probably minor self-reproach. The monolithic black male would have spared a lot more than skin had things come to that with Sabor, but it had never been in the name of honour. We are what we are, i.e. wild, brutish beasts. Honour doesn't care and neither should you, was his darkly brusque response, though he added with a flicker of wily grin that flashed in his eyes: Your sister might’ve sat on you. Just think of the sheer humiliation.

There was something both unsettling and refreshing about the way that Bagheera revealed his inner self through his words. It was unsettling because he was the quintessential wild card who was untrustworthy and likely distrustful himself. His allegiance would at best be offered on uncertain terms with an uncertain expiration date, and at worst would be so fleeting that nobody would even see him when he departed. It was refreshing because Jinx so rarely met wolves of such utter honesty. Bagheera placed on the line his very reputation by admitting that he had joined his former tribe with the known intent of leaving it. There was something familiar and appreciable in knowing that a wolf could make their own terms and stick to them without eliciting senseless hatred for their sworn actions.

His admission that he was seen as a threat was a lot more interesting to Jinx, who betrayed her thoughts with the over-eager tilting of her ears and brightening of her expression. "A threat?" she repeated, hoping he would elaborate more, but not before she could say, "I should imagine you are a threat to the enemies of your friends, which should make you a good friend indeed."

Speaking of friends, Jinx was suddenly inclined to make one of Bagheera. Perhaps he would go on his vagabond ways and they would never see one another again, but perhaps he wouldn't... The mere idea of making him the enemy of her enemies was surprisingly sweet. It became even sweeter when he subscribed to her notion of honour being nothing but a pain in the ass, although he definitely hadn't said it that way. "I must agree," she said through a smile brimming with respect. "It would have been a terribly embarrassing outcome, considering she never was good at keeping her gas to herself. I simply could not suffer it."

He considered her perception of what he might be and decided to divulge a few details. I hadn't given him a chance to make one of me, he revealed, regarding friends and the alpha male of Splintered Spine. Then, on the threat he posed, There's the matter of the male ego, the Alpha male ego specifically. There are those that get caught up in the notion that someone might try to take them down a notch, because they surely must be that fucking important. And of course, he went on, very bluntly, there's youth, with all the coltish arrogance in the world, but not a scrap of rightly earned confidence. There are good reasons for me to be seen as a threat, and he did have them, but I had no intention of swiping his spot of rock out from under him. Splintered Spine had only ever been a wintering haven. I kept my word and left the pack as I found them. Without regret, I might add. But he didn't.

Bagheera caught her smile and flashed good-looking roguishness back. The white tigress in her mock-seriousness enhanced the imagery he'd composed of what could have been had Jinx challenged her larger sister, and it was evident in the amusement that gleamed in his ordinarily stern eyes. There lingering also was a flicker of bona fide, unspoken camaraderie.

He had yet to road-block her questions and she had thus far been just as keen to answer as to ask. Naturally and assuredly, the great black wolf sought to delve further. You seem to know the region well enough, hornets' nests and all, he diverted, breaking the thread of humour cleanly and realigning with his foremost intent. His remark was not in the form of a question, but it was tied to many questions. The facts were undoubtedly his to find in reference to the other packs, but having any indication of what he might be walking into in order to get them was distinctly to his advantage. Where have you been staying up until now? was where he chose to start.

Bagheera had a number of good points. Inevitably, they would affect the way she saw him, but only marginally. He admitted to having no designs to steal Alpha ranks, at least not from his former leader, and seemed to have a deserved disrespect for youth that Jinx was slowly acquiring herself. Her mind went to Fox, how young the leader was, and how her private rejoicing that she wasn't the only wolf to have led at a young age had gradually become private dismay for lack of experience in the pack as a whole. To all his reasons, she only bobbed her head to signal her understanding. Alpha ego wasn't as prevalent with females but, as Fox had seen with her, it was still very present.

"I ran with Swiftcurrent Creek, past the mountain range," she rejoined, with no particular reason to fear he would go there. "You will find many youth there, and a few shady individuals as well. The leader is very young, and has shown her inexperience on a few occasions." Jinx was a gossiper, and was happy enough to sell out her former comrades for all their faults, but this time she didn't do it automatically. If he wanted to know, he would ask, as he had been thus far. "One of the reasons I chose to get out of there, and of course the hornets." By which she meant the neighbours with their insolent threats.

So that was why she had her eye on the western solitary mountain. He considered Jinx and her condescension of Swiftcurrent Creek, assumed she’d had her own (perhaps valid) reasons for allowing their leader to go on leading and did not ask further. It was another parallel between them. He didn’t ask because it was irrelevant, in much the same vein as he hadn’t given her his full details on why he’d left Splintered Spine. She would never go there, in all probability, which meant quite obviously that there was no need to know.

Bagheera had a way of not bothering to give any outward indication such as nodding during the majority of a conversation, if only because his understanding was implicit and he was rather bold about his voice. With dingy sky overhead that still refused to let the sun through, and soggy riverbank earth beneath his large paws, his expression remained drawn as she spoke and looked only ahead in the direction they were going. He gave her the benefit of no interruptions.

And what have the others done to earn their metaphor? Probably they’d pissed on Swiftcurrent Creek’s lawn, whether literal or figurative. Unless it was a personal vendetta, in which case Bagheera wasn’t sure Jinx would divulge her full details on that.

I'm really sorry for the wait! I've had some awful luck with internet lately. >_>

“A variety of things,” she offered vaguely in response, canting her head to look sidelong at him for just a moment. “A pack on the coast is led by one who thinks he can lead without engaging his followers. The pack is a ramshackle mess of complete strangers that do not know the meaning of teamwork, thanks to his incompetence. They are no hornets. They are scarcely a bother.” She paused, picking her way around a large stone that jutted out of the riverbank, then continued. “Swiftcurrent Creek is an honourable pack as a whole, but the leader is too young. She has too many mistakes still to make... Security cannot be assured there. Still, not hornets.”

“The hornets are the wolves of Blacktail Deer Plateau,” here, the Kesuk gestured vaguely with her snout in the direct of the plateau, which was somewhere behind them, “and those of Northstar Vale inside the mountains.” As though searching her mind for a moment for an appropriate place to begin, Jinx pursed her lips and drew back her ears thoughtfully. “The Plateau wolves, particularly their Alpha Hawkeye, behave as though they are all-knowing. She is arrogant, and does not hesitate to seek out anyone and everyone she disagrees with just to tell them how much she disagrees with them. But best think twice about disagreeing with her. She holds a mean grudge. She extended a treaty once to my Alpha that would supposedly allow our wolves to pass through her lands unharmed to reach the other side of the mountain, and would allow her wolves to pass through ours. It was a ridiculous proposition but not one I thought they would dishonour... Yet, I once scouted near their border for my own pack's sake, and was outright attacked by a black male in her service. I can only presume it is because I disagree with some of her philosophies.”

Unconsciously, Jinx had made Peregrine's active defence of his home the basis for her own behaviour. Previously, the woman had been much like these Teekon Wilds wolves who allowed others to stand upon their borders as if there was a tangible threshold, but ever since tangling with the Plateau's demon, she had been much less accommodating. It was this that she would shape her mountain pack upon, but she never would realize that it was Peregrine who had inspired it.

“And the Vale... Full of wolves who do not understand proper conduct. I did not witness it, but my Alpha informed us all that they approached our pack in a party of four. They called it diplomacy... My Alpha called it a threat.” Jinx called it a threat as well, if only because she was militaristic and believed four wolves was two or three more than was required for “diplomacy”. “On several more occasions a particular female from their tribe approached members of my pack seeking this “diplomacy”, yet failed to respect my pack mates' superiority on our own lands. Recently, the female made threats to myself, that she and her wolves would hunt near the Creek pack's territory as they please while the Creek wolves are expected to remain fully within their borders or... Mm, face the consequences, I suppose.”

She took in a heavy breath, realizing she had spoken quite a lot (and also left out a few things), and finished with, “My Alpha's inaction toward these Vale wolves for their threats and their behaviour is a major reason I chose to leave that pack.”

I don't blame you one smidgen. <3 We should wrap this soon anyway, ‘cos I feel a new one coming on.

Bagheera listened as Jinx described a pack and its leader located on the coast. She didn’t name either of them, which was not at all amiss if they were as below the radar as she made them out to be. That was all he needed where they were concerned. Blacktail Deer Plateau and Northstar Vale, however, were another matter entirely. He found each of their actions astonishingly inane—the former for implementing policy that clashed with the beastly nature of the wolf, then reneging in habitual violence when they (or in this case, someone) realised the folly, albeit apparently for personal reasons, and the latter for their perceived idea of diplomacy, which for wolves would truly be staying the fuck away from rival packs instead of showing up to cause needless conflict.

Rather than make comments on each individual pack and incident she described, he meant to issue one intense verbal sweep to reflect his sentiment on the whole. In doing so, his now thoroughly serious gaze cast directly on her alluringly wild features. Should you fancy a little assistance while your pack finds its legs, you need only ask. Judging by some of the prior questions she’d asked him, he didn’t feel at all presumptuous in his offer. It wasn’t as though he had a schedule to keep, or somewhere else he needed to be. Of course, it wasn’t quite that easy to get Bagheera to lend his ear and capable paws so quickly on any ordinary occasion. Jinx had struck something for him to have considered it at all.

“I could not turn down an offer from such a respectable man as yourself,” she rejoined with a smile, redirecting her course to the river's edge, where she paused to drink deeply. When she emerged, licking her chops free of the chill water, she offered him the amicable swaying of her tail and the splaying of ears to the sides of her head, a posture Jinx had always considered “comfortable” and rarely used in the presence of others.

“The choice is yours to make, not mine. You know where you may find us if you decide to throw your lot in with us.” With that, the female brushed amiably past the lone wolf, punctuating their conversation with a brief, affectionate nip to his shoulder before heading back the way they'd come. Bagheera would make a valuable pack wolf if he chose to stand with Silvertip Mountain, but she suspected he would want to get to know the other leaders for himself, as well. She knew she would see him again either way.