Boartusk Heights cash, card, or check

His brother is laughing at him, cold eyes alight with malice. A hot flame of anger burns his chest and face as the dream returns him to the memory of defeat and humiliation. 

something hits him on the head, and in the instant before he wakes up he thinks his brother has struck him for the fun of it. but as he wakes, Alder realizes that the blow is far to small to have come from the sibling who pushed him to ruin. 

he grunts as he lifts his head from his paws, cobalt eyes blinking. looking wildly around him, alder cannot find what hit him (there are many pebbles around his sleeping spot), until he ventures a glance above. there stands a pale child, regarding him with what he assumes is curiosity. he doesn't know children; does not understand them. 

"what?" he grumbles, fairly certain that it is the girl who found a way to hit him in the head with something, probably one of the pebbles or sticks that litters the earth surrounding him. she spoke in a language as foreign to him as she is. he thinks he has heard this tongue spoken here before, mainly among the leadership. does that mean this child is royalty herself?

"er- I can't understand you." his voice softens, but just a little.