"Speech"
Eltrys was studying the paths through the sycamores, watching the goings on of small prey and which paths were used the most by his new pack. Also so he could find his way back to his new den in the dead of night on a new moon.
His sharp ears suddenly pricked at the sound of slow footfalls, an absent swish of the reeds and grass by the creek. He watched the large form of the battle scarred veteran leader Bellamy meander forlornly along the bank of the creek. He made to step forward but instead, he felt the need to hang back.
Ah, that was why. He was in clear earshot of her grieving. Perhaps other wolves would have felt uncomfortable at intruding upon such a private conversation with one's guides and spirits, but Eltrys had been raised to lurk in the corridors of the temple since he was a suckling babe. Truly, old habits die hard.
He cast his glacial gaze to the stones and moss, unsure if he had any right to come forward to his new leader. She was grieving, the shame she was feeling rising within her he could feel in his own bones.
He sighed quietly to himself as she expressed her damning curse to it all and stepped forward on silent paws, making it as if he was just arriving on the scene, coming to the creek for a drink. As if he had not heard a word. A tactic he was told would help put the mourners at ease and not feel like they were purposefully eavesdropped upon.
He curtly nodded his head and gave her a quaint "Hello," as he crossed her path and took a sip from the creek. He lifted his head but remained crouched over the water, remembering an old ritual his mother actually taught him. Something the old priests would have never condoned or admitted worked.
While he watched the opposite shore, his gaze following a leaf gently floating by on the current, he finally spoke up properly,
"I've heard a great many lamentations to that effect. So many cry out about the divines turning their backs upon their followers. Somehow feeling as if they deserve to be thrown to some greater evil." The leaf went out of sight, "You wouldn't be alone in feeling that way, I assure you."
He brought his piercing gaze, softened with practiced wisdom, up to the leader's mint greens. She had many more years than him, he wouldn't be so bold as to assume he knew more than her.
"What is it about? If I may ask, of course. I don't mind lending you an ear." He was unobtrusive, still crouched over the bank of the creek, a drip of water dropped from his chiseled chin back into the water.
Knight
Professor
