The Burdens of the Tides
03-28-2013, 07:18 PM
![[Image: one_eyed_crusade_by_kidrylm_writer-d5yxnla.png]](http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/081/c/e/one_eyed_crusade_by_kidrylm_writer-d5yxnla.png) ~*~ Crusade walked along in soft, attentive silence. Her gaze carried on ahead of her paws, but her nearest ear was trained on the king, showing that she was indeed hearing every word of the answer she?d called for. And a worthy answer it was. The undeserved anger of a ruler? The exodus of family? The starting of one?s own pack? These were things that Crusade understood quite well. She was intrigued to hear of all this, for surely the male could not even be so old as her brother Gargoyle. Still, that meant he had to be around four? Five? How much had she seen and done, by that time? Too much. But her first glimpse of true war hadn?t come till much later. The male seemed ready enough to open his book to a stranger and drift through the pages of his story. To say that this ?pleased? Crusade wasn?t quite right. It didn?t please or displease her, it just was. The two of them, the once-Chief and the ruling King, had each been shaped and stitched very differently, but, could be said to have been cut from the same cloth. As the male finished Crusade glanced into his eyes, reading instinctively the question that lay in their depths. Only natural that he should return it back to her. Crusade?s gaze switched back to the stretches of sand ahead. She sighed through a closed maw. ?I am sorry ? for the loss of your old pack and the move you?ve had to lead your family through. Glaciem came through the same eruption ?? Crusade?s ears flickered backwards in the shadow of the memory. ?In fact, it was a mountain in the heart of our old territory that became the volcano.? They?d lost many members that day?. But in truth they were lucky that any of them had survived at all. But this was responding to the male?s answer, but offering one herself. ?As for war, Glaciem has been lucky ? the pack came upon the verge of it at the time of it?s founding, but since then we?ve had peace.? Crusade snorted ironically but not bitterly. ?-Or at least what peace there can be when pieces of molten earth just falling from the sky.? The old she-wolf blinked, and, pausing, began to delve back into the past. ?As for my personally? I cannot say the same. When I was much younger, and Glaciem was little but a newborn, I was kidnapped ? stolen away by members of a vast grey army ? to their empire in the Far Frozen North. To them I lost my mother, my freedom?? For many moons since she had laid awake through cold nights, fearing to lay down her head lest beneath it she feel the blood stained stone of the prison caves. ?.. and my first mate.? Mouse. Crusade stifled a ragged sigh. ?But all wounds can heal with time,? she whispered, then with a wry smirk, turned her head so that Gerhardt could see her blink her empty socket. ?-Well, almost all of them.? She returned to her usual, prowling motions, her remaining eye fixed on the middle distance, as though she could see the scenes of her memory playing out before her. ?But after I escaped, I staid in the Far North for some time ? aiding the resisting pack ? the Defiants, that also dwelt there. That was where I learned of war? and what a blight it is. Neccisary, yes ? oh so neccisary sometimes, but? that makes it no less of an evil.? Her tone altered. ?Don?t misunderstand me, I am of warrior stock and warrior training. In my younger years I loved nothing better than a good, challenging oppoenant, and a chance to rip at some flesh.? She shook her head. ?But there is a difference between the honorable matching of blows between two warriors ? and slaughtering of soldiers? So much death, and so many still breathing yet already doomed to die. When I?d started Glaciem I?d planned on using it as a close knit army ? a ?just force? to put an end to packs of dark hearts and twisted beliefs? but the war in the North changed my mind. There are so many other ways?.war is something I?ll never wish on any pack.? Crusade sniffed and raised her head. ?Apologies if my wandering thoughts seem to take the form of a lectures and morals ? one of the hazards of old age I suppose.? ~*~ |