Sunspire Mountains oh, he hops with the hippest of them

the brows of the warhound rose dramatically at her exclamation, though his expression reverted to impassiveness once getting over his initial shock. outbursts of emotion weren't common in the military, and stigmata would always be unsettled by losing his composure or the lack of it in someone else. this particular incident could be attributed to her age, as much as to her upbringing. laurel certainly seemed unwilling (or incapable) of withholding, so it would stand to reason her daughter would be prone to the same level of loud impertinence.

he watched her pace; posture languid and eyes trained on her with feline intent. when she turned to him with her acrimonious eyes, and a posture all wolves should bow to, stigmata inclined his noble head in a slow bow and turned his eyes away from her ire. a yield to her righteous provocation. "they did not make a new home without you," he corrected quietly - yet the entire ice cavern seemed to fill hotly with his voice. "they gave up their home because they had to, not because they simply wanted to be somewhere else."

a piercing silver iris targeted her from the corner his eye. "what remained of your family could not stay in bearclaw valley - risk being trapped there by the snow, without food coming in - but they chose to live under someone else's rule out of desperation instead of settling nearer to the valley, and i thought we did not need the another pack's help at all. but your mother told me that what i thought did not matter, and that i was not family to them if i left." he felt no need to repeat again that he had chosen redleaf banishment as the price for his lonely throne in the mountains; he only turned his head to look fully towards her once more, steeling himself to further outbursts should they come.