you do not know who is your friend

or who is your enemy

until the   ICE breaks.

She seemed as if she didn't know what to make of him, a confusion mirrored in his own soul. He knew it as clearly as one knew sunlight when seeing it, at least that it was true on his part. But something in her blue eyes just seemed to shift like a restless ocean - he shuddered slightly at the metaphor - and it never truly stayed still for long. Always changing, her eyes darting this way or that, up at him, down again. He didn't bother to follow her gaze. She seemed nervous, uncertain, hesitant, yet sometimes she seemed friendly and hopeful when looking at him, a fleeting glance, gone, coming back, yet instead full of.. what? Doubt? Neutrality? Hostility? Nothing so large he could quite place his paw on it, but just enough to give him the notion she wasn't entirely certain what to make of him. Truth to be told, he wasn't either. Even Ice himself could not predict his rather queer mood swings, nor know which turn his temperament would take. On another day, he might've beat Yela to a pulp for charging into him, however that seemed quite unlikely even as his mind addressed the possibility. Ice was, most of the time, a benign creature with a patience longer than the Nile.


However, her adamant reply about her brother had him frowning. Running's always best? I doubt it, his mind said even as his guilty heart skipped a beat. Shame. It tasted like bile in the back of his throat, like poison on his tongue, and if he spoke now, surely every word would be tainted beyond redemption and he, the honest border watcher, would speak lies. Choking back the mountain of his past, shouldering it aside to where it belonged, he wondered what to say - what to tell her. He didn't want to meet her brother. That was reason enough to send her to the moon or further, and roll on every track she'd led here. But could he do that? Simply abandon her to this psychopath she shared blood with? Possible that he could, likely he couldn't; but Corinna? She'd eat him alive if he hid the truth of Yela's brother and the possible risk of housing her. Besides, he couldn't - wouldn't - deceive her. It simply wasn't an option.


It was painfully clear to him then, that any association with Yela required this brother's demise, sooner rather than later.


Her respectfully, shyly, formed request of joining Swift River only cemented his belief, and growling in frustration he presented his shoulder to her as he stalked off a couple of yards. A nearby bush received a savaged bite as heart and mind clashed, furiously, within the cool shell of his body. How merely uncertainty and anger could set a fever in his flesh was...distressing, indeed. "And what about your brother?" he snapped, clearly more frustrated with the situation at hand than her presence and desire to join Swift River. "What are we to do when he catches your trail and charges into our midst? What could possibly justify risking the pups that must surely come later in the season? They're our future, Yela, so what are we to do when this one wolf all run from comes barging in - just up and leave? Forever haunted because we took you in?" He spun around, quiet anger blazing in his hard, pale eyes. "Damn it, I don't want to leave you out here, on your own! But I cannot - will not - risk to compromise this pack's safety, ever." His temper had flared, bright as the sun, but was cooling now, like ashes blowing over snow. His jaw was clenched, the muscles of his shoulders bulging as he tiptoed back, closer to her; massive, angry, yet none of the hostility arcing out from him was aimed at her. It was as if he was simply upset with the world in general.


"I cannot decide." His voice was low, bitter. "Only Corinna or Indru can decide how much to risk for you, someone none of us know, someone we cannot know will be worth the risk." Harsh reality dictated he weigh one unknown wolf's life against the pack, and the possibility of a psycho brother going rampant in their midst. "Either you have to convince them you're worth the danger, or-" His gaze was hard, unyielding, pinning her. "-you kill your brother."

.ice aesir