The winter was not as harsh as the previous one he had experienced, for that he was grateful. As a younger pup he had spent the seasons with his mother’s Imprint to survive. Now Senketsu was nowhere to be found and Avtandil was on his own. He could have returned to the safety of Iromar. Back with his mothers and sister. He also felt the pull to leave, strike out on his own and embrace the independence that was bred bone deep in his family. The stubborn determination was not without its cost though. All baby fat had been stripped away by weeks here and there of hunger, leaving his fine and still growing body slim and lean. He knew to grow stronger, be the fighter his one mother embodied, he would need to be well fed. It was his determination to never be so easily shrugged off as he had been that night he lost his home. It was the promise of a free meal that had the dark boy stirring from the shadows to answer Aster’s call.

Steely eyes blinked at her words. A lip curled around his fangs in mild irritation. These were the freelands and she approached like a ruler of them. His brow lifted over his unique eye, a spark seeming to flash over the strike of blue that lashed through his pupil. She was haughty and cocky, but so was he. He was just a bit more subtle about it. Looking down at the deer leg, his mouth watered. It would be so much more satisfying than the mice he had been eating. His teeth bared again, adopting the expressions commonly adorning his brutish mother’s face. And what is it that you have to say? He asked in his dry sarcastic voice. Still a pup, lean, and temperamental, Avtandil might not have been exactly what Aster was looking for when she came to the Grotto. When resorting to bribery, beggars could not be choosers.