Well Now

Mask kept his face politely blank as Regulus sauntered up. He nodded briefly in acknowledgement of the alpha's words, though he saw nothing particularly important about simply calling for the children - now, when he had taught them well, then it would be well done.

It was not long before one of the children finally appeared, giving both adults the sort of stare that rebellious youths seem to think made them cool and scary. Mask did not roll his eyes, nor did he react in any way but to return the child's stare with one of his own that barely disguised his contempt for the whelp. Oh, he had seen children like this before. A large portion of his work for the cosca had been to scout out and bring in likely youths to train in their ways, and his work had brought him into contact with all kinds. He had never chosen a child like this. Others of his peers had, believing that the brats would never balk at doing the dirtier sort of work. He, however, was looking for... more. These sorts were never trustworthy, never worthwhile, and training them for the cosca would have been a waste of time and far too great a risk. They could never be family, and for them, "men of honor" would never be ought but a euphemism.

But, this was not the cosca. Who Regulus chose to let reside in his pack and how the boy's mother chose to raise him was not his business. He deliberately held the boy's gaze for a little longer, then spoke smoothly and in great contrast to the boy's sullen greeting. "Good morning," was all the simple words the velvet voice spoke. No threat, no warning, just a gentleman, speaking firmly to a child.

His gaze cut to the other child who had spoken, making it clear the greeting had been for her as well. Her coloring was as... vivid... as he recalled the children being, despite the darkness of the caves in the raid. Making anything that colorful into an efficient hunter would be interesting, to say the least, if not impossible. They would, he reflected humorously to himself, be much better off staying in a pack where they would not starve. Her, he would not have recruited for the cosca either, in large part simply for the fact that she was female and his peers would not have accepted anything less than perfection before they would allow a female to join them. He thought with a rush of pain and bitterness that it had been such a female seeking to earn a place in her own cosca that had destroyed him, and through him the red brothers. But more than that, she was simply too... memorable. A wolf of the cosca must be able to stay in the background, quietly and forgotten, so when something happened no one could point to them as the culprit, or remember them at the scene. A rainbow colored creature could not simply blend in and be forgotten.

He waited a moment longer, but no one else approached. He tilted his head to the alpha and spoke quietly to him, dryly. "I was perhaps to be thinking there were more of these children, sì? Were they to being gobbled up by bunnies in small time from raid?"

Well, no matter. Regulus knew which of the five had not appeared, and Mask himself would be reporting the morning's training to their mother. He settled himself upon his haunches and eyed both youths calmly. "Today," he began, taking great care with choosing the correct words so to not confuse them with his language issues, "you will be learning to be doing tracking. This is skill to suit any path chosen, whether pack wolf or loner, whether fighter or healer or hunter, and no matter to other issues of the physical. The blind, the cripple, they can still to be useful tracking. It is not to be simply tracking of prey animals, but to be tracking of wolf prey as well. Escaped prisoners, murderers, rapists. If you are knowing how to be tracking, and to be knowing all the tricks of those seeking escape, you can to be finding anyone anywhere."

He alternated his quiet, icy eyes between the pair who had answered his call. "What uses can you to be thinking of for using tracking in your life right now, as pup even?"

OOC: No posting order so no one gets held up waiting for other people to post. Deadline for this round will be Wednesday the 13th unless I need to postpone for emergency absence-related purposes