Otatso Wetlands there's no rest for the weary

Tonravik did not know much of companionable strangers and kindness. Her mother had not been kind to her when she was young, and neither had her brothers, and neither had her father; but she understood that sort of love. Tough love. All they had done together was to survive, to grow stronger. And on her lonesome travels when she had first left Tartok and her family, when her brothers went where their own internal compass pointed, Tonravik had been a cruel stranger herself. She fought for every scrap of meat, and many fights she had lost; she had gained experience, enemies, and as she joined others, companions, friends. Tonravik was a soul who had once sought vengeance; and when it was exacted, she had no desire to cling to old feelings that would bring her down. Her enemies were now solely the enemies of their pack; and those wolves lost the war, and died. Some were given the opportunity to join their ranks; few got the chance. The North had taught her much. Wolves with ideals like Tartok existed, but even they could be kind.

And when her mother found her again to tell her that her father had passed, Sisamat was on her own again. She also had more siblings. Good came with the bad. Tartok and their bloody legacy could go on in the line of her mothers boy-cubs, who were likely men already. Her fathers strength would live on in them and their seed. Mother had another mate, Aves; he traveled with her, was strong and capable. They sought expansion again, with one another, to the North as well. Further North. Sisamat had been beneath two leaders in the North; Charybdis, as much of a brute as her mother, and one other, whose name was something of a dream to her.

But Tonravik's kindness was different. Aggressive and physical, but not violent. So when the other was simply kind without expectation, she gave him a brief look of scrutiny. She already lay there, a rock that could not be moved. The mud was cooling her, screening her from the sun, keeping obnoxious insects at bay. And then her eyes drift to another place.