Dragoncrest Cliffs my face (worth 1 thousand ships)

i was scared.

the truth was it was understandable. if blodreina wasn't so fucking stubborn and cold-hearted she wouldn't be blind to the fact that she actually understood; but blodreina's lived her life pushing wolves away from her so that she exists in a bubble of comfortable isolation. if she doesn't grow attached then it doesn't hurt when they leave.

she is cruel and harsh with her judgements; and perhaps that is what makes her such a good warrior.

i will earn it, mallaidh tells her firmly.

we will see. blodreina sizes up her once-second and thinks that it was better, in the end, that malliadh gravitated towards étoille. he was better suited for taking care of a lost cub than she would ever be and that was a simple fact of life for the once-wanlida.

it is good to see you goes unsaid, tucked firmly in whatever corner of blodreina's heart that still cared despite her best efforts to snuff out affection of any sort. whatever blodreina might feel in regards to malliadh's abandonment, the gona acknowledges that it's good to see her alive. for a while after realization that she was gone sunk in she'd worried. to tell the girl these things now would seem contradicting to blodreina's clinical approach and her strict, personal views on abandonment and the daughter of gyda does not wish to send her once-second any mixed signals.

a lift of blodreina's chin is given and she, hiding her internal conflict with a well-practiced mask of indifference, offers a firm nod ( because they are pack-mates, after all ) and turns to make her departure assuming that with her salty cold bitch-ness that there is nothing left of a conversation to be had.