06-24-2019, 10:19 AM
[align=center][div style="width: 530px; text-align: justify; font-family: times new roman; font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: .3px; line-height: 1.15; padding: 4px;"]These people were attack dogs. Some were better trained than others, but all had sharp teeth and bites that equalled, if not exceeded, their barks. There weren't many here that Abd al-Malik wouldn't put life-or-death trust in — but that was a poor misestimation of his level of faith. Their violence was cause for wariness, for the slow cultivation of that urge to run that he'd otherwise let wither and die for obvious reasons. This was a reversion, a development of compliance in a place he ought to fight against. He'd immersed himself in gang violence once before and his mother's harrowed sleeplessness had put him quickly in his place — but he'd always had hunger to blame. At the very least, he'd gotten himself to a point where that didn't matter anymore.
Abd al-Malik had never understood the function of meetings, but his limited time here had promoted enough of something, be it respect or curiosity or that strange, unnameable tug that wasn't quite intrigue but compelled him to listen anyway, for him to be there, following Wolfsbane's descent with dark, guarded eyes and only mostly understanding the lord's words. An opportunity to claim authority; the need to forge new alliances; and the future handing-out of chores that Abd al-Malik knew he'd wind up wrapped in. If there had been anything else, it had been lost on him. (Hopefully, if such things existed, they weren't important.)
It wasn't all bad. The dogs were baying for something more bloody, but he couldn't care less. He flashed Wolfsbane a silent thumbs-up, waiting for the small (yet overbearing) crowd to recede.
Abd al-Malik had never understood the function of meetings, but his limited time here had promoted enough of something, be it respect or curiosity or that strange, unnameable tug that wasn't quite intrigue but compelled him to listen anyway, for him to be there, following Wolfsbane's descent with dark, guarded eyes and only mostly understanding the lord's words. An opportunity to claim authority; the need to forge new alliances; and the future handing-out of chores that Abd al-Malik knew he'd wind up wrapped in. If there had been anything else, it had been lost on him. (Hopefully, if such things existed, they weren't important.)
It wasn't all bad. The dogs were baying for something more bloody, but he couldn't care less. He flashed Wolfsbane a silent thumbs-up, waiting for the small (yet overbearing) crowd to recede.