Moonspear Once More Into the Fray

Oh, well wasn’t this interesting.

She ventured into a tirade against his judgment and finally Dirge spied something he had been looking for. A spark, an ember, something that suggested that this wasn’t just another wayward soul looking for charity in a place where charity was a hot commodity none of them were graced with.

In that moment she had the same fire in her that burned in many of the women he was acquainted with, though he could not help but wonder just what she would do it with; her tongue seemed suddenly barbed with ire and as animated as her movement. It tempted him into offering her a brief flash of his teeth, the prickling of his own hackles in a lukewarm camaraderie that eased towards an arrant, unbecoming smile.

The knave in him enjoyed this, even if he was supposed to seem kingly and just.

“I can ask plenty of you, but all I wanted was to know your skillset,” he remarked coolly. “Are you a hunter, a healer? For all I know your use to us could be a nurserymaid to my children. Or perhaps with your gusto you fancy yourself a warrior.” Or perhaps none of those things, only now hoping to strongarm her way in with a sharpened tongue.

“Righteous arrogance is unflattering of the nameless with no place to belong to; do not presume we are in need of you to aid our survival. Your nose should tell you that our numbers are rather sufficient enough to hold this land and its bounty—you were after all wise enough to avoid our claim until now,” and the descanting curtailed itself, “though we are particularly fond of those with a certain temerity.”

Of which, he believed by now she had no doubts.

Like the towering mountain to his back, Moonspear projected stability as much as it did vainglory; the latter of which was no doubt prevalent in their dealings and by mouth. And though he had long sought to temper it to be more guile and smooth, arrogance meeting arrogance would always bring it out. He had learned as much from Hydra and her kin.

“But perhaps you are more inclined to show your worth through action over words, and who I am to deny that opportunity,” he surmised at the next breath, “though I must warn you that an inability to temper your pride will have my kin drive you out long before I.”