Ankyra Sound i aim to die

amused, she watches him, not particularly bothered by his oddities. he says he wants to be bandrona and reflexively her expression tightens, not because of him but because mother had been bandrona, once. she'd been too little to really be aware at the time of it but the thought still hurts her heart. resolving not to tell tux this she instead says, more gently than usual, "i think that's a great idea." 

blix comes up behind him to peer into the discovered cache, crinkling her nose at whatever rotting residue is left. she nudges tux to keep going and says, "mallaidh is a good scout, you should ask her to take you with her next time she goes out," with a little bit of a grin. she can see it now: she'll train dacio (assuming dio lets her whisk his son away, but they can always share training) and mallaidh can train tux, and silkie they can.. share. or something. or artaax can handle him. and she will not dwell on kiwi (who'd made it to hompleia even!) or the fact that mother abandoned tux when he could have followed in her footsteps, when she could have trained him instead of..nope nope we're done rehashing this. with a little more force than is necessary she steps ahead, her next marking slightly more aggressive than is strictly necessary.