Welcome Home

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?”