A rumour had started to trickle through to Kite. She didn't know if it was true or not, but she intended to find out. It was early evening when she started to get on with the day. She wasn't always nocturnal - her family wasn't, after all - but she certainly preferred to move around in the dark. She wanted to be able to see the wolf she spoke to today, that was important.

She made her way to the stores first, snagging some dried deer meat from the pack supplies and rolling it up in an oiled skin. She tossed that over her back, and made her way to the start of the trail. The cat Lioness at her paws.

She navigated up the trail by starlight, occasionally pushing her bandana up off her eyes as it slipped down. The track was steep, and she was puffing a little by the time she arrived. The young girl found the wolf she was seeking at the watch post, and trotted over. She pulled the meat off her pack and unrolled it. "Hey Gossy, I brought you some dinner." She said as she displayed the bribery she had gathered. Right, that was pleasantries over, yes? She got straight to the point. "Did you really kill a wolf?"

Gossamer finished her initial walk through of First Point's path, making sure all was in order and there were no immediate signs of predators that needed to be dealt with. The back of her neck was still sore but healing well from her battle with the grizzly bear. Eventually she'd need to change the poultice but for now it would suffice. She settled down on her haunches at the watch point, looking out into landscape below. Far in the distance she could see the sun settling down into the horizon, giving way for the stars above. So far, so good. She hadn't seen any more apparitions, though Dagrún had floated into her mind more than she cared for. She wrinkled her nose. What a brazen punk!

Gossy's ears twitched and she turned to see one of her young siblings, Kyanite arrive. The girl was quick to drop off some dinner. "Oh! Thanks, you didn't need to do that." The nature of the food as something of a peace offering was brought quickly to light as Kite asked her point blank if she really killed a wolf. Gossy froze, rather than the dire yearling she'd slayed in her first year, memories of her confrontation with Pyralis flooded to her mind. She could hear the laughter, taste the blood on her tongue. Everything went salty and metallic. Her mouth moved, but it took her a moment to find words. "Who told you that?"

Gossy accept the gift with thanks, and Kyanite thought they were off to a good start. A little bit of bribery, some great stories… it was going to be a good evening, right?

But as she asked her question, something in Gossys demeanor seemed to shift. She was watching her older sister closely- that was the whole reason she'd come after dark, after all - so she caught the shift. And then came the question. She hadn't thought Gossy would react like this, and hadn't planned for it.

She shuffled awkwardly for a few seconds, not wanting to get anyone in trouble. "Lioness, who heard it from someone else's companion, who heard it from someone else's… so is it true?" She asked, grasping the question to distract from any further name giving. And because she really wanted to know.

Gossamer watched her younger sister shuffle awkwardly. In truth she didn't much care who had told the pup, instead asking the question to bring herself some time. A few fleeting minutes to sort her thoughts and the emotions that came rushing back with the question. She couldn't explain why Pyralis' death had such an effect on her. It should've been a source of pride. She'd killed an enemy of the Armada. An awful woman that would've destroyed their home for laughs. A woman that would've killed a pup, one of her sisters, to achieve her own ends. In Gossamer's mind she had no reason to feel guilt over killing that wretch. However, there were other emotions, other sensations that stuck altogether and she just couldn't seem to untangle them.

Gossamer slowly wet her lips, noticing her mouth had gone dry. She cleared her throat and nodded. "Yes, it's true. It was necessary. A pirate tried to kill your sister Vanta and so I disposed of the wretch so she could do us no more harm."

Kyanite was surprised to hear her sister was involved. More things Vanta was keeping from her. The two had been so close, but it was like she didn't even know her sister anymore. Despite the pinch of betrayal she felt, she found herself leaning forward as Gossy spoke of disposing of her. All in all, the story was a little light on the details.

The morbid girl lined up some thoughts before voicing her questions. "How did you do it, what was it like, how long did she take to die? Was it hard, to do it?" She wanted to know. Who knew, this information might come in handy some day. She had big plans, after all. She was leaning forward, looking up at her older sister with wide, crystal sheened eyes.

Gossamer's reply was met with a flurry of questions and she quirked an eye at her younger sister. She was about to make a comment about a young pup being interested in such grisly details, but then remembered her own fascination with anatomy as well as Aris' more grisly experiments. Well, apparently something ran in this family. She swiftly took a bite of the meat that Kyanite had brought, both to buy herself some time and also to dim the memory of the pirate woman's blood on her tongue.

Gossy licked the remnants of the bite from her saber fangs. "Well, it was a difficult battle. The pirate was older, more experienced than I was but I was stronger. Have you done much hunting? You know how we often kill prey by getting it by the throat? That is what I did. I saw an opening in her defenses and I took it. My fangs ripped through her throat and in minutes she was gone." Gossamer resisted the urge to shudder at the pirate gurgling out her last words about a new beginning.

"Anyway, why are you so interested in this?" Gossy bent her head to take another bite of food.

Gossy spoke of a difficult battle, and Kyanite listened with rapt attention. She wondered if Gossy was scared, if she felt that losing would be her own death. She hadn't known that one of her older sisters had it in her - but then, she didn't really know that much about many of her siblings. So much older thrn her, and living their own lives before she came around.

Maybe it wasn't that much more different then killing prey. Same concepts right? Like Gossy said, ahe tore out her throat as if she was a deer she was taking down. She wasn't sure she wanted to kill a certain someone, but she certainly wanted to best them. "The more information, the better, right? Maybe ill be in a fight to the death one day" she explained. "Thanks for telling me, Gossy. People don't normally tell me stuff" She admitted, plopping herself down beside her older sister and leaning slowly into the other girls side. As if not sure of she would pull away.

Kite explained that she wanted to get as much information as possible and that one day she might be in her own battle to the death. "I sure hope not, but then I never expected to be in a battle to the death and it happened anyway. It is important to be prepared." This was the Armada after all. The arts of battle were of particular importance and there were some enemies that needed to be struck down permanently. Their soldiers needed to get comfortable with the prospect of killing an opponent, something she wished she'd considered and worked through sooner. Perhaps the strangeness of killing the pirate and the haunting hallucinations wouldn't be such a problem now.

Kyanite settled down next to her, leaning into her side. Gossy leaned just slight back into her sister. Glad for the companionship. She really needed to spend more time with her younger siblings. She felt a slight pang of guilt as she remembered her own desire to spend time with her older siblings, especially Indigo when she started learning healing and how disappointing it was when she could never seem to catch him. "Sure, any time. If you ever want to practice sparring or want to know something in particular about battle, I'm happy to share what I know. "

Kite could only nod in agreement at that sage advice. You never knew what was waiting around the corner for you. You could turn it, and find an angry Azure just on the other side waiting to ruin your day. Or maybe one day she’d turn it and find someone that wanted to kill her. Maybe that would even be the same person. She didn’t really know, but she didn’t trust her older brother.

“Really?” She asked, perking up at that open promise from her sister. She wondered what she could use that promise for. What things she would want to know, learn, do. She scrunched her nose in thought and closed her eyes, leaning against the older wolf. “So, is it tough being a Lieutenant?” She wanted to know.


"Speech"

“Really?”

Gossamer nodded. "Yea, absolutely." She knew how valuable it was to have someone to help you learn a new skill. She'd have been lost in all things healing if it weren't for Ásta. If it hadn't been for the giant fox she'd probably have given up learning to heal altogether.

Kyanite asked her about being a Lieutenant and if it was tough. Gossamer bent her head in thought. There were a number of different answers bumping around in her brain. "Some parts of it are hard, yes. I don't mind the training and the hard work, but it can be difficult to know how to manage other wolves and bring them together in training in a way that's beneficial." Leadership was definitely not as easy as she was hoping and it was the one area she found herself struggling. "Why do you ask? Aiming for that rank?" She looked down at her sister and grinned, curious if the girl had thought much about her future.

The Princess was yet to really spend much time learning leadership. Certainly the wolves above her didn't think she was worthy of the lessons. She'd practised a little, bossing one of the slaves around. It had been kind of fun, but she hadn't really known what to tell the other wolf to do. "Will you move up the ranks, once you get the hang of it?" She asked, curious at the inner workings of her sister's mind. 


Gossy asked after her own ambition, and Kyanite opened her eyes at that. The blue beneath her crystals zeroing in on Gossy from her partly horizontal position, leaning into the older wolf. "Lieutenant?" She asked, a cheeky note entering her voice. "Nah, I have my sight set on Gladiator." Her tone was light and teasing, but her eyes swept over her sister, looking for any hint of reaction the words might cause the older wolf. There was truth to it. A hunger, a desperate need to prove that she could. But she didn't really think it attainable.

"Will you move up the ranks, once you get the hang of it?"

Gossamer chewed on her bottom lip as she thought about her sister's question. She hadn't really thought to much about it. Lieutenant had always seemed such a lofty goal and she hadn't really had any ambitions to go higher up in the ranks. If she could get comfortable in the position would she? Gossamer shook her head. "No, I don't think so. There are plenty of pack members with ambitions to go higher and I'm content to be a bridge between the higher ups and the foot soldiers. I don't mind grunt work, honestly I kind of enjoy it. I'd rather get my paws dirty than tell others to dirty theirs. If that makes sense." It was difficult to try and organize her thoughts to a question she hadn't considered much before.

Gossamer chuckled as Kyanite explained that she had her eyes on the position of Gladiator. "Well, I think you have as good a shot as anyone else. It will be a lot of hard work but I think you can do it."