Dragoncrest Cliffs i ran into the devil, he loaned my twenty bills

Many of the faces that came out to meet Thuringwethil were only vaguely familiar at best, and completely unfamiliar at worst. Ephraim was struck with the notion that he didn't truly know his pack at all. That wasn't surprising. He hadn't been with them very long before leaving with Heda to be trained, and in that time, he'd mostly interacted with the other pups in the pack. Strangely, the only one to arrive here was Tux. Bat, Kiwi and Silkie (who went unseen by Ephraim) were all missing from the welcoming party. Dio he recognized a little as the man that found him down on Drageda's beach, whereas Dacio and Blixen were both absent from his recollection.

It unsettled him a little that he was more familiar with members of Trigeda than he was with his own pack mates. That was something he would seek to remedy in the days to come. If he had learned one thing while in Trigeda, it was that the wolf was only as strong as the pack at his back. He couldn't hope to be successful without even knowing who his comrades really were.

He gave a solemn nod to back up Thuringwethil's information. Truth be told, he didn't know much about what happened in the war, but he liked to pretend he did. It made him feel stronger. He hadn't been permitted to participate. Instead, he'd spent his time learning Trigedasleng and sparring with the other young wolves, training both mind and body in the art of war without ever having a taste for it. He could defend himself better than most his age now, knew a passable amount of Trigedasleng, and understood better what the coalition was all about and why Heda was important to packs so far away from theirs. He had been told of the fos goufa and the trial they underwent when a new commander was chosen for the collective, and knew it was something he would never have to worry about it even if his siblings were long gone.

He flexed his toes against the ground as Thuringwethil concluded her report by introducing Vercingetorix, and glanced at each face in turn as they presumably welcomed the party home.