After all he had said, Ailith uttered a single word in response. He did not understand, the language foreign to him, but the tone of her voice and the relief with which she said it assured Sleekwing that it was some form of thanks for how he had attempted to reassure her. Everything he had said was the truth, for although the residents of Spirane did not live so much like a tribe in the way that Taviora did, nor were they vastly connected by blood in the way Diveen was, the mountain clan was a family. His sister viewed every wolf who called these peaks home as part of her family by one extension or another. While the majority of their siblings did in fact live here, there were far more wolves who had no true blood connection to their family. It did not matter. Sleekwing viewed the connection between each member of the pack slightly different. He was a soldier for the mountain, the protector of the peaks and valleys no matter who lived and ruled there. And any wolf who pledged themselves to the mountain in turn fell under his protection. Ailith was one of those wolves, and he could feel the friendship that had once taken root during a spar begin to grow and blossom and she confided her deepest secrets to him. Ones that he would keep, for he could tell in every intonation of her voice how much they gripped her very core.

For a while they walked in silence, and it seemed that his stoic presence was enough to quell misgivings. Eventually they left the foothills in their wake, ascending into the mountains where the trees blocked out the border they had left behind. From the first bend in the trail it felt as though they were in the heart of the pack lands, and this was what those from beyond the pack lands could never understand. The majesty of the mountain was unparalleled by any other natural wonder in the world. Or at least, that was how Sleekwing felt. After some time she broke the silence, and a single ear flicked towards her as she spoke, being a bit more careful of the trails they now followed. He walked along the outside of the trail, where from time to time it would drop off steeply into seeming nothingness the further up they traveled. But he can not help but turn his gaze upon her as she speaks about the tendencies of her imprint. His eyes cast forward once more, for even he knew better than to trust the more narrow of trails that they followed. Still, he listens, the ear closest to her tilted and trained upon her.

When the silence consumed them once more he only moved forward, ever upwards as they made their way into one of the many forests that speckled the mountains. It was only once they were well within the treeline that Sleekwing pointedly turned his gaze upon her, waiting for her to lift her eyes to his before he uttered a single phrase. “You deserve far better than him, Ailith.” He kept moving though, once more confident in his ability to traverse the landscape without need to use more than his paws. To think that any male had the capacity to deny the wants and needs of their imprint, much less to choose one who would threaten the very life of that imprint, was obscene to Sleekwing. His imprint had chosen a female to keep as her mate, and he had respected her wants, but when she had desired to have children to raise with said mate, he could not even consider denying her. She’d not taken advantage of his unyielding devotion to her, second only to that which he felt about his mountain home, but he would have done anything in his abilty to make her happy.

His nostrils flared as he inhaled deeply, then exhaled a warm breath that he did not even think to divert elsewhere, letting it wash over her face. “And if this Seline ever comes looking for you, she will have the might of the mountain to reckon with.” He and the armament were charged with the pack’s safety, and he had no doubt that they could dispatch of this single female as easily as Daenerys, Isola, and Kane had once done with Purge. By nature they were not murderers, but the wolves of the mountain would not stand by and allow their own to be threatened.

After another moment, his eyes returned to the trailless expanse of woodland before them, and he carried onward. He was unsure where Ailith had previously denned, but he would escort her there or wherever she might want to go, so that he could ensure she was safe and comfortable, reassured by her surroundings.