Back in my day...

It only took a moment for one of her granddaughters to appear, Fever approaching her promptly and asking her where her grandfather was. Manea chuckled and leaned forward to playfully boop Fever on her forehead with her nose. "He's out on a hunt today so you'll just have to make do with me, I'm afraid." Fever settled into the fur of her tail and then complained about how long her siblings and cousins were taking to arrive and she smirked as she curled her tail to tickle Fever's nose. "Be patient, my love." It did take a little bit, but soon the rest of the pups started popping up one after another, first Dominus blaming his lateness on some seals that he had been watching by the water. "Well, that's certainly exciting!" she agreed with a grin and then turned her attention toward Daemon as he flopped onto the cushion. "You'll find out in just a minute, darling," she replied, reaching out to ruffle the fur on his head with one of her large paws.

"Salve, flosculus," she said with a smile to Kintsugi as another of her granddaughters joined the group with a greeting in the ancient language that Alastor had been helping to teach them all. Damira joined them quietly and she leaned over to nuzzle the little girl's cheek affectionately right before Thyrus bounded up and reached up to nip at her neck. She chuckled and caught the spike-tailed boy with one of her paws to ruffle up his fur playfully. "Hello, dear. Get settled so we can start!" Once he had picked a spot for himself and he joined the others on the selection of cushions she had laid out she now had all six of her grandchildren around her. "Thank you for joining me, my loves. Our family has a long history and I wanted to take some time to start from the beginning and talk about how we got to where we are today."

She settled in a bit–being careful not to jostle or disrupt Fever–and began telling the pups the history of their family. "Many many generations ago in a land far away from this one, the Mendacium family laid claim to a large stretch of land and was by far the most prominent family in that area. However, some of the smaller families and packs in that land began to grow vengeful and jealous and our family fell under attack, causing the Mendaciums to dwindle till just one woman remained–Nephele Mendacium. A brilliant woman with a vibrant coat and long, curling horns. My great-grandmother. She watched the down fall of her family and because of that began to become up with a vision for what she wanted this family to be. She wanted the best of the best–the strongest and brightest like the wolves that had once led their family to greatness. Those wolves, the ones she idolized and dreamed of better representing with her future, she called The Ancients. Long before then our family believed that the strongest of their children were reincarnated from their ancestors, but this was the first time that our ancestors were given a name and a purpose in our beliefs."

"Our family has always had a Matriarch since the day it was founded–a female entrusted with the well being of the family's beliefs and responsible for passing down knowledge and tradition from generation to generation. It wasn't until Nephele took up the mantle that she also made it a position of power. She felt that the family needed not just a guide but a leader. Still, she knew that she could not reform the Mendacium family alone. She searched the land for her soul mate, someone she could rebuild her family with, and found Cáel Zahradník–a massive man as strong as he was brave. Together they had three children–Stavaros, Liberata, and Elisa. Nephele eventually passed on the responsibility of Matriarch to Elisa and Elisa eventually passed it down to my mother who in turn passed it on to me. Our family is more wide spread than it once was with some of our distant relatives still living in the old land, but I felt that we could have a fresh start here on Boreas and so this is where I settled down with your grandfather so any and all Mendaciums that might find their way here might join us and have a safe haven waiting for them."

"Manea Mendacium"