The child remained quiet still, this time proud of her mother for sharing their plight so honestly with a stranger. Certainly Kjors—and any new recruit—should understand what he is getting himself into when joining a pack, but it took a strong leader to admit to hosting a traitor in her ranks. Karina hadn’t known Rook Lyall apart from sight and smell, having never worked up the courage to approach the young man who always seemed so busy and so... secretive. Of course Karina had only grown to view Rook as “secretive” after learning of his betrayal, or else the curious child certainly would have followed the solitary yearling to see what he was up to.

Karina was confident Kjors would answer to Kisla’s liking, knowing him to be rather hermitlike apart from his occasional associations with the Badger woman. The princess smiled bashfully as Kjors winked at her.. or maybe it was just a blink..? It was hard to tell the difference when the winker/blinker only had one eye. He spoke of her packmates and loners he had run across, but most interesting was his mention of packwolves.. packwolves that belonged to neither the Ridge, nor the Caverns, and not even Grizzly Hollow. Had Kjors met wolves from the Downs then, their allies to the north? Kova, perhaps? Karina had been wondering what had become of the blackberry prince and his friend Firefly. On the other hand, maybe he had information about an entirely different pack, one whose existence would be news to the River Wolves.

The child’s heart soared as her mother pronounced Kjors part of the family, though to her Kjors had obtained that position long ago. Kisla’s emotion was difficult to decipher, and she seemed less pleased by the new addition than her daughter. Perhaps her mother was just worried.. she was always worried about something these days. Without much of a goodbye the River matron padded away, first giving Karina a noticeable nod—certainly an order to remain with Kjors and help him acclimate. The child loosed a girlish yip of pleasure as Kjors spoke, the first words out of his mouth being, I did it. “You were great!” she gushed, tail whipping back and forth, ”Don’t mind Mom, she’s been that way since we started traveling..” As much as she wanted Kjors and her parents to be friends, the princess knew it was a long shot. Kjors had never made it a secret that submission was distasteful to him, and he had a general dislike for mothers to boot. At least he was hers for the time being, and that was enough for now.

”Everything!” she piped up excitedly as Kjors spoke about “whatever she wished to learn”.  It was not that she was really excited about hunting and fighting of course, but she would exploit any excuse to spend time with her devoted protector. Karina’s tail stilled as her companion—now packmate—dismissed her quickly. The girl hesitated, unsure of what to do since her mother had indicated she was to stay with Kjors. She had figured she would begin immediately introducing him to packmates. “Oh.. okay!” she said finally, realizing that perhaps meeting the whole family all at once might be overwhelming for her solitary friend. There was also the fact that as the newcomer he would be expected to submit to all other packmates he met, an act that would irritate Kjors to say the least.  With a parting lick to Kjo’s muzzle for her goodbye, Karina turned to trot her separate way into the woods of the Palisade. She would seek him out again after giving him some time to adjust.