Blacktail Deer Plateau hear this news, bear my gold

dauntless notices as she sinks a little further down and continues to stare at him with fearful, owlishly large eyes. the guilt continues to gnaw at his stomach and in his chest and he takes a deep breath, letting it out in a shallow exhale and swallows thickly because her continued prostration only further makes him feel like a jackass and reaffirms that he doesn’t like feeling like this. he was only trying to do his job and there’s a slight swell of frustration at himself because if he wants to be a proper mercenary he can’t let every pretty, wide-eyed, fearful girl crack him; yet, he believes her when she mentions that she was not trespassing. presently, there’s no proof that what she speaks is the truth but he gets the feeling that a trespasser lying about having permission to be in morningside’s territory would not have fear that is so genuine. “ok,” he says with a slow nod. “i didn’t know. i’m sorry.” dauntless feels a little relief as he apologizes for his aggression but it’s still a present knot in his stomach and throat; dauntless wasn’t sure if she was common knowledge among the morningside wolves or if, perhaps, no one had bothered to keep him in the loop because he’s still a cub. it’s impossible to say and doesn’t matter now given that he knows she’s here. dauntless’ ears flutter back to rest against his skull.

“I’m dauntless,” he draws his salmon pink tongue across his jowls after he offers his introduction. “or you can call me mirza if you want.” he adds, with a small smile realizing that ‘dauntless’ — while it is his name — might sound a little arrogant. it’s true he hardly ever goes by ‘mirza’ but mostly because it’s the only thing he has left of his estranged mother, khoe. he keeps it because it’s his singular way of acknowledging her participation in his creation as the title of ‘mother’ and the love associates with it no longer belongs to her. He has catori and pema for that and two moms were infinitely better than one who left them. the name always feels so weighted upon his tongue on the rare occasions he introduces himself as such like an expectation that he has yet to live up to, too formal. "are you a new pack member or just staying temporarily?" he asks next trying to ease some of her fear by keeping up a conversation not realizing that she may not want to head in the conversational direction that dauntless is going in.