Peaceful Intent

She didn’t get much from this thoughtful, neutral expression as she walked him through the events of Abaven. They where both keeping their emotions to themselves, aside from the slight smile that had graced her delicate maw when she had breathed life into her carefully crafted gift.

He seemed to pause a moment as he considered the lantern she had unveiled before him, before admitting that it was a good gift, cleverly crafted. Her father had been right. Always open negotiations with a gift. She kept this second smile to herself, it would have been mournful if it had passed her expressions. She missed her father, she missed both her parents truly.

She knew this wasn’t going to be easy, even with her attempt to smooth over the way. So when he pointed out that well a permanent occupation didn’t work for them, it would still be a loss to him. Why? He hadn’t used the land, he hadn’t, as far as she could see, gained much from placing his wolf there. Not in the sleepy, quiet lands they had found them to be. What she could offer might greater than what they had left behind.
“The land is quite far from here. Too far for your wolves there to leap to your aid in a moment, too far for pups to trek back and forth in a day.” she had to stare him down the right path. Abaven wasn’t useful to him in this way but it could be in others.

“It could however be useful if its Alpha respected you, wished to trade with you.” Her eyes glanced down at the clever contraption she had made. It might not have been a graceful execution to catch the bugs the first time. But she had learned from the experience. She glanced back up at him, a slight smile on the shadows of her dark features. “A pack that might interact with you with the desire to learn, and teach, and trade. I would share my knowledge with you. I could teach the wolves you desired to, the art of healing, of creating. To fish, or catch salamanders by the waters of Abaven.” they had spent years learning from a shaman in the heart of a mountain, in return for saving Vail’s life. She wouldn’t chose the life of a healer now, as she might of as a pup, but she had some knowledge yet to show.

She gently pulled apart the leaf that had held the lantern, showing something else in its folds. Here was the start of the next part of her plan here. To demonstrate what they might share. “Here is a healing Salve that stopped a wolf from becoming completely blind when her sight was on the verge of leaving her. Perhaps you will find a use for it, or your healers might learn from it.’ she left it on top of the lantern she had already offered him. “I came here not as a cowering, quivering underdog, but as an Alpha in my own right. I will start from scratch with Abaven, I will bring it, dragging, screaming into life until it is a buzzing hive of life. I came here as that leader, to offer you trade, to find mutual footing between our packs.”