Kildeer Rest real gods require blood

there is a moment of decision to be made as they both give pause — safe with the knowledge that the bear was not chasing them — to catch their breath and wintersbane watches as derg drops his head, his tail, averts his gaze and apologizes for giving the sotaherra a command. wintersbane feels that it's a weighty decision and he considers it carefully. the truth was, he was over it. he didn't think derg had been doing it to assert dominance or challenge him. it'd been to save his life and it'd been a successful plight; he was grateful despite however annoyed he'd been at the time.

wintersbane could take it at face value, brush it off for what it was. or he could reprimand derg for it. how loyal was derg? how much did wintersbane trust him? no. no, those things weren't in question. derg was loyal and wintersbane absolutely trusted him. what kind of leader did wintersbane want to be? the kind that was confident enough in the loyalty and respect of his wolves to brush it off? or the kind of leader that punished every little discrepancy? though the answer seemed obvious enough wintersbane was aware that if he was wrong one could make him look like a weak fool and the other could make him look like a paranoid dictator that didn't trust the wolves under his own rule.

don't worry about it, wintersbane decides, leaning closer to bump his shoulder amicably and gratefully against derg's shoulder. you probably, definitely just saved my life. thanks for that. wintersbane tells him sincerely; and then he lets out a low huff of disappointment. i hope that bear doesn't become a problem for us. although, it wasn't like kildeer rest was their only option for hunting grounds. they had the whole taiga to hunt in, after all.