<blockquote>To his relief, though not quite to his surprise, she echoed the sentiment, and grinned in turn. Maybe... if she turned out to be trustworthy, or at least not purposefully troublesome, he could discuss her with Ruiko? Inviting her to the pack? They needed every reliable set of jaws they could, and Kinis doubted that she would dare cross Ruiko. Either way, it was worth considering.
Her following question only served to cement this notion; a wolf willing to learn was valuable, wasn't she? Happy to help, Kinis took a step towards her, noting her eager but wary body language, and smiled at her. <b>"You don't want to appear like a threat, for one thing,"</b> he said, lowering his tail and ears and swiftly dropping his body just below her level, <b>"or that you think you're better than them. I mean - it's not a personal thing, not that they're a better <i>being</i>, but as far as the pack is concerned, they're superior. If we don't follow the ranks, everything falls apart. Everybody needs to know where they stand."</b> His tail wagged once, a submissive show of friendliness, and he lowered himself more, purposefully avoiding her gaze this time, pushing his submission even further. As strange as it was to behave like this to a relative stranger, submission itself wasn't alien to Kinis; the boy had never held rank, so it really felt fairly natural. Not that Ruiko often demanded such displays, but Kinis knew how to show them.
Whining softly, he reached forwards and licked her on the chin - that definitely felt strange, but hey, it was all in the interests of her learning - and then dropped fully to his belly. <b>"It depends how much they want from you,"</b> he muttered, his instincts lowering the volume of his voice in this position. <b>"Asking for forgiveness... such as from Indru, if you ever meet him again - requires a lot more from you. Usually,"</b> he said, a little more spritely now, bouncing back up to his paws and bumping her chin with his nose, <b>"just showing that you respect their rank is enough. You only need to do the stronger stuff in more serious situations... and depending on who the superior is, too. There's a wolf in Swift River right now who's pretty big on it - but he doesn't talk much, so it's all about how you act with him."</b> Smiling, he tilted his head at her, curious how much help that had really been. </blockquote>
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<i>at least... that's where I'm supposed to be...</i></center>