The boy found her as expected of him, and came before her with no sign of fear. He spoke, his words slow. "Yes," she answered him simply. She did not ask why, trusting he would come to that, and he did begin to speak again in his slow manner. She focused thoughtfully on him as his question became clear. He wanted to know why. She chose her words carefully, though she had little reason to impress him. Still, as a child she would have been offended to have her cares and questions swept away with no explanation offered, so she would make the effort.
"Our cultures are... different. We put priority and emphasis on very different things. To you, perhaps it is knowledge, or family, or helping others that means most to you. To my culture it is the call to battle, the exploration, the acquisition of wealth and trading. Perhaps your people would consider it somehow wrong, distasteful, but we consider the lazy softness of the wolves here to be as such. I challenged for your pack because the gods bid me to build a pack and so I sought the one pack from whom taking power would be a pleasure rather than simply a duty. The challenge itself was duty to my family and my gods, for it is always the way of it that the strong lead." She fell silent to study him through slitted eyes. "Taking you and your siblings was vengeance... a weregild for your mother having taken the Xanilovs from their home. To my culture such a thing is honorable - forgiveness is weakness, the strong seek vengeance for wrongs done."
It was a lot to drop on a pup so young but Katja saw no reason to coddle him or dumb it down even if the parents in this land did. Children his age in her culture would already be training. Besides, it did not matter one way or another, she was not trying to convince the child of anything. She was simply answering his question. "No doubt you were hoping for a reason more in line with what you have been taught is honor," she added dryly.
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