Darkened Skies

Her cautious question about the reaction of Celestial’s members received only a raised brow before he answered, “Are you the wolf who decided to bring members of his pack up to be injured and come away empty pawed of the plants that could heal those injuries? I don’t think so. Our issue is with Dragon. You no longer run with Talis. Regulus is not a cold hearted wolf.”

He helped her with care to move onto the travois, spreading several of the hair-on hides on the supporting hide as a little pallet before she settled in, the hair side up in a comfortable nest, before draping another hide overtop of her, also hair up to shed water, nodding at her thanks.

Her next questions were met again with a silent stare, brows lifting sharply. “Let me tell you a story. It’ll pass the time.”

He stepped into the shafts of the travois, sitting so that the back piece was behind his haunches as he lifted the breast strap in his teeth, lifting the travois of the ground in front. Once the back strap was high enough, he lifted his hind end, standing once more and let it settle into place over his back. He’d practiced this many a time while with the Nomads, and he’d gotten quite good at it.

He bent to grab the rest of the hides in his jaws, throwing them over his back like a cloak, hair side up on the topmost hide. He was soggy furred beneath them, but at least they’d stop him from getting any more soaked.

He pondered as he threw his weight into the breast strap, knowing the jolt would hurt her a little, but knowing that he also needed that first momentum to get things moving. Once he was steadily pulling, he cleared his throat, starting his tale. It was on Regulus had told him about Erani, a true one about when Valhalla had been at war with Glaciem while Isardis Armada had been its ruler.

“Many years ago in this land, Regulus’s grandmother, Erani, was the Lead Healer of a pack called Valhalla. Celestial’s grand-predecessor. There came a time when their overall peaceful existence was disrupted by war. You may have heard about Dragon’s Ancora ancestors, or you might not have… My grandmother, Crusade Ancora, founded a pack called Glaciem. Eventually, she passed it to her brother, Gargoyle Ancora.

He was challenged for his pack by Eos Adravendi. And she later passed it to a wolf called Isardis Armada. This male challenged for one of Valhalla’s young females, Liberty, after he was told no when he demanded to have her at the border. This sparked off a war. There was a siege – Glaciem against Valhalla – and great disruption. In that siege, Erani’s brother Cormalin was taken prisoner, and was gone for a while. However, Erani was one of the best-known healers in the land. A fact even the healer of Glaciem couldn’t ignore. Especially when she herself was in need of wisdom and help.”

He cast a look over his shoulder at Sterling, brow lifting. “This healer in particular was pregnant, and had snuck to Valhalla’s border in search of wisdom, as she herself was a new mother. She ended up going into labor, a harrowing one that bore a stillborn child among the litter. Erani helped her, regardless of her origin and affiliation. Had she not, the healer would have died in labor. Later, Erani founded a new Valhalla when a wolf from Glaciem challenged for the original and won. And it was she who ended the war, by bartering the healing of the Queen of Glaciem’s wounds in return for the return of two children that Isardis had sown in one of our members while she was a prisoner there, and a peace agreement. Do you understand what I’m telling you in this story?”

He was silent for several strides, staring ahead as the path began the incline that would lead out of the ravine, waiting to see if she'd caught the moral.