The Fairy titled her head rather humorously on purpose to show her obvious intrigue at the mention of a watering hole guardian. “You have someone just for watch over your water here?” She guessed it probably wasn’t a bad idea to have. Sure they had this entire territory to themselves but surely there were drier seasons than others. Maybe this watchman of the water also helped dig out wells or something. The mention of a nearby lake gave her hope though. “Great! Maybe once I get my bearings a little better I’ll go and take a look for myself.” She said, hoping to make it clear that she wasn’t interested in running off as soon as possible and maybe never returning. Sanjiv didn’t seem like one who would think such things, but she did like to clarify.
“It’s alright. Things like this happen.” She said at first, looking for the first time around him a little uneasy about her answer. Sure, she was upset that she had lost them and never found them, but it was the law of nature. If they hadn’t been strong enough…well… “It’s unfortunate, but we were all raised together and trained. I have every hope that out there somewhere they are faring as well as me.” Until of course she remembered her injured wing and laugh, giving it the slightest wiggle. “Well, perhaps better than me right now.”
Nodding at his answers, she moved the muscles of her mouth this way and that in consideration. “Yes, Izotz has told me some of how things here work. Really it’s just the different environment. You have plains to hunt on and a forest—a pretty secluded little shelter. It’s a little different in the open sea where the only land your clan owns is an island…and that is typically reserved for the females with eggs and hatchlings as far as the interior goes. The rest of us would sleep out on the beaches to soak up the warmth from the sand as long as we could. But with such a vast hunting area, you had to prove your worth past a certain age if you wanted to remain a part of the clan. And if you didn’t come back, well then you were not going to make it long anyway. At least, that’s the reasoning.” She tried to explain.
“Our leaders never last long, really. A few seasons are normal for a male to hold leadership; a very short amount of time to be able to lengthen a lineage before someone bigger and stronger overthrows him. From the sounds of it, leaders here have the luxury of a much longer reign.” It was a backwards ideal, all things considered. But then again, it was all part of the bigger picture. The strongest male would produce the strongest offspring, which in turn would make for a stronger clan of skilled hunters. It kept things running pretty smoothly since no leader was truly in power long enough to make drastic changes; it was only ever really like swapping out one mate for another. Things remained pretty static overall and life went on with a new face in charge.
She only nodded graciously in return to his offer of asking others, and took note of her surroundings. They had talked so much about the watering hole that she had forgotten where they were going. Oh, right, the Advisor’s den. “So, your advisor. Did he once lead the clan? I have always wondered how that worked. We never had any sort of elder or advisor system within our clan but it’s my understanding that many others do.”