It’s not everyday that the out of control monster longs for the company of his own kind. But as the years kept marching steadily towards him, Lisker had felt the pull more strongly with each passing solar cycle. He had travelled far from his daughters and he wondered how they had fared? How had life treated his hell spawn? Did they now rule the Thunder Pack of the wild northern mountains? Were there now grandchildren that shared a portion of his noble blood for him to fuss over? Did Maichara ever select another mate? He very much doubted that.

Something resembling a smile flickered across his scared face for a brief moment. He felt, well, he didn’t really know how to explain the feelings he held towards his estranged mate. Believe it or not, they had parted ways amicably. Well, they both left with their throats intact, which was always a great start. The monster couldn’t live in a pack and Machaira couldn’t allow a cannibal to live within her home indefinitely. He looked forward to meeting the silent defender of the realm. His skin starts to crawl beneath his mottled fur, maybe, just maybe, she would let him touch her once more.

He knew something was wrong the moment he walked over the stale border markers. It wasn’t in the Thunder Packs nature to be slopey. He climbed the steep mountain slopes unchallenged, the territory looked like it had been completely abandoned. Nose to the ground Lisker tracks the criss-crossing tracks, trying to make sense of what had happened here. Broken rock formations, displaced alpine plants … blood staines. This had been a massacre. Picking up his legs Lisker launches his muscular frame into full speed. Leaping over the boulders with ease he knows the route to Machaira’s den intimately. As he enters the cave mouth the first thing his two-toned eyes lie upon is a corpse.

"Lightning Fang!” He cries his daughter's name as he rushes to her side. Rubbing his muzzle across her mummified face he soon realizes that she must have died years ago. Looking up and down her once perfect form he searches for any clues as to what could have taken the life of his strongest daughter. The gaping hole in her adamon is the most probable cause of death. And those fang marks matched Machaira’s.

Snarling in rage Lisker marches further into the cave looking for his former mate. He knew she still lived here, she had lived in this mountainside for twenty years, she would never leave, she wouldn’t even leave it for him! Did Lightning Fang challenge for the Alpha position and was the Silent Guardian forced to put an end to her own blood? No, Machiara may have been brutal, but she wasn’t a murderer, that was his job. She had been too noble for that. Although Lisker didn’t understand the codes of conduct, he had admired that mute idiot’s sense of duty.

Entering into the darkness of the stone cavern he had once shared with his mate he is greeted by the scent of death. “So,” he whispers nonchalantly, his voice echoing off the cold walls, “you have now left me too.” Curling next to her side he spends one last night in her embrace, though it was cold and lifeless he has slept in worse places. He had debated eating her and his daughter. So that he could carry them with him forever. But, for whatever reason, he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

Thancrus, Gaster, Elegen, Derzerb, ZecTole, he remembered everyone of his brothers in arms. He remembered how they looked, how they fought and how they tasted. Each one of his fallen kin had sustained him during the harshest of winters, and he thanked them every day for giving him life. Lisker quickly gathered that time had caught up with Machaira and Lightning Fang had died trying to bring in her own offspring. He wondered if any of them had survived.

On the break of dawn the killer had left the Thundering Mountains. He had found a very stale trail. The scent was very similar to that of his daughters and he reasoned that this might be a surviving pup. Now Lisker is desperate to find out what had happened to this little one. He had followed the path through unfamiliar terrain and had finally lost it at the banks of a river. Dark nose was to the ground and he circled, again, and again, and again. He knew he couldn’t be far off his mark. He wasn’t making any attempt to hide his activities, as he doubted that his infamy had reached this far away from his usual hunting grounds.