Why was I out here? Why you ask, would I risk ruining my hair near the muddy banks of a river? Why would I contaminate the whiteness of my fur by daring to tempt fate and wander beneath a forest of trees? I’ll tell you why. Because I am surrounded by imbeciles. Alright, maybe that was a little strongly worded, they weren’t imbeciles they were just lacking, well, an awful lot of things. I understand the world is made up of about three types of wolves, those with hope, those with no hope and then the true and rare last breed, the single category I had found myself belonging to- the special ones, the leaders, the few chosen amongst us to actually look at the world around us and realise that there can be change- and no I don’t mean change like a new hairstyle or sun in the winter or my own Alpha’s apparent delusions on how an empty pack and barren landscape were actually somehow more useful then the thriving land it was before. I mean the sort of change that effects everyone, an idea, a realisation- an understanding that could very well revolutionise this land and yet the more I look upon the wolves of Diveen the more I am given to wonder exactly what any of them are actually…well….doing. I am sure they are intelligent creatures, some of them at least apparently have a value- and then there’s Pheadra. I like my cousin, I do, yet the girl is convinced there is some sort of Demi-God walking amongst us and that she can see lights or spirits or….god only knows what. Hell, maybe she can, maybe I’m wrong, but for what I have in mind for the future I’m not sure I have rooms for those of us still attempting to work out which spiritual plane she is functioning on.

I needed to talk to her and those like her, in time I would, there was place for them, there had to be. Yet another task to add to my every growing list. It’s hard being a saviour for Angel kind, harder still to have the weight of some much resting on your shoulders and yet…why else would Heyel have chosen me? Us, really. Calliel, Orfiel, Achilles, Guardian and me, plus one other, though I was yet to find this wolf, I only had a name and that was not nearly enough to go on. I had deviated a little from our plan, Id had too, but being flexible was just as important as anything else in the long run. I had seen weaknesses, flaws I suppose that Heyel had not considered and I hardly blame him for it. There is an entire generation between us, there were things I saw he never could have and so I’d adjusted for it- though progress was slow. If patience was a virtue I was struggling to maintain it. What was one more charade in the long run? I pushed the thoughts away for now, bending down to snatch up the small hare I had caught for myself, attempting to prevent the blood from running down my chin and onto my chest and further matting my snowy locks beyond all repair. I hadn’t expected to meet anyone I knew out here, most of my family safe and content within Spirane or Taviora and as such it was a surprise to scent something distinctly familiar.

I hadn’t seen Zelda in a little while, not since the, well….incident with the tree. To be honest I was still waiting for the bill from the forest Alpha for the damage I had done to his lands. I hadn’t meant to, it was an accident- maybe he just never found out. I paused atop a small rise a short distance from the girl, violet eyes lingering upon her now as she wandered beside the bank before stopping to stare into the water. What on earth was there to see in water? Maybe she just liked her own reflection, I don’t blame her I suppose, I was rather partial to my own on a good day. I felt my lip quirk ever so slightly in amusement at my own inner thoughts, chuckling softly at the humour I took within myself before wandering forward on long, ungainly limbs, attempting to offer some air of grace all the same though I wasn’t entirely sure why it mattered what she thought of me. It just…did I suppose. Red tipped ears pricked forward as I approached, toned, lithe frame coming easily to a stop just behind her, lowering my hare to the ground at my paws as my tail waved, releasing a bark that was decidedly puppyish despite my determined effort to make it sound otherwise, a smile working its way onto my features as I waited for her to turn around.

“What are you looking at in the river? I haven’t seen you this far from the forest before. You…er….didn’t get kicked out because of that tree I….repositioned did you?”

Broke. Repositioned. Much of a muchness. Maybe I shouldn’t make fun of the wolves around me so much, after all, I was the one that chased a log through Taviora yelling like a crazy. Maybe I was the imbecile. Ha- I never thought of that. Not that it matters- I make it work now don’t I?


h y r u l e
The Once and Future King
The Heir of Heyel