Small, quick paws carried the young wolf through the forest. The mists that clung to the damp ground enveloped her pale form. It also enveloped the form of her prey. Every time that she lost sight of the frightened little deer creature, she became even more angry. By the time she had the dik-dik in her clutches, she was furious. As the small deer screamed in agony, Aslatiel ripped into its stomach, sending its guts erupting from the cavity. Soon it was dead. She knew it was dead. She couldn't stop though. Ripping the corpse to pieces helped release that built up anger. A leg went flying, then another. Ribs cracked. The soft, brown hide was shredded with her claws. Eventually, she released a scream of frustration before collapsing to her stomach in the pool of blood and viscera.

Aslatiel, rage spent, buried her face in her blood coated forelegs. Her creamy coat was soaked in the red life that she'd taken. From the edge of the clearing, Enki watched nervously. The leopard didn't know what to do. She hasn't even asked him to follow. He'd simply seen her run off and had gone after.

Why did her father have to be so stupid? Their name meant something. It was the name of a powerful family. Then he'd gone and giving that name, her name, to some garbage girl that he barely knew. Maybe it would have been different if he'd given their name to a boy, but a girl? Wasn't she good enough? Would she ever be good enough? Would she have to change everything that she was to be seen by her father? Would she have to become someone that she didn't recognize so he wouldn't have to find a new daughter?

The sound of her rage-filled scream would send Sirius in her direction. He wasn’t too-alarmed, with Marshal in the air above, and showing no signs of distress, he knew Asla wasn’t being harmed. She didn’t sound happy, and he was faintly amused at her very visible out would display of it.

He found her, partly soaked in blood, head to her paws, and stopped beside her. Crouching in the grass, and paying no mind to the blood that rubbed into his fur at the touch, he would stay crouched beside her little form. Well his boys could almost meet his height, his little Asla was still the cutest little ball of rage.

Enki didn't make a sound as Sirius approached, though he'd heard the dire long before he saw him. It was safer not to. He'd never seen the girl like this and frankly, it scared him. When Sirius arrived, Enki was content to slink away back to his own family.

"Go away," Aslatiel murmured without raising her head. "Go talk to your new daughter." Saying it aloud made her angry again. Why did he need another daughter? It would be different if he and Zee had another litter. They couldn't choose whether they had males or females. But he had chosen Malalia. There was nothing special about her. She didn't deserve to have their name. Or maybe she did. Maybe the Fatalis name meant nothing.

Ahhh he thought softly, and there was the reason for her anger, her frustration. Frankly, it surprised him. Nothing could ever replace little Asla in his heart, and nor would he ever desire to. “I adopted Zabrina before you were born” through that girl had been scarce of late. He would show her his displeasure the next time she showed her face. “Banshee, when you were very young” and his warrior had shown a lot of promise, even if she hadn’t shown the stamina to reach the position of Reaper.

“And Malalia most recently. But none of them are you Asla. I have not made for them a house to stargaze above our den, or taught them their first hunt. They were people who needed a home, and so I gave them one. That doesn't mean I love you any less. You are my daughter, Asla, and I would give you the stars.”

His explanation was garbage, just like the wolves that he adopted. "You gave them a home, but you didn't need to give them our name. They aren't us. Giving them our name makes us less." If anyone could just come along and have the Fatalis name slapped on them, it made them weak and worthless. They should be few, but strong. Others should want to live up to what they were. What they would be. They shouldn't be able to show up with a sob story and suddenly they're a Fatalis.

Aslatiel raised her head, plum colored eyes flashing. "I hate all of them." She truly did. Rage burned in her dark little heart. She would never claim them. Never call them sister. And if they came into her den... she would kill them. She would rip them to pieces. Tear them up. It was what they deserved. She hoped that they all ended up dead.

"Our name may not mean anything to you, but its very important to me." It divided her. Asla found her feet and began pacing. "Aunt Io asked us what we wanted to be when we were older. Mort and Azure want to be heir, of course. Indigo wants to be a happy little healer." She stopped and stared at her father. "The only thing that I wanted was to promote our family name. To make us strong. To have others fear and respect us." She shook her head. "Now I can't."

Sirius told her that he'd give her the stars and Aslatiel snarled in frustration. "I don't want the stars! I want to be part of something that not everyone can have!" How couldn't he understand this? "I'll give up the stars! I'll learn how to fight like your new daughter. I'll spend all of my time training to fight instead." It was the only thing that she was lacking. Her father liked warriors. Well, a warrior, she was not. She could be, however. She would be miserable without the stars that made her happy, but if it stopped her father from adopting every crying piece of trash that showed up at their doorstep. she would do it.

He frowned at his grumpy daughter. “I Made this name, just as I made this pack. I made it from scrap, from the beginning, and built something with it. Adopting them makes us stronger it gives them something to hold onto. They are a part of us, we aren’t just one little family, we are leaders in this world.” His little Asla, just like Azure, could have such a rage to her. He had loved and molded them, but looking down at this angry girl, he realised that somewhere along the way, he had changed. He wished he could show her his new way of seeing the world. It was so much more hopeful.

He saw a wider scope of the world, and was fighting to bring the Armada into something great. “Those that stand alone are weak. It's having someone to lean on that makes you strong” he said softly, grabbing Asla by the paw. He thought of Zee. He would still be a slave, if he had never met Zee. She had made him something more.

“I love you my little one. I don’t love that your male, or female. Star gazer, or warrior. I love you ” he whispered softly, bending down close to her, opening his arms in a gesture of love. “Did we ever tell you, that when you and your siblings were born, we thought we only had three? Three giants came out, and we thought that was that. Then we found one little whisper had tagged along at the end. One little grace, my miracle child, my little girl. The only Daughter that carries my genes. I saw you, holding on tight to the world, despite the differences in your size, and I knew that you would be something great, no matter what you chose to do. It was love at first sight.”

She listened as her father tried to justify his actions but none of his excuses mattered to her. "You just don't understand..." The girl shook her head. No matter what she said, he wouldn't see things from her point of view. She allowed him to take her small, dark paw and listened as he spoke. Nothing that he said assuaged her anger and hurt. They could still be strong and keep their name to themselves. They had the pack. The pack was one. Their name was something special. It was theirs. It was something that no one else could have. ...Unless he gave it to them, it seemed.

Sirius told her of her birth. She saw what he was trying to do. "I love you too, papa," she told him with a sigh. Their name was more important to her than it was to him. It was something that she wanted to keep close. Aslatiel's mind tread darker paths than a pups had any right to. She knew that, if the opportunity arose where she had to save one of her 'sisters'... she wouldn't take it. She would let them die. No matter what her father said, any who were not her mother, father or the four of their offspring were not Fatalis wolves.

"I need to talk to Az," the girl said with another sigh. Maybe her brother would understand. Maybe he would kill something with her. The blood of the little deer was beginning to crust in her fur and she didn't like the feeling. Her mind was still a miasma of turmoil and she didn't want to talk anymore. He wouldn't understand anyway. Suddenly a foreign thought surfaced. She couldn't wait until she was old enough to leave.

With her words, he knew that neither would reach a mutual understanding in a day. Instead of trying, he fell silent, and cupped a head to her side, kissing her forehead gently again. Lingering over her fur, and remembering the scents of her childhood, of milk and den-dust. She had been a jelly bean small enough to fit in the palm of his paw, it seemed only a day ago. Now she was an independent creature with her own mind. He almost didn’t know how to deal with her. He chuckled softly at himself, and knew the best he could do was show her his love for her. She was his daughter, the only one to carry the inheritage of his genes. He had been one, and now he was more. Perhaps when he was a senile old man, he would be many.

“Talk to him another time, my star-girl. I want to show you something I discovered” he told her, adding a touch of mystery as left out ‘what’ exactly, instead he looked to her with a fond smile, to see if he had caught her interest.

Asla felt defeated and old by the time they were done talking. He wouldn't understand her and she wouldn't and couldn't understand him. She wanted to talk to Azure about all of this. He understood her darker side more than the rest would. Maybe he could help her sort things out within her own mind. Or maybe he would help her kill them all. An intriguing thought.

Her father kissed her head, snuffling in her fur a bit like he used to do when she was a baby. The girl almost giggled at the ticklish feel, but bit it back. She was mad. You didn't laugh when you were mad. It was only when he said that he wanted to show her something that her disposition began to change. Tilting her head slightly, the striped child narrowed her gaze somewhat. "What is it?" Ah, he got her. She was intrigued. Damn.

He wiggled his brows above blue eyes and marked face. “Well. The answer to that is behind a little adventure. What say you?” he asked. He was a busy Alpha, and so often his duties took him away from them. He needed bonding time with his daughter. Zee could hold the fort for a couple days. He knew just the place to take her, he had heard about it some time ago. It hadn’t been important enough for him to spend the time exploring, but now he had a reason.

He got to his paws, indicating for the young girl to follow him. A couple days laughing with her old man, and perhaps she would remember what the true meaning of their family was. Love for eachother, no matter what decisions either of them made.

He was being so cryptic. If Aslatiel's eyes narrowed any more, they would shut completely. An adventure... A little shiver ran through the girl. She did enjoy a good adventure. Her tongue flicked out, itching a place on her lip where blood had dried. "An adventure... Just the two of us?" Maybe if they went on this adventure, he would remember why he only needed one daughter. "Okay. Let's go." She wrinkled her nose a bit. "I need to wash off first. This is getting itchy." Her fur was sticking up in little bloody spikes. She looked a mess.

“Just the two of us” He agreed. That was the entire point, after all. A chance for daughter and father to spend time together, rekindle a relationship that almost seemed to have soured.

He laughed and ruffled her fur until a mohawk sat behind her ears. “Agreed, let's get this off you” he said, leading her to the stream. When she hopped into the water, he made the quick detour to Io’s cottage. Stealing a bar of soap, with a silent promise to make it up to his sister. He returned with the prize, and wadded into the water, holding the bar between three claws of his feet, and began to lather it gently against her fur.

Just the two of them. Hmm... It would be nice to get away for a while. As he led her back to their territory and prompted her to take a bath, she leaped into the chilly water and began scrubbing the dried blood from her coat, starting with her face. Her father disappeared, but was soon back with a bar of her aunt's special soap. Just like when she was a puppy, Sirius lathered her up, cleaning all of the blood from her caked coat until she was all cream, white and grey once more.

Aslatiel loved her father. She never wanted their relationship to change, but that's just what it was doing. With giving their name away, he was spreading it thin. Too thin for all of them. She was tired of talking about it though. He wouldn't understand. Wolves would still follow him and be loyal even without their name. She tried to put it behind her for now. He had an adventure planned so she would try to focus on that instead.