My eyes remained upward, waiting for whatever my mum had to say to me. But what came next was unexpected. She was not upset with me! Immediately, my tail began to wag, and though I still shivered slightly from the cold, the shaking of my hindquarters from my happiness was far more evident. Training! The prospect excited me, and I knew that with Mum’s guidance I would become the strongest wolf in all of Glorall. I would prove to her that I was strong and smart and worthy. When the other wolf approached, my attention was taken from my mum, and my tail ceased its wagging. I told her, very definitively, that I was perfectly fine. Mum backed up what I had said, and I puffed my chest out so as to appear bigger and stronger. Cold water wasn’t going to be the one to get the best of me! No sir.

I looked closer at this shewolf, noticing she was colored similarly to Mum, though her reds were nowhere near as beautiful and formidable as my mum’s. I glanced up at Mum as she asked about what the girl’s parents had called her, and then I looked back to the girl, waiting for her reply. Clearly this was someone of Mum’s family. She didn’t speak much about her family, but she had not left my siblings and I in the dark. Mum and Mom would always do what was best for us, teaching us everything we needed to know in life. So of course I knew about demons and angels and assassins and all that sort of stuff. Maybe I didn’t know all the details, but I still knew.

Her name was Lamia. Well, that was all very nice but who really cared? What did she want? When she spoke in the old tongue, I had to really think on it for a moment. Both Mom and Mum spoke the old tongue, so of course they had been teaching it to Los, Mana and I since birth. I still spoke the common tongue better, but I knew enough of the old tongue to decipher what she had said. I wrinkled my nose at her and replied, “Eius generis est hic.” (Her family is here.)

I was her family. Mana and Los and Mom. Kin was different, right? My father lived in Spirane, but I didn’t live there. Mom’s kin lived in Diveen, but she didn’t live there all the time anymore. Glorall was our home. Where we were was where Mum and Mom belonged. That’s what made it home, wasn’t it?