Akhlut remembered Roz from a brief meeting on the borders. She was young, a bit odd perhaps, but showed a cringing submission and had said enough to earn her a place among his ranks. True, he knew she would need guidance, and if she had no other kin among his number, then he would have to be the one to provide it. He had supposed that she could fare well enough for herself, but from Kennedy's report, it seemed he was mistaken.
The dark Alpha trailed the girl's scent for some time in the llate evening twilight. He'd meant to find her earlier in the day, but a troublesome badger had kept him otherwise occupied, and yet he didn't wish to put matters off until tomorrow. How he would handle the youth, he had no idea; it would depend on her behavior and her words. If she could not be civil to her packmates, they would have issues, but from the sound of things her behavior towards Kennedy had been odd, teetering on the edge between simply not knowing proper behavior, and choosing not to use it.
"Roz, " the Kesuk-Nereides male announced loudly, feeling certain that he had tracked her to the vicinity overlooking a lower precipice beneath the Ridge proper, overgrown with underbrush and stunted trees. "there is a matter we need to speak of." He arranged his features in a manner that was stern but not unkind, seating himself primary and waiting for her to reveal herself.
Bayou was accustomed to living her life in the dark. In the night, when enemies were often asleep in their beds, she would lurk.
But here in this place, her clock had been reset. It was awkward for her to fight the urge and walk in the light, through the warmth of day and outside of the protective deepness of the forest.
She was a quick learner, but adaptation was clearly not something she was happy with. Even now, with her body pressed against the soil and her long limbs slinking her along, she held a scowl. Her tail was low and lashing. When a voice rose upon the air and summoned her, she halted.
Her head raised and her ears, pointed back up to this point, lifted to catch the air. Bayou sheathed her sneer and approached the distant figure; she recognized it as the man who found her, days ago. The one with all the power. Her tail curled slickly against her belly as she skittered close.
"Oui, Akhlut, oui. You ask for me, I come."
It was time to be Roz now. And so she used a sickly-sweet tone, added a false brightness to her eyes, and deferred happily to the thick-skulled man. "Oh, but what is the matter?"
Still, Akhlut was an optimist, and he was loathe to think poorly of the waif he'd personally brought into the pack, and so he was perhaps inclined to think more highly of her than an objective observer might. He took in her simpering with the slightest wariness, but she had answered his summons promptly and more or less appropriately, and he could find no fault with her behavior in and of itself. His voice was gentler when he spoke, as he reminded himself that she was young, and had lived alone and packless for goodness knew how long, and had likely never had anyone to teach her how to behave within a group.
"Are you adjusting well, Roz? One of the adults was worried about you. He thought you might be coming down with something... " He tried to treat the subject lightly, as if it meant nothing, as if Kennedy hadn't implied the possibility of mental illness more so than physical.
She curled herself down low. Her head twisting against her chest, chin down, as if to bow to him and his words; but really, the girl was trying to hide the tiny grimace that appeared there upon her face. She grit her teeth - and in the next moment, was smiling at him; her eyes gleaming sickly yellow.
"Oh, how kind," Roz all but purred. Her face melted in to a look of surprise, of subtle glee, as if it were enchanting that someone would take such an interest in her. But she knew - one of the fools that harassed her had also ratted on her behaviour. She would deal with them later.
"But non, I am fine. I am trè bon." Her head shook from side to side, eager to dissuade this man from further inquiry. She reached towards him with her pointed face and tried to lick at his chin; her over-the-top behaviour something that carried her through many situations. Perhaps this display would calm his thoughts.
The spider only wished to be left to her own devices. To spin her web and feast until spring arrived.
"Sir, who.." Roz could be meek, if that made things easier. The swarthy girl took on such an attitude now, holding herself low as she murmured questions. "Who was so... Concerned? I am new here and I," Shy eyes. Drifting gaze. Looking to her paws and to the shadows askance, then back again. "I do not know names." If she could force a blush she would, however, woe was she - wolves held no such ability.