In the Dead of Night
08-22-2013, 06:59 PM
| Sarak |
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So she needed to see him? Was this where he died? She came then, ducking into his dark hole, guard hairs wreathed in starshine, taking a position after stepping over his legs. She was soon snuggled against him, to the point where he could feel and hear her heart. The embrace touched something in him that had begun to grow in his time in Valhalla, and had recently begun to die. Touched it and warmed it until it lifted it?s head and took strength. Courage. ?I need you, too. And I need to tell you what I was? Before Valhalla.? His voice was quiet, only a whisper, really. Silently, he pressed his nose to her shoulder, taking strength in the scent, before he took a breath. ?I came to Valhalla as an Assassin with a target. Erani to be exact. But? She took me by surprise, and I failed my mission. The penalty for failure in my birth pack, is death. There is no such thing as love in that pack. No family ties. Blood relation means nothing. It?s a twisted web of lies, ambition. All the wolves there love to kill. Even me.? Shame made his voice trail away. Yes. He had enjoyed taking lives. Until Valhalla, when Erani had spared him his life, and Cairo had even let him stay and learn the true virtues. Strength, unity, Love, Harmony. A place where you didn?t need to kill to rise in ranks. He forced himself to go on. ?I was chosen to Assassinate the last known living member of a rival pack that ours had wiped out seven years ago. According to the inside information of the three who had managed to get accepted that this wolf was the chosen Heir to the pack, because the Alpha Female was barren. Erani. Fenrin, my birth Alpha, is, in fact a coward, now that I think of it. He feared any opposition, like any tyrant. And if Erani still lived, there was a possibility of her becoming aware of her right to rule her old land, and sources had come back from failed missions to say she had entered into a large and powerful pack. This one. ?In my old pack, there is a? trial. For young wolves that had managed to survive our Alpha?s paranoia. We have a birth name. And then, if we pass the trial, we are given a Warrior name. Erani?s death would have been my trial. A successful assassination of a rival. You would think that Fenrin would have learned by my turn that so many failed attempts meant that her death was impossible to attain. Or maybe he was just becoming more senile with age. He was unusually old, perhaps around fourteen or fifteen? Maybe older.? As he spoke on, the words came easier, though he glanced at Azalea, fully expecting her to have drawn away at his first words. But the words, the story, once begun, couldn?t stop now. ?So I was sent out, and eventually I found Valhalla. I sought out Erani?s scent, and attacked. She? I don?t know. You know how she seems to listen with more than her ears at times? It?s like she felt me coming. She stepped aside, and I nearly went over the cliff. I tried again, but she beat me back, and cornered me. She?s terrifying when she?s furious? I think Fenrin would turn tail and run yelping to the hills if she turned that look on him. I?d love to see that. ?She called for Cairo, and other than Fenrin, I?d never seen a wolf so big, and his eyes were just as scary as Erani? I honestly expected to die there. But Erani ordered me to tell her everything? So. I did. She and Cairo talked it over, and she asked how old I was. I was only a yearling, a year and a quarter? That seemed to thaw her out. After they talked more, Cairo said that I would be taken into Valhalla, as sort of a prisoner, but I would be trained as a young Valhallan here, until I turned two. So? I chose to stay because I saw what weakness really was. Hatred is weakness. Love is strength. Forgiveness is essential. And? then I met you? You were the first wolf outside Erani?s immediate family to approach me. I had no idea how to react. A pretty girl offering to be my friend. With my past? It?s hard for me to trust. I took this long to tell you about myself. And? I?ve never felt love myself. It?s like soaring, and yet it hurts when there is the fear of loss. I need you. I need you to teach me more. Erani has done all she can, but she isn?t you. When I smell you as you pass by, and your scent carries a strangers scent, I feel as though a bear has taken my heart and twisted it?. And that night? I honestly wondered if I would die then and there.? He petered out, eyes closing. |