Beach Battle

“Hey Art,” Rudy offered with a bit of cheer on greeting.  Rudy knew Art well enough to imagine a small amount of his brothers hurt.  Neither one would ever know exactly how the other felt and he did acknowledge Art had spent more time with mom than Rudy had.  It wasn’t just the time though, Art had always been more serious and focused and in Rudy’s mind sometimes needed help finding the good side of things.  Certainly, now it would be harder than ever.

“You know,” Rudy offered straight to point as he looked towards the surf, “I seem to recall recently discussing who would end up with their head underwater in our next brawl at the beach.” That had been stated before mom died.  It was ages ago, lifetimes ago, at least one wolf's lifetime ago. “I bet, with no weapons, no armor, no pets that I could be the one having to pull you out of the water this time.”  Rudy remembered how upset Art was when the darker wolf had thought he’d potentially gotten Rudy killed.  Heh.  Rudy would never die easy.  Fate and luck liked him too much for that.

The thought of talking about mom and feelings and even mentioning death had been considered.  Someday maybe they would discuss it but not right now.  Right now Rudy decided Art needed some sand in his mouth.  “Hmm, but then again I wonder if you stand a chance without your sword,” the challenge was stated with classic Rudy smirk.  Art was still the most likely to win but they could both use this.  

Rudyard Carpathius