Blacktail Deer Plateau where the world ends is where you must begin

I always get wordy when I reply to you <3

a question rose from nearby. the dark-hooded boy lifted his crown and turned with cupped ears to catch sight of the woman who had pushed him so far. something like a smile twitched at the corner of his dark lips before it vanished. “good enough,” he responded to her with a small nod, retreating back to his serious countenance.

the catch had been for the pack's cache, but he saw that grezig didn't appear to be in a normal state of mind. illidan was not even acceptable when it came to the realm of determining other's emotions. he struggled through many of his own, and so he regarded her with an interested glint in his hawkish gaze. something about the way her features were formed did not seem to suit her.

the boy plucked the hare from between his paws and tossed it toward the woman. as much as he would have preferred to never admit it, grezig had offered him the kind of tough-love that was necessary for the demonte-sairensu bloodline. she may not have known it, but it was only just softer than he was likely to have been treated by his own family.

“i had almost forgotten,” he admitted upon hearing that she would leave to search for his family. it was the truth; illidan had almost all but accepted his fate in the arms of the plateau. “i would go with you, but the numbers are small here and kavik could use the help keeping the territory protected.”

but it was more than that; illidan was afraid. he would never own up to such things, but he had often thought what it would be like to return to his mother, knowing what had happened to his father. he had thought of all the ways she might resent him for it, and it was crippling.