I had composed myself – someway, somehow – and instantly walked away from the scene once my mind began to work again. I had stood there in shock and anguish for what seemed like eternity with her neck hanging limp between my clenched teeth. I had not wanted to let go, not until I was certain her suffering had ceased itself, but I am not sure how long I had truly held on.

Elijah was never a prior concern to me when Stella had chosen him in my father’s absence; yet I did not trust him to properly care for a two-season old whelp. Not when I had just taken his mother from him. He will need everything that Stella could have provided him, everything that she had provided me, and I will be sure to make it right by him. Despite our differences he was still clearly my sibling, half-blooded or not, and once I had reached him within those dank recesses I knew that I was making the right decision.

We were making our way far from the reaches of the crags I had been raised upon – the both of us really. But who is to know whether the child will remember all of these minute details once he is fully grown. I stopped for a brief moment once we had reached the flattened grasses below the crags and howled for my only companion before continuing onward. I cannot waste any time with searching for him now but I would not leave him behind.

It is by nightfall that we, Dirge and I, finally meet the riverside territory that I had been accepted into only a season prior. I paused for a moment as the boy hesitated and a confident nudge sent him jogging along with me once more. I followed a well-known path to the reaches of the river as the moonlight beamed down brightly upon us both. He was quiet in the midst of all of this strangeness though I did not take it personally. The blood of Stella was still thickly laced within my coat and I knew that the boy would be smart enough to figure it out on his own. I would not lie to him for the sake of his emotions. ”She isn’t coming back and you have to stay with me now. With us, if Exodus wishes to come, I speak calmly as I look down upon his golden crowned form. He is much like me in this manner, bearing the crown of our grandmother as only those worthy enough can. Perhaps he is more like our mother and I than I had initially imagined.

My words faded out and my gaze broke from his own as I moved to step into the shallow water. Coagulated blood breaks off with the current as I simply stand within it and once more I bring my muzzle to the sky to call for pack. It needn’t matter who came to our position as long as it was someone who would know that my sibling and Exodus were no harm to Glorall’s wolves. I only wanted to communicate what was going on with the three of us now – if Exodus were to show at all. Perhaps he is angry at me and will never speak to me again. The thought brings a sadness to my heart and yet I keep a stoic front for my brother. I turn to him now, motioning toward the right where a large den is dug out beneath the strong roots of an age-old tree. I had made it mine upon my first day here and it will be his too for as long as he remains with me.