As Katja returned her pack to their territory, there was a distinct satisfaction in her step despite the long journey and the untreated injuries. Kismet and Hárekr would have guarded the territory well, she was fairly certain, and they had much to celebrate. They had not been successful at raiding in secret, but perhaps that was for the better. What better way to become known than to do battle? They acquitted themselves well enough, though there was much room to improve. One day soon they would be a warband the likes of which these lands had never laid witness to. There was great potential there, and they would be shaped in the fires of battle and tempered into warriors beyond any in the lands.
As the pack trotted along, she gestured for Kapra to join her. "The pack has done well tonight," she observed when he had. "I believe that alone is enough cause for celebration. We will hold a blót to honor Tyr and Odinn - it would be a fitting time to adopt a sworn warrior into our family would it not?" She shot him a questioning glance, referencing their recent conversation about Laufey and giving him the choice. "I will gather the pack at the waterfall pool once I have located a suitable sacrifice. Gather what you need to... have a good time," she told him, the words awkward in her mouth as she obliquely gave him the go-ahead to break out whatever drugs it was that he and the others of their family had long partaken in during blót. She, who had herself never done so, wouldn't have been able to recognize a psychoactive substance if it had reached up and bitten her, so she would leave that to him. The pack was likely to be in that odd mix of exhaustion and agitation that would keep ramping up, so it wouldn't hurt for them to unwind a little in a time honored tradition that was said to bring them closer to the gods.
Leaving him to do his thing, she split off from the rest of the pack at the border to melt into the great red trees, gesturing for Kassander to accompany her on her hunt. He was big enough to help her subdue their prey, had a companion fox who was as large as some wolves who could assist them, and Kassander also had the herbal knowledge to drug the beast and keep it quiet and compliant as they dragged it to the pool.
They were able to locate, subdue and drug a strong young buck, his velvet colored antlers already wide and branching despite the cold spring. A suitable sacrifice, in the absence of a bear. They laid the quiescent creature beside the pool, then Kassander and Rommel melted away into the darkness to retrieve something from Kassander's den. Standing over the buck, Katja raised her head to sing out a song gathering the tired pack from where they had gone to rest, a low eerie note that rose to crystal clarity over the three lands the pack laid claim to. Her own body ached abominably, wounds from her battles stressed beyond what they should have been in the hunt and tiny droplets of fresh blood, her blood, staining the deer's pelt. She was unconcerned, for after all what would a sacrifice be if there were no personal sacrifice involved?
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