So it ever was. So will it always be. Such is the nature of evil.
For a moment the idea flutters through his mind; he imagines taking the child between his jaws and how quick it would take to snap the vertebrae in her neck. The way that she would squeal and then fall so suddenly silent after a loud crack. It is only the way the Shade coils within him that halts him from this course, his eyes narrowing in distaste at the frightened pup. The smell of weakness emanates from her simply from her fear; fear is the single most hated scent that Underidge has ever come across. It drives him to insanity, the need to claw and chew and cull it high within him. The Shade thinks differently about this one though. Paravana has proven she is worthy and this one is likely from the same lineage and young. Impressionable. The perfect candidate to groom. There was no way he was taking her back to Glorall.
None.
While he abides by what the Shade told him, he was a irascible creature and pups were not his forte. Not to mention Paravana was his - he would not share her. Nor would he bring this whelp to the very den and be the cause of unrest. Her family might search more for her than they did her sister because she was young.
"Stand up straight," he snaps at her, a displeased hiss to his voice following the words. The snow couldn't save her. Nothing could except the correct answers. At least she did not bolt. There was something to be said for that. Well, maybe.
A dry laugh, more like a choking sound, emerges from his throat as he suddenly sits before her, not caring that he towers over her tiny figure. She should know that she is a meal if she is not careful.
"The Shade. He is a god and he resides within me. Can you not see him in the darkness beneath my fur?" Now he is on his spiel, his irritation melting away as he shifts and indeed, the dark undercoat does look as if shadows run through him.
"He is the one that decides who is too weak and too old to stay for they drain the world. I doubt you have been on your first hunt yet but we cull the eldest and the slowest and the weakest of prey, do we not? It is the same for ourselves. We cannot have others weighing us down for they kill our spirits and the land around us. Do you see?"
UNDERIDGE
FIVE - MALE - NO HEART - STARSHADE'S SOUL
OF GLORALL - ENDERLY X BANSHEE - KILL COUNT (III)