The Heartwood i bet my life

When the other male said bad things about the Sirens' religion, Pantaleimon uncertainly shifted her weight from paw to paw, feeling incredibly awkward, and stood in a submissive, nearly apologetic manner. She felt as though she should speak up, but was too afraid to do so in front of an Alpha of another pack; and anyway, she had no idea what to say, either. Pantaleimon, with frowning eyebrows, looked to a patch of moss on the ground while the other male called her deities shitty and briefly squinted her eyes. It hurt, to hear another speak this way of her Goddesses, for even though she had been born in the wrong body, Pantaleimon still felt a Siren and therefore felt connected to them.

It was welcome that Peregrine then introduced himself with a softening voice. Pantaleimon's frumpled up body straightened into a somewhat less apologetic position and she smiled uncomfortably as he fired a question at her that she could not possibly answer. "Yes," Pantaleimon mumbled in reply to the question. "Th-That's how the world works..." There was a deep sadness in Pantaleimon's eyes, for even though she had since long accepted her fate in this world, acceptance did not mean that this life and this fate would ever make her happy.