The Warlord made his way towards the beach, looking out across the clear blue ocean, and the open sky dotted with the occasional cloud. It was a fairly nice morning, despite the chill of winter and the salty wind kicking off the sea. He paused for a moment by a cypress tree, leaning against the trunk as he admired the early morning view.

He let himself have the moment for a time, and then sighed, pushing off and trotting further off the beach. His paws slightly damp from the shore that had risen and lapped lightly against his toes. As he arrived at the familiar barracks of the pack, he raised his head and called out to one of his sons, summoning Azure to him.


"Speech"

Azure was - to put it mildly - dead tired. Since the weird fucking fireflies, glowing shrubbery, and occasionally even glowing animals had started to appear the Fatalis heir had shifted his schedule to be more watchful in the evenings and sleep during parts of the day. Even then he couldn't make himself fully nocturnal, not when Hana was becoming more restless and needy and likely would not appreciate him sleeping her days away. It felt like seasons since he'd gotten a decent stretch of rest when in reality it'd been the better part of a week, and Az was very much looking forward to returning to some semblance of normalcy sooner rather than later. He'd just come off a mid-day patrol and was slogging back towards his den when the summons rang out. Az hung his large head, heaved a sigh and adjusted course towards Sea's Plain. If it was anyone else aside from his father he might have considered pretending he'd slept through it, but there had never been a day where he willfully ignored Sirius' call and he'd hoped that day would never come. Azure could not hide the exhaustion in his body as he approached, but he lifted his head and gathered himself into some form of awake-and-alert as he approached and met his father's blue gaze. "You called?" Yes, obviously, the titanic male had called, but Az was in no position to be thinking up a more respectable and professional greeting. "Speech"

The boy found him by the barracks, looking a little thread-bare and tired. The Warlord scrutinised the younger wolf for a moment, thinking upon the decisions he and his Queen had made not long ago. He kept his heavy gaze on the young Heir, giving him a moment to sweat.
“Azure,” he began, stepping closer to the blue-marked wolf. Raising a paw, he placed it on the other wolf's shoulder, keeping his eyes on Azure’s. He wanted to know exactly what his boy thought of what he was about to say. “From today onwards, your training is going to increase. Your Mother, while still Queen and above all but myself in this pack, will be lessening her responsibilities. In turn, yourself and your brother will be stepping up. For the moment, you will be Alpha beside me and learn what it really means to run a pack. I’ll be announcing this in a meeting soon, and before then I want you to consider how you might contribute - to the meeting, the pack, and the training of our wolves” he said, his voice serious for this moment.

“You’ve been devoted to your patrols, and the care of this pack, that hasn’t gone unnoticed, and is a large part of why I believe you deserve this chance. From today onwards, your voice will be nearly equal to my own.”

"Speech"

The paw upon his shoulder brought the exhausted male to a more attentive mindset - this was the sort of body language someone would give before saying 'sorry, your wife is dead' or something along those lines. Azure immediately was expecting the worst, how could he not when the supernatural had touched their world? His father did not leave him in the state of worried anticipation long, as he continued to speak against Azure's initial expectations. Alpha? He heard some mention of his brother, his mother, etcetera etcetera, but the Heir did not linger long on anything that was said before that magical word. His brows knitted together in confusion and he blinked, staring into his father's eyes as if perhaps it was a joke. The warlord's voice grew serious and Azure straightened his shoulders, absorbing the blow of very unexpected information and being rendered speechless for probably the first time in his life. He took a long moment to consider it, clearing his throat and hoping his voice came across strong and confident and not shaken or - god forbid - emotional. "Thank you. For seeing me." He managed, snapping his jaws shut before his voice shook and he could devolve into anything soft and warm and fuzzy in front of his father. There was more he needed to say and ask, but Azure approached it carefully as to not poke too hard into this possibly-might-be-dreaming-while-awake scenario. "And Mortis? Is he beside us, too?" It was the most he could manage in a level voice, unwilling to hope too hard that he'd somehow stepped above his winged brother in something. Could a pack have three alphas, plus their mother? "Speech"

He could see the way it shook Azure, despite how much the young boy wished to hide it. The time he needed to collect his thoughts in a row. The Warlord knew better than to let any amusement show. “You are my son.” Sirius said simply in response to that. He had almost lost Azure, and wanted to hold him all the closer for it. The proud boy wasn’t one he could pull into a hug or spend long hours fishing with. But they could lead together, side by side.

Of course the boy's next question was about Mortis. That was the Warlords own fault, making the heirs a challenge against each other from the start. Pushing them to be their best worked well in Azure, but not so well in the winged boy. “For now, Mortis is a step below us. He recently let an old woman beat him up on our borders, and he has not been as devoted to the pack as you have been. Let him see you rise and scramble for the chance to prove himself.” He said decidedly. Zee might not soundly approve of that, but the boys had plenty of room to grow. Mortis to prove himself, and Azure to work hard to keep his rank.


"Speech"

Azure remained in stunned near-silence while his father considered his question and gave a reply, and the direwolf heir merely nodded as it was explained that Mortis had not yet reached high enough. "I see." He managed in the same forced flat tone, nodding his head again in quiet acknowledgement. This was a day he'd well, somewhat pictured since he was old enough to be called Heir. Picturing it hadn't helped prepare him for the moment it seemed, and Azure wished he could come up with more intelligent speech to properly and professionally accept the new responsibility Sirius dangled before him. "Thank you." He repeated eventually, his voice genuine. "I.. I don't know what else to say." Which was an understatement - where his mind should be racing with possibility and excitement it instead seemed to have ground to a very fast halt, faintly reminiscent of brain fog experienced post-concussion and pre-unconsciousness. "Speech"

The Warlord released his boy and fell back to the ground. Watching Aure for a moment as he absorbed everything Sirius had to say. “it’ll be a lot of responsibility” he warned, but Azure had always risen to the challenge. He didn’t slink away in fear like Mortis did, though Azure didn’t have the same people skills that Mortis could sometimes exhibit. Certainly, and not for the first time, Sirius wished he could pick and choose a few of their traits and smush them together - the perfect heir.

“Walk with me” he suggested, seeing that Azure needed a chance to let it all soak in, absorb the moment. Without waiting for a response, Sirius began to move down the beach, expecting Azure to follow. “As I said, I’ll be calling a pack meeting soon. There are a few things we need to pass on to the pack - this change in rank is one of them. I also propose we set up some training regimes and kick some legs, get this pack moving more seamlessly. Consider carefully some ideas on how to do so - and propose them at the meeting.’ He ordered his son. “You can bounce a few ideas back and forth with me before then.”


"Speech"

Eventually Azure's brain would need to begin firing on all cylinders again, and as his father removed his paw a grounding shiver crossed over his body. He blinked back the fog, stepping out across the beach at his father's side. The Warlord was speaking and Azure willed his thoughts to properly function, grasping at and turning over the man's words in his mind before ideas began to cautiously form. "I agree." He began, glancing out at his father with whom he never expected to be speaking leadership when he woke up this morning. "Since I returned the pack has felt different - more stagnant. It won't do, especially now with whatever has made the earth glow." The eerie phenomenon was never far from the young heir's - alpha's? - mind, having existed there since he first saw the fireflies and never waning moon. "From my younger siblings to our slaves, we all need a combat refresher. I was sorely disappointed to hear of the pirate who burned our borders and knocked out two of our warriors. Why did no one else come to the call? Why was it mother who had to repel her? I don't like it." Perhaps it was a small deflection of his own shortcoming, of Sparrow knocking him unconscious on the Armada's borders and having left them and Hana temporarily undefended, but the subject for the moment of intruders and enemies was touchy. "Thus far Hana even has received special treatment in not having to learn self defense as everyone else does. After recent events, I intend to rectify that, at least." At the mention of the koi-wolf who'd stolen his heart, Azure's pawsteps froze. He blinked, looked over at his father, back at the sand, then back over at his father. "Oh. Did, uh..." A grimace, a tilt of his head, and he continued. "...Did I ever get around to telling you we are engaged, by the way?" With one massive paw he drew absent, nervous circles in the sand. Whoops. "Speech"

The Warlord nodded his agreement, knowing that a part of it was his own seclusion. He had withdrawn from his recruiting expeditions and had struggled to engage as much with the pack as he used to. Zee’s death, and the sheer number of coming and going’s of a pack that was supposed to be a last-stop hope had taken their toll. Sirius was sure that new, younger blood in the leadership would go a long way to freshening things up.

As for the glow - “Some strange things have been going on…” he agreed, thinking of the ghostly figure that had attacked Zee. But as for those strange happenings - there was little he could do about it for now.

As for the pirate - Sirius let out a soft growl. “I have a feeling we haven’t seen the last of them.” He had been proud to hear that Zee had stood up to the wolf and repelled her. That Mortis had been bested so easily… well. There was a reason that it was Azure he was speaking to today. Mortis was a near-constant disappointment to the Warlord. Fragile of heart, he was missing much that a warrior needed to survive. “Mortis should have been enough.” He growled, and left it at that.

“Perhaps that is also why Hana’s knowledge is lacking - it was Mortis who initially was directed to train her.” He would add, nodding his head in agreement to Azure rectifying it. “As for training - I’ve been thinking, a pet project to broaden your horizons - I want you to acquire a slave and train them from scratch to become an Armada Warrior. I think it’ll be good for you.” To take on the responsibility of a wolf, take control of them, and then have them become something worth while. Yes, that would be a good starting project for Azure.

He might not have given it if he had heard Azure’s words first. It might not be long before Azure would have altogether different types of wolves to start from scratch with. “Indeed? Congratulations are in order. I’ll have to send some flowers to your Fiance.” He said, pleased with this turn of events.


"Speech"

He had no argument nor suggestions on his father's words and merely murmured his acknowledgement. Azure wasn't sure if he'd seen the last of the pirates either, though perhaps after he'd kicked Sparrow into the ground in the woods she may have lost a bit of that overarching ego that caused her to take such measures against him and his pack to begin with. He sighed. "I'm sure my brother tried his best." It wasn't an overly strong argument, but Azure would feel he'd somehow let his adversary heir down if he'd not tried somewhat to defend him. His father mentioned a new task for him as Azure's brow raised. "A slave?" This was.. good, but suspicious too. Sirius and Azure had never really had a slave-centric discussion, not aside from making sure the heir understood that beneath the Armada umbrella the servants weren't to be abused. What sort of harm constituted abuse to the Warlord? Azure had many questions, but he contained them and told himself he'd approach the subject later. The last thing he needed was to look too excited at the opportunity and cause his father worry about his intentions. [color=#4a6765][b]"I can do that." At the very least, Azure knew he could fare better in training a slave into a warrior then Mortis managed training their diplomat in self defense (though he doubted Hanako was blameless there). The congratulations were awkward to accept, but Azure gave his father a slight smile of thanks. "She'd appreciate that. She's probably going to want some.. big scale event, but I'll have mom meet with her. Let the girls handle it." The entire situation was one Azure would rather avoid but, whatever made her happy was something he could begrudgingly tolerate. "If that's all, I should probably get back to her." Azure looked up at his father, feeling like he'd not slept in years and overwhelmed with it all. He needed to go home, sleep, consider it all, and then begin on Sirius' instructions when it was all absorbed. "Speech"

Things settled easily into place. Azure would acquire a slave to train, as well as taking on the training of Hana. Azure and Hanako would be getting married - an event that Azure was more than happy to hand off to his mother. The Warlord snorted in amusement. “Whatever makes them happy” he agreed. He had a feeling Zee would love the job of setting up a wedding. It very much involved her in the life of one of her children.

“Of course, think on everything we discussed” he would add, reaching over and ruffling Azure’s fur for a moment. Stealing an affectionate gesture while the other wolf was distracted. “My son, a leader and soon to be a husband.” how the world had changed. He gave him an affectionate nudge, dismissing him.

"Speech"