Permafrost Hollows you cannot swallow a life that large

if she recognizes the name blackfeather woods she doesn't comment upon it and wintersbane's almost relieved. he doesn't want his past to keep the vartija from forming because the wolves he recruits or attempts to choose not to trust him. he wants to be transparent with those that choose to follow him, though, and doesn't necessarily want to hide it from them either. after all, he still wears and refreshes the blood-red paw print upon his left shoulder when the plant dye begins to fade. it was their mark before he'd made it his own. he didn't regret the time he'd spent in their ranks as an adult, though he spent most of his adolescence running from them and from the kill order he'd no doubt had on his head. even if nyx remembers him he looks nothing like the pale cream puff cub she'd taken beneath her wing so many moons ago.

i like to think so, wintersbane quips with a tease of his lips into a small smile. well, there's derg. i recruited him while i was scouting this territory out back before i'd made up my mind of where to claim. it wasn't like there was a shortage of territories in the taiga to choose, after all. and there's a man i recruited on the coast, vonn. he hasn't made it here yet but he had a debt to a pack he needed to repay before he could join us. he's also on recruitment duty while he's repaying his debt. not that wintersbane's particularly clear on what his 'repaying his debt' was other than it wasn't what wintersbane first thought it'd been.

and then there's an older cub, keen. i'm not sure if she'll be staying with us or not. regardless, she's under our care and protection while she's with us and she's permitted to stay with us for as long as she needs or wants. more or less, a the vartija honorary. not that he thought faeryn was going to do anything to the girl but he still had to put it out there, just to soothe his own protective and paternal instincts; strong as they were.

i'm thinking that the packs to the west will have to be feeling the repercussions of their overpopulation soon. if they do, that could work in our advantage. the taiga is unclaimed except for us and the herds and prey are plentiful, the resources and hunting grounds for us are unlimited. we are truly the wardens of the taiga. a small smirk tugging at the edges of his lips at the irony; and even if other packs did mosey their way east to the taiga he had every intention of trying to strike business deals with them; in a way that is eerily reminiscent of his mobster father.