Ghost Lion Crag If you face the fear that keeps you frozen

Her sister. Artaax stared at her for another (awkwardly) long moment before looking away again. Her comment sent his mind the rest of the way down the path it had already started to head and there he found himself trapped, unable to look away from something he'd spent the last few weeks trying to avoid eye contact with.

For all of his life, Artaax and Blixen had been the only worthwhile children Thuringwethil had (I typed while laughing). He had once loved his brother, Bobby, more, but then he had bailed on them and gone to one of the other packs. The fact that heda had ordered him to do so was inconsequential - he had abandoned them, and Artaax had lost respect for him. He'd also, historically, been fairly useless as a member of the kru anyway. But Blixen. She'd always been there. Volatile, idiotic, but undeniably sturdy. In many ways, Artaax had come to rely on her the same way he had nomi. She needed him more than their mother ever had, of course. But still... She was a fixture in his life that was just supposed to be there, and that he could count on to always be there.

And now, heda was gone. Gone because the fools surrounding her had let her die. Those that were supposed to protect her, they had let her walk off the edge of the cliff and steal herself away from them all. They were supposed to protect heda, but they had been too stupid to realize that meant protecting her from herself as well.

And now they were protecting Blixen.

Anger bubbled in him again, but it was the soft, silent anger that he'd danced with his entire life. It was the anger that he could control, and that he could use to motivate himself. His hackles prickled slightly as he straightened his hunched, defeated form and lifted his chin with a tiny glimmer of the pride he'd once had. His wounds over losing Thur still burned. They ached and protested as he found his resolution and cinched it into place, but it was a pain he could handle because he knew now. He'd lost his nomi, his commander, . But maybe he hadn't lost everything.

"I'll go home," Artaax said, his voice a soft rumble. He turned and set his mismatched eyes on Maia, looking slightly less feral (slightly), "Thank you." He didn't explain what he thanked her for. I'm not even totally sure myself how that got into his brain, but it was rather appropriate.