Bones of our Ancestors

Harmony, motionless as her eyes tracked over the group after her brother's words dropped upon them, was troubled. This was the first actual meeting she had attended since she joined, so she could not say if this behavior was simply due to the stress of his unexpected announcement, or if it was normal for the pack. Finally she stood from Bass' side. "That is enough," she spoke calmly, but firmly, her eyes sweeping them all equally. "This is not the way a family acts toward one another. Having doubts about a war does not mean someone does not respect the alpha, and he did ask for our thoughts." Her gaze rested on Lillie's quietly, then shifted to Bass with apologies written clearly. "As it happens I do not feel that a war is entirely the best course of action in this case. Our family will be in a great deal of danger for revenge and the very real risk of making an enemy where there was none before. We have one wolf's word that this man is dangerous to us, this Arian. Why do we trust that one wolf? Starling, I know you mean well, but you are still young. Your knowledge of the world is still very limited. Why should this other alpha's word carry so much weight to us? So much weight that it causes us to lose all sense of appropriate behavior towards our own family? Our own pack? That we would rush headlong into danger and belittle those who do not share that impulsiveness?" She shook her head sadly. "Bass, did he do anything to bring harm to any of our Threar family except to defeat our aunt in a combat that she accepted?"

She hesitated and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "We all are affected by this Sin's actions in taking Threar. It seems those of us who do not share your enthusiasm are few, and so I do not doubt this siege will go forward. But I do not see the positives in taking it to war without further provocation. We will be leaving our children, and Imperium's children including our own kin there, with very little protection while we seek to even the score with this pack. Even the healers will be far from them and unable to protect them should something go awry. As it seems the majority already agrees to this siege I propose sending them and their guards to stay with Imperium's pups and their guards, or have Imperium's come here. It will be safer to have them hidden somewhere with more eyes to watch them all than to have them scattered and vulnerable. I will of course be among the healers in the estuary, but I do not wish to see any of my young nieces or nephews endangered while we are gone."