Phoenix Maplewood entschlossen

a plan was beginning to form within his mind. turning, looking toward the peak he had once claimed. a slow measure of it taken. "i think you are confident and skilled enough to live alone," the graf observed quietly. he thought of the former years' billowing snow, how they choked passes and kept traveling closer to home.
time now, to go to moonspear, and how formidable that trek seemed as he gazed toward the mountain sagtannet had departed, knowing the land where his daughters now lived was far further.
had he chased praimfaya away, she would have taken his trail up to rivenwood. again, the suspicion, and mahler knew by now he must trust in it always, no matter toward whom it was directed. better to bring the half-grown aspirant back, test her strange new vulnerability in an armorset of ambition. 
for what if it was a trap, and she meant to betray him for how he had cast her out of sagtannet?
her teeth would be useful to rivenwood. mahler did not care so much for usurpment as the idea his wolves would go hungry. leadership, should she seek to seize it for herself, came at the cost of proving one's worth to the pack which had followed him alone for long. 
"but it is not ideal." something like warmth touching his stare. "meet me back here in eight days. following the herds helps control," the gargoyle said softly, alluding to the first lesson he would give. she need but accept.