Two Rivers Isle i knock the ice from my bones

It was no problem at all! <3

The light purr akin sound did not go unnoticed by the svelte coywolf whose eyes narrowed, a low warning growl rumbling up the strong column of his throat, attempting to otherwise ignore the presence of whatever stranger had decided to creep upon him. It was a time for generosity, but his generosity came at a price. Nothing was ever truly free and this was something of a creed that Arturo clung to: and upheld himself to, as was only fair. There was something to be said for the type of “gentleman” that the Fearghal monarch was and it was a simple yet powerful word: dangerous. It took a certain level of cunning to be the leader of a gang, after all and such was not something that Arturo lacked. Perhaps the bark to garner his attention should have brought with it a familiarity but it did not — at least, not immediately. Arturo's pace slowed to a cease and gently he laid his catch across his front paws, salmon pink tongue smoothing across his chin and jowls to clean it of the blood that had dribbled down his chin. The words, the praise was undeniably strange to be falling from a stranger's mouth and only then did Arturo look at her, his head snapping in his direction like a whip, lips parted with his sharp question upon his tongue.

The words died in his mouth, never to fall from his lips, instead a very different one wrenching from him in a choked noise, “Devin?” The coywolf demanded. Yet, there was no mistaking her. For a bizarre moment he thought he was staring at a younger version of his mother, except Devin was too sylphlike, looked too much like him in the face to be Boadicea (and for that Arturo was forever grateful). And then realization truly sunk in and though he desired to close the distance between them and embrace his youngest (his baby) he refrained. Devin, out of them all, had been most like Arturo and he respected her want for independence and space. For a wild moment he struggled between the rush of relief and the flood of dread — not unfamiliar to Arturo for he'd felt the very same things when he'd been reunited with Cearney. While his children were his entire world and he was happy to see his second daughter here, too, he also feared her presence. Green had begun to return, yes, but there was no telling when it would be enough to warrant the return of the herds and he did not deign for his children to know the never-ending hunger and suffering that he had endured during the previous month: that he battled still.

His previous moments of selfishness were lost, abandoned as he gazed upon his youngest with all the affection and love expected of a doting father. “Are you hungry?” His paternal instincts were not something he could turn off and it was only natural to want to provide for his daughter, despite that she was long past the stage of needing him. “Here,” His head lowered and he nosed his stiffening kill towards her, licking his chops once more, head and fiery gaze lifting to regard her carefully, looking for any signs of physical wounds. “You can eat.” Even if it meant he wouldn't.