Two seas in a cod

[Skoll]

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The bronze wolf frowned at the other wolf's words. If any true wars had taken place in Bleeding Souls, he had never heard of them. There were skirmishes, and Inferni had invaded another pack once, but nothing on the scale of a war had ever really taken place. Cradle murders, solitary muggings and murders of individuals perhaps, but the problems of this place emerged because it seemed too civilized. No one was willing to get worked up enough to do anything en masse. Enough dying had not taken place to support Laruku's claim that killing didn't work, at least in his mind. The other wolf may have heard stories that he was unaware of, though. Skoll had only been here three years, but all of his lore of this place claim from personal experience and the year or two before his appearance as described by VoidFane. "I doubt you'd think it was ideal if you lived there," he said flatly. "We had to work hard to feed ourselves, packs couldn't be more than six to eight members strong for fear of extinguishing prey populations. Six to eight wolves aren't hard to kill with a few determined people." He went silent for a few moments. "As for larger groups, I've seen that, too. They're usually driven by one or two ambitious individuals, who you kill in battle to break the back of the group. The rest aren't dead, but their threat falls significantly. If you get rid of all of the volatile ones, the followers in the group end up attached to someone who isn't so bad, and you can leave them alone at that point. Supposing they've still got some fire, they're usually smart enough to weigh their chances and back off. After all, you killed the strongest and fiercest in their group, the ones they respected enough to be their leaders. If you go head to head with someone they regard as more formidable than themselves and win, they have no confidence that they can win, and their group leaves your group alone." He continued looking off into the sunset. "Now, sometimes you get someone who can step into the pawprints of the old leader. That's not too rare. What is rare is for that person to decide that they can succeed where their predecessor failed, and convince everyone else of the same thing. If that happens, you crush them again, and slaughter them to the last." His eyes had grown hard through his explanation, though he was still looking out, rather than at Laruku. Explaining war and death was something he had done before, but the alpha's second question was not something he had ever thought he'd need to answer to anyone other than himself. "As to your other question...I'm not sure. I traveled for so long, I thought that I would wander throughout my life. My great grandfather lived in the pack called Storm, and he felt that he owed them a debt, which he asked me to repay. I have done so, but I do not want to leave. In my years of repayment, I've grown attached to this place." ~The lyrics are from the best song ever written.

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