Duskfire Glacier [j] you know nothing of pain

Between outward aggression and inward contemplation, Malachi was the latter. The teachings of his father allowed him to deal no injury to the innocent of his kind, and he had never been faced with the need to punish the guilty to see if this moral stretched even to them. The closest he'd come to aggression with a stranger on their borders had been with Scarlett, and then because she'd been past the net that safely bound Duskfire's home, and he had already been on edge that day as it had stood.

Today his mind bothered him with different thoughts, and when the foreign call lit the air, Malachi hesitated to answer. Tuwawi's instability toward Adlartok was fresh on his mind, and the realization the attack had indirectly been of his doing weighed heavy upon him. Yet Malachi didn't know what he would have done differently short of harbouring the child just beyond Duskfire, in a place he would have been safe until he could regain his strength and find a pack that would give him a better life than what he had to live by now.

But in short time, the man aimed his wandering paws toward the border where the stranger beckoned, because like it or not, the responsibility to answer still lay in his paws. When he came upon him, Malachi felt his brows raise at the company he shared. Yet a part of him wasn't surprised Scarlett was chatting up the man - one look at the broad wolf made Malachi realize this must have been what the woman had meant when she'd denied him the title of mate material, because next to the stranger her words made sense. Tall and lean, Malachi felt a scrawny youth compared to the robust and well filled man before him.

He tried not to let jealousy nip him as he made his way toward them, nodding his head to Scarlett, then to the newcomer in turn. "I see you've met Scarlett." Malachi flashed a curious glance the caretaker's way before fixing his gaze upon the stranger again. "My name's Malachi. What brings you to Duskfire?"