MOST HAVE LEARNED

THAT THOSE WHO PLAY WITH FIRE

SPEND THEIR LIVES ICING BURNS

Since their arrival, Dessa had been given to explore Taviora. She found the territory interesting enough. Dense forest covered most of the pack lands, undulating foothills to the mountains that towered to the south. The trees here were different to those back at home, and as she gazed up through the needles of a conifer pine, she found herself missing the oak beneath which her den rested back in Diveen. It was nice, being given free range to explore another pack, but she was keen to get these lessons under way so that she might return home for a while. Even as she thought of home, the foggy lands of Iromar often crept into her mind. Barely had she gotten a peak beyond its borders, and she found herself wanting to see more. If only Diveen and Iromar were friends, she could have gone there and explored as freely as she had these past days in Taviora.

Roaming back to the area where she and Sulan had been given quarters, Dessa lowered her bodice to the ground and crawled underneath the low hanging branches of an evergreen. The midafternoon sun cast soft beams of autumn light upon her tri colored pelt. The warmth of its rays warmed her to the perfect temperature, and she slowly drifted off into a state of half sleep. Her nose and paws twitched as dreams hazily gripped the edges of her consciousness. It was only when a voice called out to her from the waking world that her good ear twitched and the haziness of sleep evaporated.

Lifting her head, she peered through the branches and needles at the wolf who stood on the opposite side of the clearing that her and Sulan had been calling their home away from home. She cocked her head slightly to the right, the useless ear there flicking backwards as her left ear pointed towards the wolf who sought her. Some kid called Dessa? Her brows lifted curiously, wondering who this wolf was that Coszcotl had sent to give her lessons in the field of scouting.

She did not leave him waiting long. Rising to her feet, Dessa pushed out from under the low boughs and trotted across the short distance to him. “I’m Dessa” she said as she approached. The young wolf was half the height of her educator, and she glanced up at him inquisitively. She stopped a few feet from him, her black and chocolate tail swishing lazily behind her. Eyes of honey and olive watched the wolf before her, wondering if they would just kick off the lesson then and there. Her good ear flicked backwards once, wondering if Sulan was anywhere nearby, before it pricked forward once more. Personally she wouldn’t mind too much if the lessons were given to her solely. She was two years old, after all, and did not require a babysitter wherever she went.

Dessa

two | maddox x elowen | diveen