Blacktail Deer Plateau Hold Fast to the Break of Daylight

Oh, she'd talked her way into a rut this time. Kaihra wished she had just stuck with uncomfortable small talk. The only consequence to that was uncomfortable silence. Why had she seen it wise to ask the girl about exploring at all? Her mother's voice repeated in her mind again to just stay quiet, pup and she wished that she had just listened for once.

For a different wolf, perhaps it would have been easy to simply turn heel and say "you're on your own for this one". But Kaihra counted herself responsible for her packmate the moment Finley took fancy to her suggestion. Now, if the girl wound up dead on the mountainside (which Kaihra considered probable), she would consider herself to blame, and that was a guilt she was not ready to live with.

So that ruled out saying no. Finley would find her way up the mountain one way or another, with or without her help, and Kaihra would still be to blame for placing the idea in her head in the first place. But she didn't want to say yes, either. Kaihra groaned inwardly again. Maybe she'd been better off a loner.

"Tell you what." She spoke painfully slow. "You finish exploring all the flatlands - " with this she pointed her muzzle toward the stretches of land below the Plateau, " - and, once you're done - " she paused momentarily, and not for dramatic effect, " - then we'll go over the mountains." Her words fell flat and she couldn't hide the slight furrow that creased her brow again.