Stone Circle What do you think of my pups?

[ @Taktuq - @Gunnar ]

As Sanja had told him to do, Ethan brought his pups, @Ike and @Mya to see Gunnar and Taktuq, the two English speaking high ranks of the pack. He had talked with both in the past and they seemed kind enough, so he hoped they'd see his young with good eyes and allow them to officially join, because while Sanja had half given the go, she hadn't had the energy or language skills to really get to know his pups.

As Ethan approached the 2 wolves, he dipped his head respectfully. Ike and Mya should've learned by now to do the same. "Hello." He greeted them. "Sanja told me I should speak to you 2 about my young joining the pack."

Gunnar eyed the youth as he came forward, two younglings in tow. Gunnar shifted and studied them. They seemed able bodied, well enough. Could they hunt and track?

Hello. What skills do you bring to our pack?

He asked each one in turn and looked to Taktuq to see what she had to say. He was happy to help where he could. And he didn't mind vetting the younglings of Ethan, but he was not the only voice to be heard.

"I'm a strong hunter and fighter." Ike said, flexing the muscles that rippled under his lean body. "I can also jump really high, I took a bird down out of the sky once." Ike bragged. Sure it wasn't a massive hawk or anything, just a blackbird, but he was proud of himself.

"I'm really fast." Mya said. "I'm not as strong as Ike but I can hunt well because of my speed. I can also track well. And I also can jump high." Mya told the wolf.

Ethan nodded in turn to what each youngster had said. He had seen both their skills when he resided with them. "Also, my pups forgot to say their names." Ethan said with a chuckle, but a look at both pups. "The male is Ike and the female is Mya." He told Gunnar. "And pups, this is Gunnar." He added.

Whatever conversation she had been having with Gunnar would wait for another time. She looked upon Ethan and strangers with soft curiousity.

Ethan’s children. Potential recruits. Gunnar raised a necessary query, but when he looked to her, she held her tongue in anticipated silence. Let them see these wolves through the words they chose, hear the character spoken.

The boy was proud, she decided, as youngbloods would be. Eager. He made no small show of his strength. Her eyes danced with the light of a chuckle she managed to hold back.

The girl seemed more subdued. Confident, but level-headedly so. Knowing of weakness and strength.

She looked to Gunnar.

And I am Taktuq, she offered, when her packmate had been introduced, both seem fine youngbloods, strong additions to Kvarsheim. I would like to see both hunt with us, a smile tugged at her lips. She glanced to Gunnar again. Where do you hail from, Ike and Mya? What is the way that led you here? Family? Dispersal? Want for the new?

Gunnar said nothing, allowing Taktuq to ask her own questions. HE was curious for the answers himself. He smiled at them both, motioned them to continue, while he settled to his haunches and waited. Patiently.

"I would love to hunt with you, to prove my worth." Ike said. Then to her next question, about their reason of being here, he said "We wanted to be with our dad. Before Ethan moved to this pack he was with us a lot. We shared a main den and were almost like our own little pack." Ike explained. "So personally, I want to join the pack to be with my father. I assume the same is for Mya." He finished

Mya nodded. "What Ike is the same for me. I liked living with Ethan and I want us to stay a family, in the same pack." She replied, keeping it brief since Ike covered the basics. "also Ike seemed to forget to say where we came from. We came from our den with Ethan, back where Inkeri first found him before he joined."

Their explanation satisfied her, and perhaps showed through the softness in her eyes. To be bound so richly by family! A familiar pain tugged at her heart but she did not linger there.

Of course, their loyalty to Ethan was not loyalty to Kvarsheim. Taktuq had been uncertain what Ethan's allegiances were to the kin of Stone Circle.

To be with family is of greatest blessing, she said, with a knowing smile, yet coming to Kvarsheim is pledging care to all our kin. To learn to uphold one another as family, even strangers as Gunnar and I, as you already do for Ethan. Are you willing to do this, too, as we will do for you?

She looked to Gunnar, to see if he had anything else to add. To her, Taktuq did not think this was an unreasonable thing to ask.

Gunnar nodded his head. Yes, Taktuq makes a good point. A pack must trust each other. If you can't. Well.

The Old man frowned in thought as he remembered past packs, his father, his mother, Saena. There had been trust once upon and then things were rent asunder. He remembered the fight between Floki and Charon and Floki's twin, though he could not remember what name he had chosen as his own. His name had changed so much.

"Yes I am. I will make your pack my family, make your elders my elders, treat your pups as if they are my own. I will hunt with you, and for you. Stick with you in the good times and the bad." Ike vowed.

It was a little nerve-wracking, being touted in front of these strangers and being so unsure whether or not she deserved it. Sure, she was bigger and probably stronger than her father, but not stronger than Ike — and now, she had met wolves bigger than him! And so very few others. Who was she to compare herself to the unknown masses?

Too, the girl was deeply fascinated — almost to distraction! — by the grizzled wolf before her. She’d never met anyone so old, and in fact, had never met a grown male that wasn’t her brother.

So it was perhaps not inevitable, but certainly no surprise that she was overcome by an unexpected fit of shyness. And yet, she wanted badly to impress the man — and she was annoyed with Ike for being so hard to follow up.

“Of course,” she murmured, her white chin dipping toward her tawny chest. “I want you all to be my family.”

For some reason, the words made her face feel hot.

They endeared themselves to her. Ike, well spoken and resolved in his pledge. Mya, far gentler, and with a shyness she remembered from her own youth.

Time would tell if they kept their word or not. Until them, Taktuq decided to believe them true.

She smiled, and this stretch through the sway of her tail.

As you pledge to us, so we pledge to you. Welcome Ike, Bróðir of Kvarsheim, welcome Mya, Systir of Kvarsheim.

If Gunnar had none else to say, she would reach forward to touch the head of each youth before her, welcoming them in turn.

Gunnar listened. Had no more to say of or for the youths in front of him. He was not a leader, was not his place. He did iffer them each a kind smile and a dipe of his muzzle with a quiet rumble of Welcome to the ranks.

Then he would leave them to their own devices. Preferring to trace footfalls along the borders or hunting. Winter was coming.

Ike noticed Mya's embarrassment at her words, as he was next to her and felt her pelt getting hot. He nudged her lightly in a joking manner, just to let her know he'd felt her awkwardness.

Ike dipped his head as he was welcomed as a "Bróðir" of Kvarsheim. He assumed the term meant 'brother', as it sounded very much similar. "Thank you, both of you." Ike said, dipping his head again. "And one question, how do you say 'Thank You' in Icelandic so I can say it to Sanja?" He asked.

Ethan smiled at both Ike and Mya as they were welcomed into the pack. He was happy they were with him again. He wanted the family to stay together, for his next litter of pups to grow up alongside Mya and Ike, and potentially their own pups. He knew it was unlikely that a young male like Ike with strength and potential would hang around with a pack he didn't create, but Ethan could still hope. 

"Welcome, my pups, to our pack. The pack of Kvarsheim." Ethan said, looking at both Ike and Mya in turn.

last for me, with Ethan at least! Might throw Ike in one more time depending on how the rest of things play out