This Love is Gonna be the Death of Me

He had set out long before the sun rose that morning for no other reason than to see the constellation his father had shown him several months ago when he had been much younger and much smaller. Standing on the edge of the crevasse he could see the familiar shape in the sky, even though the multitude of stars. “What does that look like?” His father had asked and he had excitedly piped that it looked like a dead deer. His father had chuckled and told him it was a horse; but not just any horse, it was a horse that had been given wings by the glory of Ley to help his children smite the evil from the world. When the beast's work had been complete he flew into the sky and became the constellation known as Pegasus. Standing on the ravine, so far from home the prince watched his namesake with wide blue eyes and wondered if his family did the same, worried and heartbroken that he had left.

With a sigh he wove his way through the trees, moving away from the precarious fissure to walk between them in the hopes that he would clear his thoughts. All around him small animals scurried to and fro, gathering food and storing it for the winter while stags rubbed the summer velvet from their antlers against the bark of trees. He observed the behaviors with a small twinge of curiosity that none of the animals seemed to notice a wolf as large as himself prowling in their midst. Perhaps they were simply too preoccupied to notice him, or perhaps they had simply grown to fear something far worse than wolves that had vanished long ago, or maybe in the darkness of the night they simply hadn’t seen him.  Whatever the reason he took a small comfort in knowing that although he would not be traveling to Capena Autumn had still brought a boom of activity to Boreas.

The sun began to rise, casting a golden flush over the crimson trees and brought a smile to his face. Above him he heard the honks of geese as they flew in formation toward the south, his ear twitching as a cool breeze lifted his fur. His winter coat had already begun to come in, and although his fur had been vibrant in the spring and summer his coat had dulled out slightly with the turn of the season. His coat was still primarily gold, but the color had paled slightly while the black on his shoulders and tail had deepened. He wasn’t sure if the change of color would offer any benefits to him as a fighter and traveler, but it hardly bothered him. Silently he wondered if Célestin’s coat would change as well and found himself oddly perturbed by the thought of him losing the vibrancy of his coat. With a snuff he moved on, his tail waving slightly behind him as he continued to wander.

His paws had become damp with his exploring, the small crystals of early morning frost melting under the warmth of his padded paws. Even in the desert the cold chill of the coming winter was present, although he suspected it would be unlikely, they would see snowfall. That was a shame he supposed but he was sure if he wanted to see snow so badly, he could simply travel North and see the white landscape winter yielded there. Hell, he could travel North now and see the early snow if he felt like it, but he supposed that would only make him feel even more homesick.

He had found his way back to the fissure, the red early morning sun now visible beyond the horizon and sighed. As much as he missed his home and his family he couldn’t convince himself to leave Boreas, not until he completed his mission or died trying. His expression steeled itself as the sun slowly continued to climb into the sky. The Abraxas would pay. Without a word he turned and continued to walk along the edge of the fracture, his thoughts and expression now determined rather than wistful.

Talking Thinking You Yale