Porcupine Ridge immortals

Thorin didn't seem too thrown by Rue's little slip, thankfully. The young woman honestly couldn't believe she had let something like that out-- usually she was so careful with words. It seemed that the more she tried to hide and bury her secret, her shame, the more it struggled and attempted to burst free. Oddly though, Rue didn't feel more ashamed for what she had told Thorin, as she might have expected. She actually felt... better. Lighter. Had she been going about things all wrong, then? Perhaps you didn't move on from the past by burying it deeper and deeper... perhaps you moved on by exhuming and exposing ugly truths, denying shame the power it once held. 

Rue nodded in understanding. Thorin's backstory was not an unusual one; at least not for the eastern packs as Rue had known them. She had vague memories of older siblings who had departed Red Fern Glade with paws itching for travel. Other siblings and cousins had married into nearby packs, and still others-- the more charismatic ones-- had started their own packs. This was the way of the world-- a small, natal pack did not remain small by retaining all of its progeny, after all. 

No, she hadn't killed anyone with her own tooth, and certainly not her own claw (what a grisly, grueling process that would be!) and she likely never would. Not if she could help it. "No, never had the stomach for any of that. I'm profoundly grateful for the Plateau's mercenaries, because I know I could never.. do what they do." Rue could hunt with the best of them, tear prey and even other predators to bits... but she'd never been able to handle the taste of another wolf's blood on her tongue. The mere idea of it made her shudder. 

The path widened as they neared the Porcupine Ridge overlook, and Rue slowed to allow Thorin to walk beside her, if he so wished. "That's the overlook, right up ahead. You can see all of Northstar Vale from that point." Rue looked up to meet her new friend's citrine eyes, her own honey gaze warm and bright with anticipation. Although she had begun the climb with the intention of appreciating the view in solitude, she thought she might enjoy sharing the view with Thorin even more.