Blacktail Deer Plateau Roman cavalry choirs are singing

The gaze of his company fell more strongly upon him and Malachi's muscles tightened. The man was studying him - or was he sizing him up? Unease churned within and he felt the sudden urge to run. But his legs would not move. The man's words were nearly lost in a prickling wave of panic, but what Malachi caught through the flash of anxiety turned his paws to stone.

His tongue felt dry in his mouth, and for a moment he couldn't speak. The mountains filled his thoughts: his intention since turning around was to find his family in the North. But was that home? He dreaded every foothill and peak he conquered. At the top of every mountain he paused, straining to see if he would pass the Glacier, or if he would be spared another day. He felt the quaking in his paws and the trembling in his heart grow stronger every day he drew closer to the two packs he had run from, abandoned, and failed. Was it a home a he sought? Not if his hopes rested on the Glacier and the Vale.

But was there an offer for a home underlying his company's words? Malachi didn't latch himself to that hope. He had been offered a home before - a family by the very wolf he'd turned his back on when she'd needed him the most. Did he deserve another chance? He knew the answer, and his heart choked with guilt. But he wanted one. "Yes," Malachi said, though everything in him urged him to turn away and leave this little pack to the small peace they had. He was better off alone - but still his heart burned for what this man had, and he couldn't bring himself to say no.