Balto looked at the two brothers, noting on how they had changed in recent times.
Duke, had changed the least visually. He still had that silver glow to his fur, and had the noble look that a leader should have. Other than that, he had grown ever so slightly bigger from all the new and better food they had been eating. Ibas on the other hand/paw, was covered in scars. He is just as good of a leader as Duke, in Baltos opinion, but he was too much of a battle junkie. If Ibas got wind of something threatening nearby, he would be the first one to run over and rip whatever it was into ribbons. And often he would become the victor with a collection of new “medals”, as he himself would call them. Much to the dislike of the healers and to Duke, Ibas would not listen when told to fight more carefully. Or to the very least bring someone with him to assist him.
Ibas and Duke jumped onto the large stump and promptly sat down, while Balto rested his large head on it instead. Crow let out a small croak, which everyone present took as a start signal for the day's meeting.
“No one got killed yet” Ibas started rather roughly. “But this deep into the World's Tongue, the things we fight and hunt get pretty strong.” He yawned and scratched at his jaw. And this was true. Balto was the heaviest hitter they had, and this far in, he usually had to fight of something together with Half-face.
Duke nodded his head in agreement, but did not speak up. He knew his brother well enough to know there would be more to report. And on cue.
“There have also been some concerns about meeting some weird-looking wolves around these parts.” This was some proper news, to both Duke and Balto.
Duke, Ibas and Balto all had their direwolfs who would report to them whenever they discovered something worthwhile. Such as an easy meal or a danger to the pack. A completely different group of direwolfs, who were only discovered by one group, could only mean that they were either stalking them or were incredibly well hidden. Either way, it was unnerving news.
“Do you have any details of them?” Duke leaned in as he asked this, clearly intrigued.
Ibas took a moment to scratch at one of his scars before talking.
“Not enough to know if they are pups from a different clan, or if they are just normal wolves. But two things were easy enough to notice, they wore clothes like a human and moved around on two legs instead of four.” Ibas finished talking and went back to scratching at another scar, this one running from the corner of his jaw and down his throat. Duke was deep in thought while thinking this over, while Balto watched Crow play with the tree growing out of his back. How he knew they were playing, he wasn't quite sure.
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Finding something to bring up, Duke began to slowly speak.
“I recall an old tale, of a whole different world across the World's Tongue. Where beasts acted like the standing races and fought like them too, but this is just an old fairy tale with no backing. But if this is true, however unlikely that might be, we need to be even more cautious than before.” He turned to give his brother a look.
“Which means you can't attack everything you see.” Ibas made a face at Duke, but quickly became serious again as he turned to Balto. Duke quickly made the same realization and also turned. The third leader of the pack, the most eye-catching member of their pack as well, would be nearly impossible to hide. Even with the truly massive trees that littered the environment, Balto would still be visible unless he tucked his tail between his legs and looked straight down. That was simply not an option, ruining a leader's image to hide from a potential foe. The more spiritually inclined members of their tribe did, at times, ask the spirits to aid them in various scenarios. But what could a spirit do for Balto, other than cover him in even more plant life?
Balto noticed the two looking at him and tried his best to look at them both at the same time, not succeeding. Ibas barked out a laugh before speaking.
“Hey Balto, what do you think about this?” The question took him off guard, clearly he had been paying more attention to Crow than anything else. But after some serious concentration and with a determined look in his large eyes, he answered.
“Let's try talking with them next time. They can't be worse than the goblins, and they look like us, so maybe we can befriend them?” The sheer optimism that radiated from Balto not only blinded Ibas and Crow, it even made Duke squint in surprise. It was not nearly as easy as Balto made it out to be, befriending something so strange as a wolf imitating a human. Yet he himself could not think of any scenario where they could get the upper hand over the wolves. If they are better at staying hidden, then acting hostile could provoke them. On top of that, the direwolfs knew next to nothing, while the wolves must've learned so much more about them. So having a friendly approach, while extremely risky, it still had a chance of working.
At the very least, they could try to communicate with them. Before Ibas could take the initiative to tease Balto, Duke hummed.
“I agree with Balto.” Ibas turned to his brother, clearly surprised.
“While it is a strange idea, it is also a good enough of an idea to work. If we could speak with the strange wolves, then we could learn more about the lands we wander. Best case scenario we gain new allies who have useful knowledge, worst case scenario we make a last stand and buy time for the pack to escape.” Duke concluded, lifting his head in the silent praise coming from Balto.
Ibas gave it a thought and could only agree with a nod of his head.
“If the two of you think it worth trying, then I won't fight against it. BUT!” Ibas paused for dramatic effect, which earned him a caw from Crow.
“We do it the classic way, a good old fashion howl to let them know we aren't scared of them. And we haven't heard you trying to do a proper howl yet, Balto. With your size, you could probably push over one of these trees with a strong enough howl.” Ibas said with pup-like glee.