Big Salmon Lake the queens justice

Another materialised from among the mist, a brute who took it upon himself to answer Dacio's question regarding what remained of Vercingetorix' family. A charcoal ear cupped forward toward him, thirsty for knowledge that might ease his Worlida's worries. He prepared to part jaws, to further ask of their location so Praimfaya might see them with her own eyes, but the raven wolfess was swift to speak up before he could. Pastel eyes found her dark features and he acknowledged her suggestion with a respectful dip of his speckled snout.

He would heed that warning, of course, but his loyalties lay with his young ward. If the aspiring commander still wished to go to Kaistleoki, who was he to challenge her? Dacio figured he would want to know too, should he find himself in such a position.

Another came, his concerns remaining on the young warrior's knowledge of Blackhead. "She leads a pack on the coast, they call themselves Rusalka," he began, "I grew up on the cliffs there, born to Drageda who inhabited them. I was shy of a year old when our Heda fell, when Verx and the others abandoned us, when the crone and her dogs forced us to leave our home." Dacio failed to share the finer details: how Thuringwethil had ended her own life, how Drageda had tried and failed to force Rusalka into submission by taking one of their own captive. He supposed they didn't matter. "I do not know why she told me anything, but she shared that Vercingetorix apparently joined Rusalka for a time after Drageda dispersed. Said that they both came here to seek revenge on Easthollow for something they'd done. I don't know if there's truth in that, but I believe she hoped for us to turn on them to avenge Verx."

But his kind did not avenge natrona - they killed them on sight. If Dacio and his sister were to slay Caiaphas and her kin, it would sure as hell not be on Vercingetorix' behalf.

A noise then, one that lifted the ashen Klikalida's dark hackles as his new acquaintainces veered toward the sound. He was quick on Hydra's heels as she turned away to intercept, happending across a pale female that he did not recognise. Dacio eyed her, suspicious as she stammered a response, and he moved to circle around her in a loose ring. Nyra, she said her name was, and nostrils flared to inhale the scent of her. He detected nothing of Rusalka on her hide.

She mentioned Easthollow, how tthey'd refused to allow her a place among them. Why? If she'd passed their "test", what was it they noticed that prevented her from claiming a rank? Dacio paused a comfortable distance from her, lingering like a coiled snake at her flank should his fangs need to find purchase on her flesh. He had not entirely ruled out the possibility of Blackhead having laid a trap there, and this wolfess could easily be a pawn in her game.