Arrow Lake The fires of Mount Doom.

The rumbling of a familiar voice made the man grow rigid and defensive, although once he landed his gaze upon the dominant and irritated figure of the woman, his own posture dropped. He tried to ease up on the stiffness in his limbs but it was difficult; his senses were being overwhelmed by the scent of pack, one that he did not ascribe loyalty to, and his natural response was to be defensive. Njal had come here to set things right., To extend an olive branch to the wounded girl. He hoped to kindle some kind of relationship with her; for their friendship had just been budding when it had been so unceremoniously pruned.

With his eyes upon her silhouette - and dragged quickly to her paws, to the earth and then to the water's edge - Njal waited for her anger to cool a little. When this did not happen, he lifted his head and faced her properly. The man wasn't about to hide from her, he was here to talk. He would not defer to her in any manner, no matter how offended she may be, no matter how right her anger might feel to the both of them.

Njal took a step towards her looming figure, but paused long enough to consider his thoughts, and come up with something to say. He hadn't thought about it as much as he wished, and now she was right here, and he had to explain himself. "Xi'nuata, I want to apologize." The idiot blurted first, feeling his ears instinctively flick back against his head as a physical manifestation of guilt and apology; "I had to drive you away for the safety of my pack. If I had talked about our arrangement before the strain that Jinx has placed upon your home," He caught himself there, realizing he had named the wolf who had entered the territory without provocation, proven that they were one of the creek wolves. A known fact, but, it still felt like some kind of betrayal to the creek to speak it aloud. With a clearing of his throat, Njal continued. "If I had told our leader earlier, then we would not be having an issue. I just want you to know I am still interested in training you. I just... Cannot do it at the creek. Not right now."

And he wasn't going to bring this to the attention of Fox for a long while either, lest it come back to haunt him - but now that he was here before Xi'nuata, Njal realized that this moment could haunt him similarly, should news of it reach home. "I am still your friend." He admitted, albeit a little grimly as his posture slightly lessened. Golden eyes shifted away from Xi in deference the same way it would to Fox, and began carefully tracing the lake's muddy edge.