Blacktail Deer Plateau i do not aim with my hand

the bear attack hadn't phased the boy as much as the others, perhaps because he felt as though he had been desensitized to the hardships that occurred regularly. while illidan did not think himself capable of taking on a bear in any circumstance, he knew that they existed in the same realm as they did and that they were just as capable of defending what they believed to be their own. in that regard, the young wildling did not find it offensive that one would have lashed out against them; wouldn't they have done the same? the group had been fine since, and he imagined they would continue to thrive until they didn't. that was the way that the world worked.

“i'll be here as long as i'm capable,” illidan offered to the dark male. his eyes turned to lock onto the features of the man who had stepped in and acted as a father. though the dark-hooded boy couldn't imagine himself seeing kavik as a dad, he knew that there were things he had learned from his adoptive parents that could not have been attributed to anything or anyone else. for that, he knew he ought to have been grateful. with a thoughtful frown, illidan felt it was necessary to add on, “at least until there's word of my blood family.”

that had been his goal the entire time, hadn't it? though it had faded from his mind as he had grown from pup to youthful man, illidan believed that his family was still out there somewhere. the death of his father hadn't erased the existence of the others. more than this, the boy resented his brother ephraim for having been the first to depart. in his mind, if the sandy-colored pup hadn't vanished, their family would not have suffered the loss of a dominant figure.