The whole idea of ‘stealing’ someone and forcing them to come spend time in Spirane had been odd to me. The concept in general just didn’t seem right – if you made someone do something, weren’t they all the less likely to appreciate it? Then again, it had worked out with Tychon. So I guess there was some merit to the idea. Still, nipping at someone’s heels or otherwise physically coercing them across the borders wasn’t really my style – especially after my own close brush with that Iromarian wolf who had tried to take me from my home - I would much rather use bodily force to force someone out of Spirane when they didn’t belong. So when I’d decided to bring Nico back to the mountains with me, I’d just asked her. And she’d been all for the idea. See, much easier than dragging someone kicking and screaming. The fact that not every wolf would be as amiable to the idea of crossing into a pack’s territory hadn’t really crossed my mind.

In any case, we’d made good conversation and I found myself liking the girl more and more as we went. She was sweet, perhaps a little naïve but she was young so I didn’t hold it against her. Together we came to the borders of Spirane, and Nico came to a stop, laughing as she announced our arrival. ”That we have. Welcome to Spirane! Or back to, right?” The timeline of what had transpired in Spirane during the interruption of Daenerys’ rule was a little confusing – I’d spent that year in Diveen with my family - so I wasn’t sure if Roman had still been in power or if things had shifted to Tithe by the time she was born. Had she even been here long enough to remember it?

Looking to Nico, I noticed the way her eyes had grown a little more serious, and I took pause. I nodded at her question, ”I am,” I said, confirming what she seemed to have already known. For the first time, Nico seemed a little worried, and I could only imagine what it would have been like if I’d done something like chase her back here. Then she started talking about her dad, Roman, and I listened quietly. But when she asked if I had brought her here to punish her, I immediately shook my head, continuing the motion until she had finished her questions. ”No, no, Nico. Not at all! I mean – you weren’t even alive then, punishing you for what your father did would be like…like, well I don’t know what it would be like, but it would just be pointless.” I shrugged, grinning at her, trying to show her that I was being totally authentic with what I said. ”I guess that’s sort of why I brought you here – to show that just because my mom and your dad had bad blood, doesn’t mean we have to. Why perpetuate hate for generations to come, when we can fix it here and now?”

I turned my gaze towards the mountains and took a step forward, crossing into what could officially be considered the pack lands. Then I looked back at her. ”I’d like for you to stay a while, to see what it’s like here with our pack. You don’t have to stay forever, if you don’t want to, but maybe if you like it, well then you could!” My tail waved back and forth in invitation, sensing that I had perhaps done more than accomplish one of the tasks my mother had set forth for me – maybe I’d made a new friend.