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Hiraeth never thought he would see the day when he grew tired of exploring. But without someone beside him, what was the point? He could explore all the places he liked, but if he kept avoiding pack lines, he would never be able to regain that which had been taken from him. The feeling of home and family. The ability to pledge loyalty to a honorable and trustworthy leader. No leaders in this land so far had seemed worthy of his trust. No pack had felt like home. And he was far from regaining that sense of family he had once known. That seemed entirely out of his reach at the moment. Hiraeth was a patient soul, but even he had a breaking point. His annoyance with this place was growing. Was it impossible to find a good leader in these lands? Had no strong, honorable wolves taken a stand and created a pack for the good of the many?
As yet, the man had found no answers to his questions. He had traveled through most of the south and had eventually strayed up into the east. There were a great many places he had yet to explore, and he supposed he should finish what he started by seeing what the other regions had to offer. After about a day he came upon a lake, a blessing as far as he was concerned because his mouth was dry and he was in need of a drink. But as Hiraeth padded closer to the water and pressed his way past the thin layer of vegetation, he heard a voice which tugged at his ears. He knew the tongue, though he could not speak much of it himself. Some of the wolves in his youth had spoken it, and the familiarity of the syllables washed over him with a sense of nostalgia. He knew nostalgia was a dangerous thing when your past was all but gone. Still, Hiraeth couldn't fight the feeling of curiosity within him. He wanted to know who the voice belonged to.
The large man tried his best to be quiet as he retracted himself from the vegetation and moved closer to the voice. There he saw a woman, slight but strong, with beautiful dark coloring. "Min dame?" he called out to her, effectively using up the last of his Norwegian knowledge. He knew only basic phrases and hoped she wouldn't respond with some complex sentence. "Unnskyld meg," he said, smiling in spite of himself as he probably butchered the pronunciation. "I knew wolves in my youth who spoke in that tongue, though I remember very little of it. May I join you?" |