Blackfeather Woods I'm sitting in a railway station, got a ticket for a destination

Potema explains that the title belongs to her brother …as if that means that no one else can hold it. As if it’s meant to pass to him and no one else, with the exception of his future mate. Kjalarr instinctively flinches away from that word — he knows better than most that, that word can be just an empty of a promise as any other. He supposes it could mean everything but he also knows that it can mean nothing at all: a place holder to assuage guilt for wrong doing. He lets out a low snort when Potema speaks up that Vaati will take it if Astrid’s absence continues but the sound is devoid of amusement. He does not take Vaati coveting a rank that he is far too young, too brash, too hot-headed and inexperienced to hold lightly (these things Kjalarr puts to his son due to how he was as a youth and from what little Potema has told him). “A child should not be leading a pack.” He states flatly. Especially a child that is too much like how he was ( but worse in his own way ). He is about to speak, to rattle off the reasons why he thinks Vaati taking control is an awful idea ( besides the fact that he most definitely didn’t want to live beneath the rule of a child ) when he notices Potema’s hiss and watches as her muscles spasm as she stills.

Kjalarr’s words die in his mouth and his heart nearly stops as he looks to her: a stilled wisp in one milky eye and solid and lupine in his other. “Potema?” Kjalarr moves closer to her, licking her chin, her cheek and then the bone above her eye, trying to rouse her from …whatever had seized her. “Potema.” He croons her name wishing he knew what was happening and what he was meant to do. Her muscles unclench and he does not pull back but instead lingers at her side. “…Potema?” There’s a million unasked questions in her name as it leaves his lips full of unbidden concern and worry ( the word she speaks does not go unnoticed by him but as he does not understand it he brushes it aside in favor of more pressing concerns ). He forgets, wrapped up in those things, that he should probably address her by title because he has to forcibly remind himself that he’s her captive. Yet, none of these things absolve the worry that insistently lingers demanding reassurance that she’s ok.

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