Lake Rodney Rushing waves stand so tall

Andalusia prepared herself for a negative answer, but the force of what the young girl offered caught her off-guard and the Ostrega blinked and raised her brow. Experience told her youth had the tendency to exaggerate, but Andalusia felt that the adamance of her words did not stem from fantasy or make-believe. If the adults of the Caldera spoke enough negativity against the North, enough so that their children held them as enemies, then the girl's warning was one to consider. In lieu of the injuries sustained by Sebastian while travelling through those lands, the Ostrega could believe at least some of the packs in that region were less than hospitable to outsiders.

Yet the girl continued to engulf all packs in the category of ones to avoid, regardless of whether they lay in the North or not, and Andalusia couldn't hold her tongue on that. "Rivals, but not always enemies. Many wolves will surprise you." The Caldera's teachings were its own, and she wasn't about to meddle with what their members taught their young. After all, they were not rules that bound her, nor would they ever be, and there must have been a good reason why they had been set in the first place. But the world was so rich beyond the bounds of any one pack, and to hide this from the child seemed unfair. One couldn't be blind to the risks of leaving home, but if one only focused on the dangers, they would never see beyond their prejudices to the wealth of learning just waiting to be obtained from others as keen as they.

Still, at the girl's final question Andalusia felt a rush of relief she hadn't settled yet, lest their encounter sour the moment she spoke her allegiance. "I belong to no one but myself," she said, and resisted the urge to lift her chin at her words, "My home pack is far from here, much farther than a few day's travel and likely unheard of in these parts. Some of my family has settled across this land, and they're why I've chosen to stay." The finality of those words left her unsettled, but she set herself against the growing urge to move on from the Wilds with finality the same.