“A pleasure to meet you both.” And it was.

Tinuvel clung to him; her algid fingers cusped his face and curled around every lock. It plucked at his whiskered chin and tickled at the soft flesh beneath his cheeks. She leaned into his heart, and he felt the embrace of her tundra at his heart. Home. Bliss pooled around him, and he smiled at their introduction, taking in from Warsaw the insights given and the lore of how the Cove was given back to Tinuvel. A gracious thing. A generous thing. Would the equine residents be so lucky to see more be given back? He considered the things presented, the firmness of Warsaw’s declaration and seat of power.

“Fair is fair, Warsaw.”

Not a warning, but more of an agreement. Flimsy went the tether; and Nicholas, however much he wished to be back in the place of his heritage, he knew it would not be some simple task. A King seated. A Monarchy in place. Such things were not meant to be dismantled with the sweep of a hand. And Nicholas, lacked the resolve and ambition to see himself as a King. The way his Shore had been taken and lost within a span of a breath—he also, doubted his desire to even find himself at the stead of a territory.

“I’ve no mind nor respect for the fickle-hearted, and I commend your monarchy.” Dishevelled and blind greed, the extortion of wills and heart: the scales somehow escaped the fairness of fate and established an anarchy of wolves. No, for him, he realized, it would be better for back the rise and steading of others. Heavy lay the crown, and all of that. He simply wanted to live peacefully, soundly and nurture the same for others who were in want of it. “From my experience, most lack the sand and grit to uphold integrity and a crown, let alone the ability to instill and nurture amity between neighbours.”

He thought then, of what he had said of the Arch returning, his eyes turned towards the churning of tide against shoreline. His ears flicked towards its low, grievous rumble and felt a wanting smile climb his mouth. “And if the sea sees it willing and returns the Arch, I suppose I’d do my best not to shake your confidence.” A breath was taken, allowing Tinuvel and her Inlet fill his lungs with its sweet brine and frost. “A King would have his eye on every possible liability, after all.”

Warmed by the possibility the fortuitous wind brought upon him, he concluded his thinking with an affirmation. “I never did have tolerance for troublemakers, I suppose you, as a King wouldn’t either.”


three shades of black is where i come from
lyov x magdalena