i look forward to our partnership

Mercury arrived promptly, inclining his head to her in greeting. She would return the gesture. It was strange, being addressed as if she was an authority figure. Although she was rank-wise above him now, it was very obviously not something she was used to. She didn't see the point in needless expressions of respect despite what one would afford to any wolf; it was her responsibility to earn such respect.

"I wanted to ask what you thought of an idea I had to encourage the fighting training of the pups," she replied. "Since there are so very many of them, we could enlist the help of the Knights in one-on-one or small group training, as well as teaching our own lessons, leading up to a tournament or melee fight to show off their skills. Or, although it would take some more organizing, we could set up a practice raid with one of the other Auster packs." The latter option appealed the most to her. Not only had it been something she'd participated in herself as a pup, but it would give the kids a more real-world situation and one where they would have to strategize and figure out which fights to pick based on their individual skills. "Of course, I'll have to bring it up to Art and see what he says, but I wanted to get your input first."

"Speech"