gather ye rosebuds while ye may

Enrico, his perch on the bow of the ship secured, waited with unruffled calm, alone, after he sent out his call. If anyone wanted to come, they would. If they didn't, they wouldn't. It was as simple as that, and he was neither anxious nor offended as the minutes ticked by.

A movement caught his eye - no, two forms, not one. He studied the pair with great interest as they approached the ship across the permanent ice surrounding the ship. A pup - perhaps? she looked quite young, yet there was the way she held herself, and that defiant blue-white gaze that said she was older... he'd seen that precocious maturity in pups once or twice, but something about her that made him think this 'pup' was older - and a big cat that certainly called for a second glance. He'd thought it was a leopard, but she was like no leopard he'd ever seen. He knew vaguely that there were northern leopards of this general shape, but he'd never seen one. Still, he'd never heard that they were of this strange coloration, and certainly someone would have mentioned if they had six inch long fangs. She was unusual enough that to pretend not to notice would be more noticeable than not, so he took a moment to regard the cat studyingly.

A second young wolf, this one a male bearing an earthen pelt rather than both Enrico and the first youngling, slunk up quietly as the young female asked a defiant question. Enrico didn't need to even consider her question, a single word coming after only a beat, calmly and quietly. "Nothing."

He tilted his head slightly, watching her. His heart ached a little, thinking she'd have done well in the cosca if they'd only been more accepting of females, at the same time wary knowing how treacherous a seemingly innocent girl could be. "A pack is only as great as those who support it," he went on to explain. "A pack of lazy individuals will never be great no matter how righteous and vaunted the laws of the pack they lay claim to. A pack of cowards no more than cowerds even if their alpha vouches the pack as a pack of great warriors. A pack is what the individuals make of it, so a wise alpha will only choose those individuals proven to follow his - or her - ideals. So since I have no followers yet, no packmates, what makes my pack great is... nothing."

He smiled faintly. "Of course, I could tell you that I will make this pack great by only accepting wolves who are willing to pull their own weight and improve themselves, who are willing to set aside what is accepted as what is normal by the standards laid out by most packs in favor of setting their own standard, individuals who will care more about taking care of this pack and doing right by their packmates than about the senseless and impractical requirements of morality and lawfulness... but as I have not yet proven that to be true you cannot know that for certain any more than I can know for certain that I can trust you, yes?"