Phoenix Maplewood so, what are you gonna do?

The boy took his time and when he responded Kigipigak felt dismayed, at first. Disappointment struck at his heart. He was not sure if it was disappointment for the boy's lack of promise or for his own situation; he did not feel superior to Vex in any way for his own response to the question. When he had been asked it had not been a question but an order, one Kigipigak could not back away from, so he then began to wonder if Vex only answered negatively because he was not laden with parental pressure. It made Kigipigak begin to think about why he had accepted the order to purge Auktuk from their family.

As Vex went on to speak of a sibling and the potential of culling them from the pack, but not being invested in that either, Kigipigak nodded. He would never have torn in to his father without that order; he would never cull his sisters without one either, and none had been given. Their banishment had been enough. Auktuk could have been banished as well — the thought came to him sharply, ringing in his ears like tinnitus. I have sisters too, Kigipigak remarked - forcing himself to focus on the conversation and not the many thoughts coming to him now - and they were given the same order. They refused in the end. Banishment was their punishment. Perhaps it is a curse reserved for the young that have yet to prove themselves?

Kigipigak somehow doubted that Vex's mother would banish anyone. She seemed hard-hearted and firm in the upkeep of her laws. If anything were to happen she did not like Kigipigak would presume teeth and bloodshed would be her first response, not a verbal decree.