Ravensblood Forest the moon lives in the lining of your skin

Eske manages a nod to Shalon's protest, letting the woman know that she hears her but that she isn't going to try to find a way around. They don't have the time and as if to prove Shalon right the group is soon intercepted by a male whose every pore radiated dominance. Eske bristles against it. He is not her Commander and his dominance means little to her. He is attempting to claim, yes, but this territory does not yet belong to him in full and he hardly — judging from the scents she detects anyway — has enough to form an army. Perhaps Heda’s trust in her is misplaced. For Eske will always rebel against leadership she does not recognize. For a moment, she genuinely tries to put herself in his place and acknowledges that she’d be plenty hostile but in the end: until the territory was claimed there was nothing that could actually be done since technically they were not trespassing. Not yet, anyway. She tries to find that Fleimkepa nature but she’s never had it. Not really. She was the Gydasdottir born for war. Diplomacy had always been Freyja’s cup of tea. But Eske does not seek to make trouble for Drageda. She only wants to pass through so that her party can be on it’s way and accomplish the mission they’d been sent out to do. She halts and motions for her wolves to do the same with a gesture of her muzzle. “We have no interest in your attempting claim nor do we seek to challenge it. We only want to pass through these Woods. We are on a time sensitive mission as two of our wolves have gone missing and time wasted could be the difference of life or death for them. Backtracking at this point would only extend our mission.” In Arlo’s case it’s too late but Eske doesn’t know this yet. She still holds onto hope that they are both still alive and are taking the long way ‘round ( though she’s hardly naive enough to believe it ). She understands that their missing wolves have nothing to do with him but standing here talking only prolongs their mission and forces them to linger in this territory longer than necessary.