Qeya River outstretched arm, and upturned hand

@Ingram i'm sorry for the wait on this!

imrathil reminds him that just as he would not be welcome neither would wardruna. as bitter as it made him feel — that churning sea of rage and resentment for that need for idyllic perfection that everyone seems to have: that prejudice towards disfigurement and disabilities ...as if bodies is all they have to offer the world — imrathil is ultimately right. wardruna sees his and imrathil's survival as a gift of the gods. a cruel gift, surely, but when are they not cruel? their ability to survive terrible things should make them more valuable. not less. wardruna grumbles unintelligibly but in agreement under his breath — a hybrid language of northern and common that made no sense even to him. he grumbled just to grumble.

he was too young to be this grumpy. gods only knew what he'd be like when he was actually an old man. assuming he lived that long, of course.

we're a sorry lot.

"i think that is wrong," wardruna protests, clicking his teeth together. not angry at imrathil — he doesn't think he ever could be — but at the judgement of wolves who have not seen half of what either of the pair have. "we are more strong than them." he huffs his belief, tail lashing against his hocks ...but even as the words hang in the air between them he knows that in the long run he's of a general unpopular opinion. last time he hadn't been turned away but he rather thinks it had been the presence of his wives that had weighed in his favor.

wardruna draws in a deep breath, the faint scent of a pack tickling his black, leathery nostrils. an area heavily populated with packs might pose a problem. adding onto what might already be a challenge for them. it occurs to wardruna that two cripples might have trouble recruiting and if they do not that they might have trouble with wolves of peak condition thinking that they can usurp. nothing was without a risk, they just had to decide which risk they'd rather take. try to build their own empire or subjugate themselves to someone else's. take the chance of attempted takeover or be turned away because of their conditions.

"there is much land in the south." there are a lot of neutral territories that they hadn't even covered yet and the northerner is not easily despondent by the fact that the taiga already has claims. he's not one to get attached to land. it's the way of life and sometimes the wolves that he grows attached to.