King Elk Forest Meeting the king

 an interesting thing about his decision to collect the stories of his pack-mates: it is hard to remain self-centered, as each piece of the broader puzzle serves to make delight feel ever smaller and more appreciative. of course these changes are slowly won, and at the moment the boy's head is still swollen from bruised ego, but he starts to feel something now. he is glad for mato, for the decision to bring his elders with him, and he is glad to talk to burke like this, though he won't admit it in such terms. he adds arthendal to his mental registry, his collection of these legacies he is a permanent outsider to, but the observer of.

it didn't really matter if burke were being truly honest or not - delight was a boy of dramatics and frankly he appreciated the mournful flair of the elder's storytelling. it made for a much better tale this way - he was right. "well," the androgyne says with a sniff, "i'm glad you're here, and they can rot." he recalls what mato's told him, and adds: "your mate is with you too, yeah? um, malice?" he did find mato's emphasis on her as burke's mate and not his grandmother interesting, though not enough to pry into it specifically. she is high on his list of priorities (which, at this point, is less a list of priorities and more just a list to go through depending on who he bumps into first. c'est la vie, delight.)