As stunning as it was to realise, their pups were coming up on 6 months of age. Citadel was an absolute trouble maker, Selene had more energy than she knew what to do with. Iskandor, Balrog, and Jamie had been sick, distracted, and disadvantaged. He and Ignita were going to need to consider their futures, their training, and what they both were capable of, and had the desire to do.

This was something that needed to be thought through and decided between the both of them. So he set up in the storage den with a little spreed of parchment and ink, and called for Ignita to come join him.

Ignita was watching Selene try swimming in the deeper end of the pool because she expressed she wanted to swim in the wild waters of the cove. She was surprised how her babies had been growing so quickly. Almost six months... time flew by.

She heard the call from the storage den just behind her! Oh! She ushered Selene to go play something else for a while, she wasn't allowed to swim without being watched. She glanced up at the den where her other babies were resting. She typically spent her time split between the nappers and the runners. Soon Selene will, hopefully, be big enough to swim a little more on her own without the fear of getting stuck in the grates of the pools.

Child ushered off to play, Ignita padded easily into the storage den. The necklace glinted in the torchlight and her goggles sat high on her head. Though she placed her goggles on a hook by the doorway.

"What do we have here, my love?" She inquired stepping closer to what he had laid out.

"Basilisk" | "Ignita"

Basilisk smiled when Ignita came to join him. The speed she arrived indicated she had already been nearby. He reached over and kissed her cheek. “Hello, lovely wife of mine.” He teased lightly, before shuffling over to give her room at his makeshift workstation.



“I'm not going to make any decisions regarding our kids without you, so I'm going to lay out my thoughts, you can lay out yours, and then we can decide what we think is best.” He explained to her, before getting into it. “Selene needs an apprenticeship that requires her to be on her paws and moving, and she needs positive exposure to the sounds and bustle of wolves.” He began with their small, energetic wolf. Selene was a sweet creature, but staying still was not her strong suit.


“Citadal,” he glanced at Ignita, knowing she wouldn't like hearing this. “While I applaud strength, he needs to be put in harm's way if we are going to avoid him becoming a monster. He needs to understand what fear and pain feel like. His apprenticeship with the healers hasn't benefited him in the way we hoped it would.” He wasn't finished yet.


“Iskandor, Balrog, and Jamie haven't had a chance to show their full colours yet, and are at great risk of falling behind their peers. They need a boost, and they need to want to achieve it. Your turn.” He said sweeping a paw towards her so she could speak her mind.

She would have puffed up like a pleased hen when he called her wife and kissed her cheek. She sat next to him and listened to what he had to say, taking a few notes as he went, fitting back into one of her initial jobs as a scribe like a favorite coat. She nodded as he mentioned an apprenticeship for Selene would do her some good. Giving her a job would do her well.

When he started on their wayward son she glanced up at him but started her note just the same. She froze halfway through making the note and started to interject but he was moving on to the others.

She made notes for each of their other children while she thought about what he said.

"I agree about Selene. Maybe she can start shadowing some of the guards around the market in the mornings when it's still fairly quiet. After a few weeks maybe we can adjust her schedule to shadow Wylan or another packmate on their market days, selling?" She suggested. Kept the girl moving and engaged. Shadowing a seller though might be a challenge. She gets into trouble when she's bored.

She hovered her quill over Citadel's name for a moment then shifted to their other children. "Perhaps we could get them excited over a little competition between the three of them? Maybe we can have them earn something by completing some tasks?" She offered and made a note, writing "competition" with a question mark.

She hovered back to Citadel and tapped her claw over his name. He was curious... when it suited him. She didn't like the idea of putting him in harm's way at all, but if he insisted on putting himself in danger anyway there was only so much one could do. How do you protect a child bent testing his supernatural strength beyond what you could conceive? She looked up at Bas, her eyes dancing with defeat but not succumbing, with a sigh she relented, "What do you propose with Citidel?"

"Basilisk" | "Ignita"

“Excellent suggestions, the both of them. Let's do that with Selene, but may need to adjust it if her boredom has her stirring the plot.” He said leaning close to his wife's shoulder, clearly taking comfort from her presence. But in an absentminded sort of way, his eyes had a distant expression as he considered. “A competition sounds like an excellent idea. Something they would all like as a prize. Perhaps a dagger, like Spider's. A family heirloom.” But what would challenge them? “They've all shown an interest in fighting, but struggle to attend the lessons. Perhaps we hold two sets of sparring challenges. One now, at their current level, and one later on. So they know what to work towards…?” He suggested


Which brought them back to Citadel. In some ways, he was their most difficult child. Adventurous, craved learning, but remed to be missing a specific element. something between empathy and understanding your own limitations. “We need to throw him into the deep end and let him swim. I'm not entirely sure yet, but I think removing him from his support network would be wise. Perhaps an apprenticeship with another pack. Unless you can think of another apprenticeship that may test him in the ways we need to?” He voiced the question in a way that made it clear her opinion mattered. He wanted another solution.

She made a note for Selene: Find someone on morning guard duty capable of attending to the girl. Oh, interesting! She noticed in herself that she had defaulted to finding someone capable, not just asking if someone would be up to it. She wondered if she would actually command someone even if they were uncomfortable with the idea. Fascinating!

Ah yes, fighting. She was loathe to consider the rough and tumble play all her children delighted in and were interested in. But they needed fighters to remain strong in this cruel world. Protect the wolves here. Eventually, they would be protecting the Armada from any raids. She nodded and noted a prize for a group sparring competition. “Perhaps they can choose their prize.” She mused to him, feeling his fur against hers. Comforting, and grounding, as if it had always been the case.

As he spoke about their largest child she looked down at his name. Chewing her lip in motherly worry, weaving through the difficulty of finding a way to teach him more about the limits of his abilities.

"If we send him away I think that'll cause more harm than good. He'll feel abandoned, and it'll break the bonds of family and everything we stand for. It might be the only thing tethering him. If that's the direction it needs to go it needs to be done carefully and in a way that encourages growth, like a choice or a challenge that doesn't put our bonds at risk." She sighed through her serious tone. She was at a loss. She was affectionate and fair with all her children. She encouraged them to be gentle with each other and to behave well. But he was just not interested. They could wait until something serious happened or they could do their darndest best to curb their son's... muchness.

"Basilisk" | "Ignita"