Permafrost Hollows through indiscriminate suffering men know fear

he assess the woman, noting that she's built to be a heavy hitter — not unlike himself. it's not an uncommon thing, he supposes, though he is used to seeing woman built with a more delicate cut to their curves than one who looks like she could hold her own — and that wasn't to say that more delicately cut woman couldn't hold their own in a fight because he knows they absolutely can. thank you. the tundrian offers simply to her compliment, though it feels a bit strange to accept it. 'tundrian' doesn't belong strictly to him, admittedly. he 'uses' it, or is trying to incorporate it more into his vernacular but he can't claim ownership of it which accepting her compliment makes him feel like he's doing.

she launches into an explanation at his prompting, seemingly in a hurry to get the words out, speaking that she needs a place to say, that she lost her sister, that there's storms coming — glacial gaze flickers briefly to the sky which looks fairly calm and unassumingly storm-free. so did she mean the second half of winter? or did she use 'storms' as a euphemism for something else? her admittance of being afraid draws his cool gaze back down to her and earns a flick of a velveteen ear. that couldn't have been easy a thing to admit — especially to a stranger. he feels like he's supposed to offer some words of comfort ...but he's never been good at comforting. like his father before him, handling sensitive subjects has never been his strong suit.

an amused snort leaves wintersbane's lips at her offer. maybe we shouldn't go around beating asses. not until we form at least, spoken with a quirk of his lips. one day we'll call this place the vartija, he tells her. loosely translated it means the wardens. i like the idea of having regular spars to keep the skills sharp and i don't necessarily like the idea of being in other pack's business — that gets messy and ugly real quick — but we'll see how we feel about alliances and all that shit after the fact. blackfeather woods operated without alliances and with a lot of hatred on them ...and yet in the end with no favors to call upon he wonders if that will be their downfall. his first priority was to get official; all the finer details could be hammered out later.

the vartija is going to operate a bit differently than a 'traditional' pack. it's going to be a war clan where regular spars are encouraged to keep skills sharp ...but wolves don't have to be warriors or rogues to join. i just feel that it's beneficial to know how to fight even if it's to defend one's self. pretty much what i've seen of the packs i've ran with ranks are unchallengeable. you claw your way up and hope that if you're ambitious enough you reach as high as you want to go. there's nothing wrong with that but i like the idea of ranks being decided by contribution, yes, but also by one's own ambition. all ranks in the regular hierarchy should be challengeable but the pack should get it's say, should be allowed to interfere if they don't agree especially if it comes to leadership. wintersbane's long since thought about the risks of opening up his own rank to challenges ...but if he's not doing his job, if he's not doing right by his pack then he should absolutely be forced to take a step back and reassess.

sound like something you could be apart of? the tundrian poses the inquiry to her.