The Silence Between

As Kassander's words tumbled out a faint frown formed on the viking's muzzle. This was... unexpected. When she'd badgered him some time ago about his unsuitability for alphaship she had wanted him to pass the pack on to one of his siblings who would be more suited to the task... not offer it to her. This, perhaps, was what she had been sent here for as much as a chance to mourn the loss of her own protege. She dropped her gaze to Sigmarr's face... wishing she'd gotten there sooner. That she'd never left. But she hadn't, and she had left, and like she'd told Kassander, there was no use crying over it. "If that is what you want," she said cautiously, "I will take alphaship of your pack. It will not be Ebony - I would leave that name and that legacy to rest until a Xanilov wishes to take up the mantle once more." He asked if she'd help bury Sigmarr, and she nodded, standing. It made her feel old, as though she ached in all her joints, to have outlived the child she'd seen born. He'd died so very young... "We should bring him home to rest on Ebony land, as does my sister."