The Burdens of the Tides

*Crusade* · 03-27-2013, 07:34 PM

[Image: one_eyed_crusade_by_kidrylm_writer-d5yxnla.png]

~*~

The tide was coming in. Inch my inch, the breaks came further and further up the beach, trailing their white foam across the sands. Print by print, they wore away the trail that stretched out behind the she-wolf. The creature of ivory and dusken hues paced her way silently across the beach. She?d visited the ocean many times since coming to Seracia. It was something he missed greatly from her old days. Somehow it had always seemed to her that the methodical lull and roar of the waves was like the heartbeat of the earth itself. There was nothing so beautiful nor so terrible as the vast sheet of water, yet today it was at peace. Though the sky was banded with watercolor clouds and the scent of a summer storm was in the air, the world was gripped in the calm that always came before.

As with all her roaming through the southern kingdom, Crusade had a companion with her. Today she was escorted by the king himself. She?d met him near the dens and asked if he wouldn?t mind joining her on the stroll. Since then she?d said very little ? preferring to allow the world to speak around her.

But now her attention turned once more to the king. He seemed a bit thoughtful, and it wasn?t hard to guess why. Crusade was neither blind nor deaf to the doings of pack life. There was a pair here ? Segar and Ghost ? who were obviously very much in each other?s good opinion ? and now just recently the male had gotten his ear quite badly torn ? no, not just torn ? cut and with great precision too.

Punishment for some sort of offense? There were no other wounds on the male?s body so obviously he?d stood and taken it. What had he done? Hard to say. Crusade could only make guesses in the dark and she never dwelt long on matters that seemed too much like gossip. However, if she had to make a wager, she?d say that the pair had mated without permission. Spring Fever and all that. It was a common enough offense to be dealt with, when the rules stated that pairs had to inform the Alpha before making their mateship official.

The old she-wolf glanced the male over. (She'd been careful to walk along at his right side so that she was closest to the sea, and he was closest to her good eye) She took in his stride and his balance, his features and his gaze. Well, she was close at least. And she hoped it didn't way too hard on the King's mind. It was a shame to see him as anything other than the cordial figure of authority she'd seen at the border.

Perhaps Crusade owed something to the intuition of a she-wolf and the wisdom that comes with old age, but there was more than that. She?d always had an understanding of what it meant to be the Alpha ? the Leader ? the one who had to make the lonely decisions.

Perhaps that was why she?d fallen in love with one.

Crusade continued striding along in silent pondering. One thought led to another in the confines of her head, and when she opened her maw to speak, her words seemed to come from somewhere quite distant, ?Allow me to put you a question, M?Lord. ?Have you ever seen war??

~*~

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