Blackfeather Woods Once a year we celebrate

Challenged and encouraged all at once, but he'd said nothing more in response to the words. He would prove it, someday, he was sure. To be the best that there was had always been his goal, to achieve the respect that his father held was something that he desired, and so there'd come a day in which he'd acquire it all for himself. He knew it to be true, though he was no seer, for his drive was just as strong as it'd ever been. Though it was often that his efforts were put into acts that only ever harmed himself, he usually meant well, and eventually there'd be someone that could see that. Someone that could balance him out and keep him focused on what was real—what was necessary—and lead him closer to his goal.

With a question directed his way, he'd averted his gaze towards the ground, knowing already that his answer was obvious enough. It was something that he wanted, but not something that he knew he'd be able to hold onto. The idea of having a family again appealed to some part of his mind, but always did there linger that nagging fear that, just as had happened before, he'd be abandoned. Left all alone and with no one to look towards beside his father; Alexander respect the elder Inuit, and truly loved him, but he knew himself to need more than just a father. Yet, it was always that he seemed to mess things up for himself, ruining each opportunity that had been given to him until it'd come to seem as if he was nothing more than a disposable, unwanted weight. It wasn't entirely his fault, though, which was a point that he'd not missed out on the chance to make.

"No one wanted me here," mumbled the boy, revealing what he'd believed to be the truth all along. There'd been no one that had wanted him to live there, his father and Meldresi excluded. It was only due to the Queen's word that he'd been permitted to stay, but for a long while after that he'd only ever been reminded of how he wasn't meant to be there. How easy it would have been for him to be thrown out, and how easily he could have ruined his father's life, too. "I wasn't wanted here. I was only ever allowed to stay because Meldresi had said I could, but she's gone..." It felt to him as if there existed no one within his corner aside from his dad, and he was only there due to their shared blood. He knew Kove would support him, but the others? They wanted him removed for good, he was certain of it.