Swiftcurrent Creek I wanna hold you close

Though morbid, Jinx had to admit as Ira revealed his thoughts that the boy had a certain cunning to him. Although she had never done anything like that with Shearwater Bay—Kaskae would not have allowed it—the idea was alluring. Not only that, but if any wolf knew the merits of fear, it was Jinx, who had posed over others the threat of voodoo magic on more than one occasion. So when Ira voiced his own devised strategy, she regaled him with a toothsome grin that said, that is perfect, princeling.

"Come, princeling," she beckoned, gaining her feet and taking a moment to shake out her fur. "We do not have enemies to slay at this moment, but we may deter them another way." By nature, she was reluctant to allow the borders to appear weak, even though Ira's plan had clear advantages. She would rather fortify them, and let any trespasser arrogant enough ignore the warning signs. Those are the heads she would prefer to mount upon the borderlands; those of known wolves, those whose escapades preceded them.

The nearest border was not so far. Ira was growing at an alarming rate (had she grown that fast, she wondered?), so she no longer feared he could not keep up. It wasn't as though Jinx had cared even when his legs were shorter. Upon reaching the territory's edge, she paused and glanced back at him to give him the lead once more. She knew Ira so loved to be in charge, and she also knew it allowed him to succumb to his own inner darkness, the better to please Sos. "What might you do to fortify the borders when you do not have heads available?" she asked, having in her own mind an image of trenches lined with sharp fangs of rock and wood. She was interested in his tactics... And, of course, it helped her formulate her own, as well. Ira's intelligence had its uses, for more than just his eventual rulership over some plot of land.