Taking it easy

Cai glanced up toward the Warlord as the man digested his words. The observation was taken with a light smile. He sure hoped they were. If wanting to serve his pack to the best of his ability meant he was selfish, what was the world coming to? But if being selfish meant his pack and family, and future mate and children had a safe, prosperous future, then so be it.

His head cocked slightly in thought at the next question. It was definitely the “Dad” kind of question posed to a male friend of a girl, he supposed, though he had no idea what it was like to have a father asking questions like that of her sisters’ friends… did they even have any male friends? He supposed Artur would take it upon himself to terrify possible boyfriends… were they really that old now? They would be three next season.

“I met her in the willows just beyond your border. I’d just been promoted, up at that temple you met me in, as a matter of fact. I decided to wander further east before going home—maybe I’d run into more of my cousins. Instead I met Lia. You ever have a friendship where things just … clicked? She sparred with me, and I gave her a little lesson about fighting against a wolf with armor like mine. Then we hunted a young buck. She’d a good huntress. I got a hoof in the thigh and she poulticed it up for me”

A smile crossed his features as he retold the night. Teaching her how to skin a deer, how to cut strips of meat with the bear claws on his bracers, and how to dry it, and teaching her a song. Of the conversation about brothers, he said very little. His issues with Artur were his own problem, and he didn’t desire to show any cracks in Valhalla’s unity to an alpha.

“It’s easy to open up to her. I have a male best friend, but Lia is easily the best female friend I have. She’s strong, and I get the sense that she’s been through a great deal before she came to the Armada, though I won’t pry into her past before she’s ready to tell it herself. That should be her choice. But she’s given little pieces. She’s a free spirit, and caring.”

His eyes shifted toward the ocean, suddenly serious as he said, “I don’t want to ever have to fight her for real. Maybe it’s a weakness, but that is one reason among many other, more political ones that I hope that Valhalla and the Empire of Ashen never go to war one day.”

He chortled softly as he added, "I'll admit she's helped me stay a lot more sane than I would have been these past few days. The visits give me a distraction and good conversation."

Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Hear" ---- Think