are the dead really silent?
I walk beside the Alphess, giving her a bow of my head in respect towards her station. It was still odd for me to be a member of a pack. Life had always been spent apart. Deep in mountains and crevices were where I had once called home. Singular but never alone, being around those who could be felt was strange. Coming together by choice and stepping away again had been enough to satisfy my soul. Dancing with those who shared my spirit, or those who simply chose to for that moment. I never knew if the solitude had been the choice of my mother or if it had been imposed by Fate. Or if it had been myself who had brought us to that life. Either way the physical solitude of the path I walked had been constant until I had stepped into a fate entwined with Psyche. It had been a life that had felt so unnaturally natural that when I started to walk in the realm of the living those who had called from the dead questioned me in their hushed voices.
Walking beside The Monster the thought of a pack settled on me much like the light dusting of snow. I could not completely shake it off. My eyes narrowed at the ground we walked on. This was a trail unfamiliar to me but still felt too right to step away from.
No, they are well. I answer the mistress of the plains. It was clear there was more life than just that of my mate in the den we shared. The souls were many and the balance of life and death within the den was weighed carefully. What was needed was a weight to tip the scale once their breath began to stir the air.
The pups will be safe when they step into the world. It was not a question. I had seen the pups of the plains run, play, and thrive. They were protected by the same laws that tied a pack together. More than that they had me to stand over them. I was the newest male to the pack. I was an instinctual threat to those who ruled above me. I had no desire for rank or station, but I could not make the same claim for any born from me. Nature had a way of creating its own. And they will have a place. My daughter, Solstice, had not stepped into the lands of the Plains Pack. Her spirit called her to the trees of Taviora. But these gentle hills would cover the coming souls in their embrace.
I look at the Alphess. When I had first come to Asteraia she had said those of any walk of life was welcome despite their differences and possibly because of them. Just because they have a place within the pack did not give them a life there, too. Will they have purpose?
lord; 5 falls; 41in/190lbs; Psyche’s fateXheartless; wandering ghost |