I Could Stop Time

Walk | Talk | Think

The disbandment from Apollyon should have been a blessing for the Destruction boy, but it was anything but. He might have had his freedom once again, he might have been able to go home for the first time in months, but it was all at a price. Not once but twice the beautiful red wolf that he had associated with his chosen deity had abandoned him, disappearing just as quickly as she had appeared. The first had been seemingly by chance, just a quick glance to let him know of her existence and to press him further along the road to being devout, but the second had been intentional. She had sent someone to get him, had claimed him as her own, and just when she had finally got him she was gone. Had he done something wrong? Was he again out of favor with the divine?

Or had he been mistaken all along? Was the red wolf he had idolized so much in secret no more significant than him or any other wolf? Was his chosen religion nothing more than a joke?

He felt so lost that he had chosen not to return home right away. Instead Requiem took to wandering in order to try and come to terms with everything that had happened. He was free, of everything, and he was going to need to figure out something to do with that freedom. His conscience and loneliness told him to go back to his family, back to Ludicael - No, Sawtooth - and everything that was familiar to him. But another part of him was afraid of the reception he would receive once there. Surely he must have looked like a blind, incompetent fool to everyone else. He certainly did not want to see that opinion reflected back in the faces of family.

Embarrassment and confusion sent him traveling well past the regions he was familiar with, across a land bridge and beyond into something wild and new. He should have been concerned, should have shown more caution, but he was too out of sorts to care enough. Besides, nowhere during his travels had he come across any scent markers to alert him to pack lands. Everywhere he had been so far had been unclaimed, and neither did it seem like he was going to run into any soon. His aimless paws brought him within a thickly wooded forest, full of cedars and warmth and light on this late morning. His teal and green eyes took it all in with a listless, half-lidded stare, searching for something to give everything meaning again. What his paws brought him to instead was another wolf seated serenely beside a stream, looking so content and at peace that Requiem stopped short. His travels would have brought him closer but now he hesitated, unsure if she would even want the company of another. Ears turning back slightly to reveal his uncertainty, the brown yearling glanced awkwardly about, debating which direction he ought to go in instead.