Welcome Home
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He’d run a few of the rules over with Solveiga, and as they crossed over the border, he noticed her hesitation, offering her a friendly, encouraging wag until she stepped over the line. Perhaps she’d always been a loner, and this was her first time ever being in a pack. “Come; let me show you a few of our key landmarks so you have a rough idea of where to go.” He grinned down at her before starting off, spotting Cinder taking off from where she’d been waiting, presumably to tell the family at the den of the new arrival.
“So, you said you aren’t much of a fighter; is this just lack of training or were you never able to click with it? Our healers are required to at least learn the rudimentary basics of defenses and a few attacks, in case they’re attacked while they’re beyond borders, or tending to wounded during a siege, if some of the enemy try to slip away to deal damage. You don’t need to be the best warrior healer of all time, just know enough to hold off someone until help can get there.” He smiled at her, again offering encouragement, but also the understanding that he wasn’t disappointed by her lack of skill at fighting. After all, even small wolves could be dangerous.
They came first to the meeting boulder, the ground around it worn down by paws over the generations – even if there hadn’t been that many generations since Cairo and Collision Adravendi had chosen this land as Valhalla’s new home after the Old Land had been torn apart by the eruption of Mount Animi in the lands of the original Glaciem. His grandmother had drilled the history deep into her children, and into her grandchildren as best as she could, and Regulus had taken it all to heart, hanging on every word. It was from a Valhallan standpoint, but the aging white healer had refused to show all of the Glaciem wolves under his grandfather Isardis’ rule to be bad, noting one of his healers and a few of his children to be good folk.
“This is our main meeting area. It’s where I’ll be calling meetings from; right on that boulder. My Right Wing sits on my right, my Consort on my left, and my Heir – or Future – to her left. The Shields would be on the Right Wing’s left. All on the boulder. The Masters and Harbinger will sit at the base of the boulder, a place of status. Everyone else sits wherever they want.” He indicated the places as he mentioned them, muzzle and paw gesturing to each spot.
He waited, allowing the scents of the pack that gathered there be absorbed by the healer before he grinned. “Now, if you look that way, you’ll see a wooded hill. That’s where my family den is, and where you’ll be staying if you want to. Myself, my parents, my youngest siblings, and most of my other siblings live in there, as well as Kavdaya. The youngest are named Laisrén, Rasiel, and Kieryn. The next litter up are Báine, and Tornach, my middle brother.. but he’s…” Regulus trailed off, and for the first time, his ears drooped slightly. “He left on the day my mother claimed these lands and raised Celestial’s standard. Didn’t tell us why, or goodbye. I know he’d not dead; his scent’s all over the Moore, but he hasn’t exactly come to chat with us.” He frowned slightly, before throwing a grin back on his face, if slightly forced, though it grew warmer as he spoke next.
“And then there’s Zuriel, and Faite, my littermates and first sisters. Faite’s the only one in our whole contingent of siblings that looks like father in coloring. Everyone else except Báine and myself are shades of grey, black, and silver.” He was an anomaly to his parents, a throwback to his grandmother’s grandmother, Briena. Erani had never met the red Leader of the Nomads, but had heard enough about her from her own mother to know that Regulus was a masculine, huge replica of that ancestor. With their grandfather from their father’s side being Albino, it had kind of been a given that there could be one, maybe even two, in any of the litters.
He sat back and gave Solveiga a warm smile. “What do you think, so far?”
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The encouraging smile and tail wag of the scarlet male was enough to reassure her as she stepped over the border, officially putting herself in Celestial territory. As soon as she had crossed, he offered to show her a few of the key landmarks in the territory, and she nodded eagerly as she followed him. She loved to see new things, and this was even more exciting because these things would now be hers. They would be her home. She would soon know this territory like the back of her paw, and the idea excited her because it felt wonderful to finally belong to something. Regulus spoke again as the two of them walked, asking about her lack of knowledge in fighting and she tilted her ears back slightly in embarrassment. "Well, no, I mean... that is part of it," she sighed, trying to decide what to tell the alpha. "Honestly, I just never liked to fight, so I never learned. But if it is a necessity, then I will absolutely do what needs to be done. I'm just a bit timid, if you haven't noticed," Solveiga said with a soft laugh. "It has never been in my nature to fight another."
She hoped he would be satisfied with her answer. She was being honest with him: she was not a natural fighter, and did not care much for the whole idea, but would be more than willing to learn if it was what would be expected of her here. They then arrived at a large boulder, with short, slightly trampled grass all around it. Regulus told her this was where meetings were held, and then indicated where each high ranking member was to sit atop the boulder, while the rest of the pack had the privilege of sitting wherever they liked. Solveiga smiled and nodded to show she understood thus far. Meanwhile, her nose seemed to be flooded with the scents of all those who belonged to the pack. It was too much for her to take in. Too much, at least, if she wished to be able to identify any one scent. The scents seemed to blend and come together as a whole, and the smell was, in itself, Celestial. Solveiga tried her best to get herself acclimated.
Next, the alpha gestured to a wooded hill and said that his den was located there. Solveiga listened as attentively as she could as he named all that dwelled there, but it was difficult to keep track of every name when she had no memories of faces to go with them. She knew soon enough she would know the names and the wolves personally, so she did not worry about committing much of this to memory. The small woman then raised a brow in curiosity as Regulus told her that everyone in his family except he and Báine, the albino girl he mentioned earlier, were all shades of grey, black, or silver. "Really?" she said, brows furrowing as she thought about that. Albinism could occur naturally, but vibrant red fur tended not to. "Then where does your coloring come from, if you don't mind me asking?"
After this the crimson man sat back and gave Solveiga another warm smile, which she returned as she sat beside him. "It's a beautiful territory," she said quietly. "I cannot wait to see more. I would be glad to call it home."
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He listened with interest as she explained her reasons for not being a good fighter, nodding slowly. Then he spoke, voice reasonable, “Well… Look at it this way. Your patient could be helpless, and their life may depend on you holding off an attacker long enough for help to arrive. And what would you do if you were the only wolf between your newborn pups and someone who wanted to hurt them?” Food for thought, and hopefully something that might help her find some use for keeping her skills marginally honed. He would have to kill whomever hurt her, he thought, if the event ever arose. The same for all of his pack.
“The rule for healers needing to learn how to fight comes from my grandmother. When she was Lead Healer of Valhalla, years and years ago, one of her fellow healers was attacked by a loner. If Grandmother and her brother hadn’t come in time, with the help of Obsidian, a horse that befriended my great uncle, Rayne could have been raped and killed. Even so, eventually, she wandered too far, and the same wolf got her in the end. They only ever found pieces of her.” His tongue lashed out of his maw, an expression of distaste and sadness coloring his bright visage before he turned to brighter subjects.
He could tell that the scents were a bit strong for her, judging by a slight change in breathing, and offered a solution, “Small sniffs might help, and blowing the air out after each one. “ To her question regarding his and his younger sister’s coloring, he nodded with a chuckle. “Really. My grandmother said I’m a throwback to her grandmother. Apparently I look just like Briena, if larger and male.”
“This is the resting place of Valhalla’s founder, and the Patriarch of the Adravendis; Cairo Adravendi. I never met him, but mother did. He was my height, brown, and had blue eyes. My grandmother had nothing but good to say of him. He’s where we get the Adravdendi name from. We aren’t related by blood, but through adoption; my grandmother was given his children to raise when his last mate died of an illness. They are, and were, Chrysanthe, Epiphron, Syrinx, Eos, and his two adopted sons Preston and Neo. Pip’s the only one left. She’s in the pack called Fiori in the east, and is the mother of their King, Leo. Mother’s never once seen her and Chrysanthe as being anything other than older sisters. Syrinx and Eos… Well, they rarely hung around much; they had children together, too. Syrinx was supposed to inherit Valhalla, but vanished. There’s truly a lot of history soaked into these lands.” He grinned at the little tan healer. “I could go on for hours, by memory of what my grandmother and mother taught me, and still not be done with the story.”
That reminded him that he ought to sit in on his mother’s next history lesson with the kids. He could tell it just as well, but there was something about hearing it from someone who had been there. When his mother spoke of fighting in the Siege of Valhalla and Glaciem, there was a distant look in her eyes, like she was reliving the fight, and the chaos all around her. When his grandmother had told them in detail of all that she had experienced, there was that same look of remembering, and you knew that she was seeing it all again; her own mother and father working in the healer’s trunk of an ancient redwood that had grown or fallen sideways and continued to live. The devastation of the Blackmoon Pack’s attack, and the aftermath… And he wished he could see that face again. Perhaps someday in a dream.
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The alpha seemed to really consider her words, nodding slowly to himself, and then she listened with equal interest to his response. What if her patient were helpless and in need of defending? Or what if she were the only one between an enemy and her newborn pups? The second scenario made her eyes widen a bit as if in fear. She did want pups someday. She adored children and had always been the caring, motherly type. So such a scenario immediately caused concern for her. She would not allow herself to be incapable of defending a patient, or worse, her own children. She would learn. And the gruesome story about the healer who narrowly escaped rape and murder only to be killed later by the same wolf only frightened her more, sending a small chill down her spine. "I promise I will learn, Regulus," she said sincerely and earnestly, nodding to the man. "And perhaps, if you ever have time, you could teach me yourself. I think that I would do well with a patient teacher like you." This final part she said in a softer voice. The woman simply felt that she would be more comfortable being taught by Regulus, a man whom she already knew to be kind to her. Plus, the alpha knew what he was doing and would surely teach her a lot.
After this the scarlet male answered her question about his coloring, saying that it came from a distant part of his bloodline. From the grandmother of his grandmother, to be exact. Solveiga tilted her head and smiled a bit. "How interesting, that it stayed in the family for so many generations," she commented. "Actually, I suppose I should be surprised it stayed hidden so long, considering how vibrant it is," Solveiga said with a quiet laugh and a glance at his fiery coat.
The sand colored woman relaxed back on her haunches for a moment to listen as Regulus told her of Cairo Adravendi, the founder of Valhalla and, in a way, the entire family tree. Her eyes were wide like a child as she soaked it all in, listening to him speak of all the members of his family. They had such a rich and colorful history, and her interest in it was in no way fabricated to please her alpha. She truly wanted to know these things. This was one of the ways in which Solveiga was still very much a child. She had a curiosity that was never sated. The man said he could go on for hours and still not be finished, and at this the little woman grinned. "And I could listen for all of those hours and still be captivated," she said to him. "Truly. Your family has such a rich story to tell." And part of her, a very big part of her, hoped that someday he would tell her that story in its entirety.
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He could see that his words had a profound effect on Solveiga’s views on fighting. Those sky blue eyes widened as he spoke of defending newborn pups, and of Rayne’s death. He had left out that Rayne had quite possibly been raped just before her death. His grandmother had been certain of it, herself, judging from the scents, but the male had never been tracked down to be brought to pay for the murder. He nodded readily at her suggestion that he be her mentor in fighting. “I have no issue with that, myself.” He enjoyed teaching as much as his mother and Grandmother.
A wide grin broke across his jaws as she speculated on his coloring. “Yeah. Mother thought I was white soaked in her blood at first. Glad it’s just me. Makes me wonder what any children from myself will look like.” Would they all be red, like him? Or the colors of their mother, whomever that may be?
It was pleasing to find one that could soak up the history of the land they trod upon, especially when his family’s blood was literally soaked into the earth in places. From the war of Valhalla and Glaciem, where his Aunt Chrysanthe had lost an eye, and his mother had been wounded in her fight, his cousin Alsander and Cousin Caerul, and his great Uncle Cormalin had all fought their hardest, to Cairo, buried at their paws. Blood of death, blood of birth. His own father’s blood had touched the ground in his fight to free himself of Arcanum.
“What would you like to know? From the very, very beginning, before my Grandmother came to the pack before it was Valhalla? Or to the more recent history?” He grinned back. His grandmother had ensured that he at least had absorbed the entire history, to the best that she could remember it, and the history as she had been told as a pup. He wanted to make sure that the knowledge passed on to him wasn’t forgotten, and indeed that it would flourish to other minds, and never be forgotten.
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When Solveiga mentioned being taught by him, Regulus nodded without hesitation, which in turn brought a grin to her face. He was so kind. She was so grateful to have found him today, and to have become a member of his pack. "Thank you, I'm glad to hear that," she said softly, bowing her head to him a bit to show gratitude. Hopefully they didn't have to start right away, though. She hoped to put off the embarrassment that would surely arise from such a lesson.
Her mind was pulled away from such thoughts, however, when the man smiled brightly and said that when he was born, his mother had thought he was white and covered in her blood. Solveiga laughed a bit, nodding when he said he was glad it was just him. "As am I," she said. "And I suppose it would depend on the mother. If she were colorful too, you would have quite a vivid litter of pups on your hands." At this she laughed more brightly, imagining a rainbow of puppies prancing around. "But if she had more muted colors, like me for instance..." Immediately Solveiga stopped and her ears tilted back again shyly. She had been about to ponder over how the colors might come through, perhaps in a mix or perhaps dominated by his red. But then she had brought herself into it, making her the hypothetical mother of his children, and in her timid nature the poor young woman had been unable to continue. She hoped she hadn't embarrassed him too; after all, she certainly did not mean anything by it.
Luckily the silence did not persevere much longer, as Regulus was now asking the small woman what part of his family history she wished to hear. She sighed a bit in relief and looked gratefully up at the man. She was not all that talented at holding conversations. "I think I'd like to hear the more recent history," she responded, smiling gently as she wrapped her tail around her hip on one side. "How Celestial came to be, and how you grew up to become its king," she added, her smile growing and her tail wagging lightly against the ground.
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He smiled easily as she thanked him for choosing to be the one who would oversee her training to better her fighting ability, if she possessed any, muzzle dipping in a nod. Now, her deviation to genetics, and her inadvertent inclusion of herself into the mix, flew right over his head. The big red oaf that he was, he tilted his head seriously, considering it. His grandfather had been fully black with golden eyes, by his grandmother and mother’s recollection, though his grandmother had always seemed a bit upset when talking about the huge black male that had left; one who was even taller than Regulus, if only by an inch. All of the children from that litter had been black, white, or in aunt Lyric’s case, white with black swirls, and then his mother had been a silver timber. Then his father and his mother had produced himself, Baine’s Albino form, and Faite’s russet and silver self, where the rest of the kids had all held the silver coloring and timber marks of their mother. “Well…”
His eyes dropped from the sky to find the little healer’s expression looking less than comfortable, and he trailed off. His train of thought completely deviated from talk of genetics and coloring to concern for her discomfort, but her suggestion of what she’d like to hear regarding the history of the Pack, and how he’d risen to power yet again threw him onto another trail, and his momentary frown of concern turned to a grin, and he lowered himself to settle beside Cairo’s grave, forepaws crossing comfortably as he found a likely spot, ears planed to the sides in thought before he smiled and started, from both his mother and Grandmother’s own words, but told from a new generation…
“Well… It started after my Grandmother lost the challenge by Viridiana Sovari for Valhalla. She was older by that time, and while she stayed in practice for sparring… My mother and my great Uncle got my Grandmother away from the Battlefield, And Valhalla’s remnants scattered to the four winds. Mother, Great Uncle Cormalin, and my Grandmother, Erani, went to an Island off the western coast of this continent, and they stayed there for a good while, until Grandmother was healed. However, in that time, my Great Uncle passed on. When they – my mother and Grandmother – returned to the mainland, they settled in a grove of willows north of here; the Whistling Willows. There were, by some miracle, members of our family settled there, biding their time, I guess. So my mother and grandmother settled with them. Eventually, mother and father met up again, and when Summer came around… Well. Next Autumn, my siblings and I were born.”
He paused here to grin at Solveiga, bowing his head as though introducing himself all over again, before continuing, rolling his memories about. “I remember a little bit of my early puphood – mother’s scent and fur all around, and then how hazy it was when my eyes first opened… Ho! Those first real sounds were fascinating. Meanwhile, mother was planning – had been planning all along – to revive Valhalla for a third time, if not in the original name, then under a new one; this name: ‘Celestial’. We had a good sized family base, but there were still a few problems. A pack known as Arcanum was on Valhalla’s original lands; these ones.” He lifted a paw for emphasis, tapping the ground under their feet with a good sized pat before resettling it upon the other paw.
“They… weren’t a nice pack. I can’t recall, and I don’t think they ever found out exactly how that pack formed, but they were not a nice pack. Mother thinks that the pack was passed around after the Sovari woman won it and tossed it aside, until it eventually became Arcanum. But that’s really just a theory. Being a mere group of loners, two of whom had children, and one of whom was an elder, they weren’t exactly ready to retake the Plains in any way. Mother was going to challenge, but there’s also such a thing as patience, and she has a lot of it. And it worked out. But not before Father ran off to a fight for his sister to get her back from Arcanum, who had kidnapped her. He ended up getting taken himself, even when she got freed. I was only a pup at the time. Mother was ballistic, scared…” His head cocked slightly, ears falling back as he remembered the tense expression that day, how his mother had stared toward the battlefield and gotten more and more aggravated the longer time passed.
“She tried not to show it to us, but… well, kids are more observant than one might guess. It wasn’t hard to see that mother was upset, and that Father wasn’t there. I’m not sure exactly how long his was gone. She did her best; took myself and my siblings all the way to the land bridge between this continent and the southern one. The sand there is something amazing. It’s where I got this.” He touched the back of one leg to the sapphire pendant on its heavy gold chain about his neck, the gold clinking softly under the touch. “It was a very fun day. Annnd there was the time I snuck back that way, and ended up all the way onto the southern continent. I got too close to a wild boar. That’s where the crescent shaped scar on my left shoulder came from.” He indicated the marks, but didn’t elaborate on the huge set of four claw marks overlaid on top of the older scar. He’d be getting to that in a bit.
“I was in deep, deep trouble when I got home, with the help of a Native. Grounded until mid-winter, I think. It was snowy when I finally got out. And it was in winter when I found my best friend, Cinder. She’s been at my side almost ever since. She’s my companion, and hunting partner. If a rabbit gets into it’s hole, she can go in and scare it right back out. And then Father finally got back toward the end of the season. None of us caught it. Mother was furious with him for not putting into account the fact that he had children and a mate to worry about, and that his sister had a mate to care for her and get her back, and not listening to her when she had told him to stay home with us. But Arcanum had maimed him; he eventually went completely blind. He was a fighter. Now he’s a healer, though he’s not as skilled. But… In Spring, my mother and Grandmother slipped out one night. I woke up, and I followed; I was curious.
“By the time they realized I was following, we were already too far from home, and my grandmother couldn’t tarry. So they took me with them. We went back to the Island they had gone too after the fall of Valhalla. Grandmother wanted, in truth, to be laid to rest here, beside Cairo; the wolf who had truly loved her, and never left. But Arcanum was still here, so… She decided to rest beside my great Uncle. It was the first time I saw someone die. It was peaceful, eerie. Almost beautiful. You learn to understand your own mortality when you see a life leave someone you never realized could die…” He trailed off, eyes farseeing, remembering that feeling of waiting that had almost seemed to fill the air; a breathless hush, as though something was about to happen, something deeper than what the living could see. “’I will see you in your dreams someday. You are in my heart, and so long as I am within yours, I am never truly gone.’” He recalled aloud, baritone, accented voice thoughtful and solemn. “I hope I do.”
He gazed skyward for several moments, before his eyes dropped to Solveiga, and he grinned, ruefully. “We waited until dawn to start swimming back… And I had to pull the dumbest puppy stunt I could ever had pulled. I saw something out in the water – definitely not in the direction of the mainland – and… well, I just had to know what it was. A storm was building in the sky, and mother tried to catch me to redirect me. But the storm hit before we could get close enough to the island or the mainland. We both nearly drowned, and even so, we were swept way out into sea, and ended up washing up on the southern continent. We were lost, mother was injured, and I was suddenly the one who had to protect, navigate, heal my mother’s injury to the best of my young knowledge, and hunt for us both.” He grew silent for a few beats, then went on.
Meanwhile, my sister, Faite, had vanished. And my father, believing myself and my mother lost, started trying to starve himself to death, while Zuriel fought to keep him alive, hunt for them both, and keep him healthy. We finally got back in the Summer. It was like a breath of fresh air to see the Bifrost – the land bridge between the continents – and realize I knew where we were. We ran into Zuriel there.” He stopped to cock his head at her, sapphire eyes twinkling. ”I’m not boring you yet, am I?”
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The small woman was very, very grateful that the man said nothing about her little mess up. In fact, he seemed not to notice it at all, and she breathed a sigh of relief as he moved on to his retelling of history. Her ears lifted to be perked attentively again and after a moment she lay beside him, close enough that the fur of their sides just barely mingled. Solveiga looked out across the territory as her alpha spoke, envisioning the scene of the battle in which his grandmother lost her pack. She frowned faintly as he told this part of the story, of how his family had taken his grandmother to an island to recover and his great uncle had passed away in the meantime. He then talked about how they returned to the mainland, and how his parents had met up again and had mated in the summer. The way he said it, though, had Solveiga laughing gently. He skirted the subject the same way she would have done.
Regulus then told her that he had been born that autumn, and she bowed her head in a similar manner. "And what a marvelous day that must have been," she said with a lightly teasing tone, laughing gently as she looked up at the man. She continued to look up at him with a gentle smile as he talked about his earliest memories, and about how his mother revived the old Valhalla and called it Celestial. It was his family that provided the base, just as she suspected. Families were the strongest foundations for a pack, in her opinion.
After this Solveiga looked back out again, her eyes following the paths of clouds in the sky as she listened closely to Regulus telling of the less than friendly pack that used to share these lands with them. Arcanum. Believed to have been formed by the woman who won Valhalla. It made Solveiga almost angry to hear how such an honorable pack had been treated, practically stolen and then corrupted completely until it was unrecognizable. Then it was not Valhalla at all. This was not her history, not really. And yet she felt the tug of emotion that came with his words. It upset her. Kidnapped sisters and fathers, frightened mothers...
She looked up again, her blue eyes seeking his as he talked about his pendant and his scar. Those stories made her smile. But then the story took another bad turn as Regulus told her what had happened to his father. Maimed by that stupid pack. The way he spoke of this Arcanum made her certain that they were gone, however, and Solveiga was grateful for that. Just then, she noticed the faraway look that overtook the crimson man beside her, and her eyes held the same sort of unreachable awe and admiration as she listened to him speak of the death of his grandmother. She could not imagine what that must be like, witnessing a death. But the way Regulus spoke of it, it seemed to be an almost magical, beautiful thing to behold. And the woman supposed he could be right. Witnessing the peaceful end of a life well lived, of course that could be beautiful. She did not doubt it.
The story continued to unfold and Solveiga smiled, more brightly this time, and her tail swayed absently behind her, unintentionally brushing his from time to time. She loved this. She loved learning. And she had to admit that the man was an excellent storyteller. But these stories were true, and sometimes she could hardly believe it, especially near the end. Regulus and his mother, swept out to sea in a great storm only to find themselves on an entirely different continent. Her baby blue eyes were wide, completely engaged in the story. It seemed to her that this misadventure on the southern continent, where the man before her was forced to heal his injured mother and hunt for them both... this had been when he had truly grown up. When he had become the man she now knew, still kind and gentle but also so strong. It was a beautiful story, and it wasn't even over. She nodded eagerly, still smiling up at the man with a look of fresh admiration in her eyes. Was he boring her yet? "Not yet," she answered with a giggle. Not ever.
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The vibrant Archangel grinned as she responded to his words, making it known that she wasn’t bored with the story, his head cocking cheerfully as his heavy tail flicked to curl about his hocks, hips canting to allow his hind legs to stretch out to the side, settling more into his story as he continued.
“Alright. Well… When we got back to the Willows, mother had us – Zuriel and I – go hunt. We needed the food, especially father, and two young, strong wolves are better than one. We got an elk calf, relatively easily. Mother, meanwhile, handled Father. I’m pretty sure she gave him the riot act for trying to die when he still had a daughter present to live for… Things settled into a routine, though with Faite missing, and Grandmother being gone, it wasn’t quite the same; a lot of the family had scattered, as well. It was pretty much just mother, father, and myself and Zuriel left. I went to the Battlefield for the first time. I wanted to test myself in a real spar… I got a lot more than I bargained for. Have you ever seen a tiger? They’re twice the size of a mountain lion, and they hit like I don’t know what. That’s where the scars over the one left by the boar are from. I’m not sorry to say that I submitted as soon as I realized I was in over my ears.” He grinned sheepishly at Solveiga, before he went on.
“I did a little exploring before that, found an Island off the southern coast, and I met a girl there; her name’s Ganja. Tiny, and she was green. Black, green, with red eyes. Even her nose and paw pads were green. We got to be friends, though we didn’t get to play as much… She later joined Celestial, but I haven’t seen her in a long time…” A frown crossed his face, ears flicking back as he once again wondered where the little green woman had disappeared to. But he cleared the expression as he went on, tail tapping amiably over his hocks.
He ran his mind over the memories, how the time had passed, and he’d noticed his mother getting rounder and rounder. “Let’s see. We ended up settling into the Plains completely in Late Summer, and when mother called us all to the Plains, she also told us that we were going to be elder siblings. Turns out she did more than read Father the riot act.” Another grin flashed across his maw, a tongue lolling laugh panting from his jaws. “It wasn’t long after we moved back in, and mother was heavily pregnant, that the alphas of the Pack called Threar – fallen now, but we’ll get to that – called a festival in the east. Mother and I went, Zuriel too. I met Novella and Frith Destruction, the two leaders, and a couple of their children; Aslan and Luck. We have another of their children in the pack as our Master Hunter; Varda Destruction. I also won my first real spar at the spars.” He smiled reminiscently, still remembering with ease the bruises and cuts, and the rush of victory. And tripping over the little green Ganja. Literally. It always seemed like he was almost about to step on her, the first few times they met.
Luck. How was she; where was she? Had everything come out alright for her after their encounter in the moor? He came back to earth quickly, however, eyes dropping back to Solveiga. “It was a fun day, in all. Ganja was there, and I met some new wolves. Zuriel even found her own necklace along the way. It was only a few weeks later, and Tornach and Baine were born. I think I alarmed father a little; he can’t see, and he was already completely blind by then, and when I saw Baine, I let it be known that she was pink. Well, she was. Her skin was pink, and with her fur wet, you could sort of see the skin through it, and so, she was pink. But then I learned that she was just Albino.” He chuckled lightly, that trademark grin on his jaws, before he went on. “They were a pawful, but nothing to how my youngest three are. Baine loves to talk and talk… and talk some more. She can fit more words into a breath than you would imagine. Tornach was always more quiet, better at following rules, and yet… Anyway.” He shook his head, getting back to the subject at hand. “Well, when I reached a year old, I went to visit Ganja on her island. It was the last time I saw her for quite a long time; she went to find her mother and brothers; she never did, I don’t think. Maybe she went to find them again. We played all day, and then I went home. Mother picked up my training again; I was her heir, after all, once we could get the pack going. I needed to be able to have the stamina to go for hours upon hours, to be able to fight harder, and lead my pack with firm love. Then we both got sick; colds, and let me tell you, sneezing isn’t fun at all. Especially when your nose keeps hitting the ground.”
He chuckled ruefully, eyes twinkling. “Zuriel was a blessing; she kept us going toward getting better, and it felt amazing to be able to breathe again when we were better. There was no keeping either of us in the den for very long after that. Then Summer rolled around again. Y’know, I’d never really noticed how mother’s scent changed around that season. But that year, she was acting strangely around Father; she was avoiding him, sleeping in cousin Alsander’s old den. Turned out he’d come to her after running into a half sibling who had made a proposition to him. She and her wife wanted another litter, and since they couldn’t make it together, they wanted someone with as close of genes as possible to his half sibling. If it had been anyone else, because that wife is also mother’s niece through Epiphron, Father wouldn’t have been living with us anymore. Mother’s limit was really close to being breached with that. He didn’t end up doing it, though. I dunno if they found someone else, or just gave up. But when I finally got up the courage to ask mother what was going on, she told me about it… and then she gave me a refresher course on the birds and the bees…”
He trailed off, for once showing some minor embarrassment, before he coughed and plastered a grin on his face. “And, alright, maybe I missed most of the lesson she gave us when we were pups… I blame the butterfly. And I can still taste it to this day.” His head ducked slightly, a sheepish grin replacing the previous expression. However, that faded as he reached the next dark part of the story. “Everything was going great; My cousin Arian moved her pack, Sonticus, to the lands next to the Plains. She took the Moor you met me in and the lake we control now. Relatives, right next door. But after a while, we heard a challenge for a pack roll out from the Battlefield. It was for Threar. Sadly Threar fell, and that wouldn’t have been too much of an issue, except that they had just chosen to scatter one of the most peaceful packs on the continent… and then they claimed these Plains.”
A low burning fire kindled in the depths of those sapphire eyes, and a rumble entered the baritone voice as he went on. “A wolf called Sin was the one who challenged, and he set Hellstrom right on these plains. We barely had enough time to get the kids out and guide father to the Estuary to the south. Then Mother and I went to a pack in the East. Not Fiori, but another; Abaven. She’d heard that the alpha there was Bass Destruction, and if it was the same wolf, he had been in Valhalla for a short time under my Grandmother’s rule before he disappeared. Well, it was the same Bass, and he was just as upset about his Aunt and Uncle, and his family being scattered by the challenge. Mother offered our help, in any way he needed, should he decide to siege Hellstrom for their slight. Eventually, we ended up helping guard the healer camp in the Estuary as the siege took place. Abaven and a powerful Pack led by Valentine Imperialis called Imperium. Hellstrom had no chance whatsoever.”
He nodded firmly, the expression softening, the fire settling in his eyes as a smile returned. “We moved back as soon as the lands were cleared of them and the scents had been given enough time to fade. Before the siege, though, while we were living in the Estuary, Kavdaya found us, settled with us. Creed has been with us since the Summer when Mother was so upset. He’s the Right Wing, right now, my second. Good wolf, honorable and loyal. We also gained one of the former Threarans, Miksa.” He paused, letting the story absorb, before he grinned fully and continued.
“And in late winter, Mother made Celestial a reality. That was last year. It’s been pretty smooth since then, though a few have gone missing, though my Uncle Castiel returned recently, just before I was made Archangel.” He cocked his head with a grin, one ear dropping, the other perking. “And that’s pretty much how Celestial came to be, and how I became the Leader. Mother stepped down, and I took her place, as my firstborn will after me.”
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Regulus seemed happy to hear that she was still interested in his story, and he settled into a more comfortable position and seemed to sift through his memories to decide where to pick up again. He next told of what happened when his family returned to the area, finding his father again. He told of his first spar with something called a tiger, and when he asked if Solveiga had ever seen one, she shook her head slowly, eyes widening as they found at the scars that had been left by that particular spar. She slowly lifted her paw to put it on his shoulder, spreading her toes to try and compare a scratch from a wolf to that which had been given by this tiger thing. Granted, her paws were small anyway, but it was clear that the tiger had bigger paws than any wolf she had ever seen. "Were you scared?" she asked quietly as she put her paw back down. He had said that he was in over his ears, and the sheepish grin he gave her spoke for itself, but she wanted to know if the large crimson male had ever actually been afraid of an opponent before. Even if he never showed or admitted it before. Maybe being big and strong like him disqualified you from feeling such fear.
Solveiga smiled a bit wryly at the thought and then listened closely as Regulus continued his tale. He had traveled to an island, meet a girl named Ganja. Her fur had been black and green, with red eyes. Solveiga flicked her ears a bit with interest; she sounded like a sight to see. She had apparently been a part of Celestial once, but had not been seen in a while. The man then talked about how the family had unofficially settled itself in the plains. Not long after, it was discovered that his mother was pregnant again. As Regulus said, it turned out she did more than read his father the riot act upon their return, and at that Solveiga couldn't help but laugh along with him, nudging him playfully with her shoulder as if to scold him for saying such a thing.
Next there had been a festival, and many wolves had been there. Some Regulus had known and some he was just meeting for the first time. It was there that he had won his first spar, and Solveiga smiled up at him in an almost congratulatory way, even if it had been a very long time ago by now. Weeks later his younger siblings Tórnach and Báine had been born, and she laughed lightly at the story of Regulus frightening his father with his description of Báine being pink. Of course she had been, at the time. After this he had gone to visit Ganja again on her island, and the two had played a long time. Solveiga wasn't sure why, but at the third mention of this Ganja girl her lips tightened a bit and her gentle smile lost a little bit of its authenticity. But it became warm and real again once they had moved on, speaking of training with his mother and how the two of them had fallen ill. Solveiga truly did not know why she had felt compelled to react in such a way, so she simply pushed the thoughts aside and focused back on the story, nodding as the crimson male told of his sister helping them with their sickness.
Solveiga continued to listen closely, truly interested in everything that had happened. She particularly liked the part about his mother having to give him a refresher on the birds and the bees. His embarrassment made her grin; it was all she could do not to laugh as he mentioned the butterfly that must have distracted him the first time around. Already she felt like she was beginning to know Regulus, especially what he had been like as a pup. It did not surprise her at all that he missed out on the birds and the bees because of a butterfly. She cleared her throat to hide a laugh that just barely escaped, and then composed herself for the rest of the story. Another terrible pack had been formed, claiming this area and driving the family away, pups and all. Concern colored the expression of the girl as she listened, but this part of the story indeed had a happy ending. His family had joined forces with two good, strong packs, and together they had easily defeated the terrible pack before any harm could really be done by them.
The family then returned to the lands, as soon as the scents of the pack had faded. Late that winter, Celestial had been born. His mother had ruled over it at that time, and everything had gone smoothly. Then she had stepped down, leaving the pack to her firstborn, as Regulus would do when the time came. Solveiga smiled warmly, her tail beating softly against the ground. "That was such an incredible story. So much has happened to you and your family in so short a time," she said shaking her head a bit almost in disbelief. She looked away from the man for a moment, her eyes scanning what little she could see of the territory from this spot. So much had happened on this ground. And she had only asked for a recent history. Who knew how much the alpha had left to tell. She still wished to hear it, another day. She was sure Regulus was growing tired of speaking. Perhaps even tired of speaking to her. He was the leader of a pack, after all, she was sure he had better things to do than just lounge here with her telling the tale of his pack and family.
But she enjoyed it, greatly. She was still smiling warmly as she brought her eyes back to his. "Thank you, Regulus, for everything. For bringing me here and making me part of such a beautiful history." She hesitated only a moment before leaning up and giving him a soft little lick on the cheek. Then she pulled away, smiling shyly, and stood to stretch her muscles a little. "As much as I would love to spend more time in your company, I'm sure you have other things that require your attention," Solveiga was never one to put herself first. She did not want to keep him away from more important things.
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