Blacktail Deer Plateau A little lair for a very small bear

Kaihra met Finley's compliment with a blink of confusion. How much had she spoken about her brothers? She tried to backtrack her words, but gave up the endeavour as Finley's story turned her thoughts to consider the girl instead. Finley kept her history short, but what she shared provided explanation for her current temperament. One would need a grand personality if they ever wanted to stand out in a crowd, and Finley seemed the type to want that. Kaihra glanced at her friend and, for a fleeting moment, wondered if she would have been like Finley, too, if she'd been raised in a large family. The dark wolf quickly dismissed the thought with another bite of meat.

Now that both Finley and the males had joined in eating, the feast felt less strange. Still, only Finley seemed to readily enjoy the meat and, as Peregrine fished out a bit from between his teeth, Kaihra decided she would only hunt down stringy bear cubs when all the other prey had vanished from earth.

Sun Spark replied first to Peregrine's next inquiry and began with a prelude at which Kaihra felt a twinge of impatience. She gnawed out the sensation alongside her bear meat, but what came next made her stop mid-chew. Had he just said he was Blue Willow's father? Kaihra swallowed and glanced at Finley, then Peregrine, before setting her eyes back on the elder male and giving him another look up and down. Her memory flashed back to the night she'd run into Blue Willow in the forest, and suddenly the similarities between the two wolves stood clearly in light of their connection. Of course he had looked familiar when she'd first seen him. She had seen Blue Willow in his face.