Totoka River i'm on my tip toes

his attack finds purchase and she lands to the snow beneath that cushions — at least he hopes — her fall. it won't offer a complete buffer between the hard earth beneath it and her body but it should offer enough that it doesn't hurt her too bad. hurting her hadn't been his actual intention — though the smarting of collision can't be helped. spars were not without their own pain even if they were friendly.

and what's your price?

wintersbane peers down at her, glacial gaze studying her face, half delighted and half surprised to find that she was serious. this is what he got for his hubris, he thinks, because he hadn't thought that far ahead. he'd said it because most of him expected her to tell him she was joking. he studies her clinically for a moment, before offering a bird-like cant of his head with a considering lowering of his eyelids.

and because he doesn't want to admit that he hadn't thought that far ahead wintersbane asks instead, what do you think you can offer me that's worth my lessons? there was no shame in letting the other person in the deal state their own offer rather than claiming one himself. you offer and i'll judge whether it's too high or too low. we'll negotiate. time to see if the prodigal son had what it took to fill his mobster father's paw prints.