The earthen wolf is pleased with herself, the idea she had come up with is ready to be laid out. It takes several trips from her bungalow out to the shaded area she has chosen, each time laden with items, before Athena is ready to begin setting up. Sitting back for a moment, she lets her amber eyes take in the items, making sure she didn’t miss anything. Absently nodding to herself, she starts with the short table she has dragged out here. She moves the table under shade that the large compound casts, pulling it close to the base of palm tree that has a nice view out to the ocean. Satisfied, Athena marches back to her items, picking up a large rolled up piece of cloth.

Carefully, Athena moves back to the table, gently laying out the crude map that she has worked so hard to paint. On the cloth, in huge, bold, black lines, is a rough outline of Boreas and Auster. The land is separated by lines, five of which are in different colors, while the rest are simple, thin, black lines. In Auster, the land has colors; orange and green. Hopefully, her partner can guess what those represent. There are also voids between the two borders, large squares blocking up the rest of the land. In Boreas there are three colored borders, grey, white, and purple along with several more, black borders. Amber eyes inspect her work, the colors all standing out on the handmade map.

A smile ticks her lips up as she smooths out the wrinkles in the cloth while pinning the edges down with large stones. Next, she brings over a box of painted rocks, the five colors on the board repeated on the small, round rocks. Carefully she picks out five of each color, laying them inside their corresponding lines. They are extras and she places the wooden box on the ground near the table. Next is another box, this one slightly larger than the last. Pulling two sets of knuckle bones from inside, Athena inspects each side, making sure her painted symbols are still intact. Satisfied, she places them in the middle of the map before placing the box with large, flat stones on one the side of the map.

The last thing she does is place two plush furs down on the sand, a nice thing to sit on while they match wits. Set up complete, Athena tips her head back and releases a soft howl for Albion, the pale pup having won a special place in her heart the moment he fought with her. Tilting her head back down, the earthen wolf hopes this game helps to teach some form of tactics to Albion.

WC: 456

"Athena Nocturna"

Albion had help in preserving the bear pelt that he had killed with Athena not so long ago. It was a summer pelt so it wasn’t anything super fluffy or impressive but it was huge and he had killed it so it deserved a special place on his bed. Now that he was getting so close to adulthood he was slowly sleeping more in his own rooms than with his mother and Dalila. He was still a puppy though, and it was hard to deny the comforting pull of Siren’s delicate arms. Still, he felt the pull of independence and despite his youth and naivety he wanted to do well for his dad and his pack.

The fights with a tiger and bear had been with the new wolf Athena, he didn’t know her very well but he knew that she was an accomplished fighter and that he could learn a lot from her. Like he was doing the last two times he had met with her, Albion’s pale paws were padding over the sandly beach on a patrol. He was keeping note to himself to be more observant, he never knew when there would be a tiger stalking him after all. His senses were all alight when he heard the call for him.

Honestly Athena’s voice was kind of unfamiliar but it didn’t take the boy long to realize who was calling for him. She quickly gained his attention, it wasn’t very often he was called on specifically. He quickly shifted his direction and trotted down the sand towards where Athena called him from. His ghostly white eyes would eventually find her form beneath the shade of some of their palm trees. She was perched carefully over an assortment of items and a painted blanket stretched out in front of her.

Albion had no sense of what the whole of Auster would look like, even more so no clue of Boreas. He couldn’t even picture an aerial view of their own island. Maybe it was just a defect in his mind’s eye. So the boy was incredibly confused about what she had for him. That fact was made obvious in the way his head tilted and his eyes trailed over the dark and thin lines, curious about the different colors on the tapestry and the pebbles assembled with an intent he didn’t know.

"Hello, Athena.” He said softly as his gaze continued up and down her painting, technically upside down from where he stood. "What is this?” He continued, trying to hide how massively clueless he was. Of course, he was curious as well and open to what she was about to say.

"Albion Baskara Klien"

452
908

The pale pup quickly appears and Athena offers him a big smile, pointing to the fluffy pelt that sits at the bottom of Auster. As he moves, she says, “Good to see you Albion! I thought we could play a game that I learned from my pack.” Once he is settled, the earthen woman moves to sit on the pelt opposite of him, taking a moment to get comfortable. Looking to Albion, Athena explains, “These are real packs that roam the land up in Boreas and down her in Auster. See, my family were Nomads and met all kinds of wolves in our travel. The outline you see of both lands, the thicker black lines, were taken from a book we found years ago. Some navigators decided to explore the land as the pictures depicted and found that they matched. So, for generations, this map has been passed down in my home. Someone came up with a game to help teach prospective leaders the art of negotiation and war. We call it, ‘Survival’. I thought it help a young prince like you.”

Offering Alboin a wide smile, Athena turns her amber eyes to the map, lifting one dark paw to trace the outline of Boreas. As her paw moves, the earthen woman says, “This is Boreas. Or a rough outline of it. Boreas is the land up north of here. Now, there are several packs that inhabit the land but, for this game, I have chosen three.” Her paw moves to the gray outline with gray painted rocks inside as she continues, “This is the ‘Armada’. The colored gray lines are the borders of its pack land. These rocks are their members.” Paw moves to the white pack and she says, “This is ‘Ashen’ with their lands and wolves.” Finally, she points out the purple one and says, “And this is ‘Elysium’ with their lands and wolves.”

Standing up, Athena reaches her paw to touch the black outline of Auster, informing Albion, “This is Auster, the land that our pack is a part of.” As she says that, the earthen wolf moves her paw to green lines, saying, “This is Fenmyre, our pack. And this…” she points to the orange lines, “Is ‘The Hallows’.” Settling back down, Athena looks to the pale prince and gives him a moment to look at the map. When he is ready, Athena begins to explain the rules, “So this game is about making alliances with other packs and conquering the ones that pose a threat. I will take the pack ‘Elysium’ and you can take ‘Fenmyre’. For this game only, we are enemies and you need defeat my pack to win. Now for the blank spaces.” Dark paw points out the outlined blank areas as she continues, “These are called, ‘No Man’s Land’. Basically, nothing fun happens there, you can only move wolves from your pack to another in these spaces.”

Stopping for a moment to let the pup absorb all the information, Athena answers any questions he has about the first part of the rules. Once he is ready to move on, the smaller wolf says, “Now movement. These,” she points to the painted pairs of knuckle bones, “will determine when and how you move.” Placing the bones on the cloth map, Athena points out the painted lines. On one side of each knuckle bone is a straight line and she says, “This line means you can move half way to the nearest pack. This one,” she points to squiggly line, “means to go one space to the nearest pack. This one,” a single black dot, “means you draw one of the flat stones. And this one,” a black ‘X’, “means you add one more wolf to your pack. This is your knuckle bone.” She passes him one and takes the other. Pausing to answer any new questions, she waits until he signals that he ready for more.

Athena dips her head and says, “Okay, almost done. Last thing are these large painted rocks. They have symbols on their undersides. When you get to draw one it either has a symbol to make an allegiance, attack another pack, or recruit five pack wolves. To win in a battle with another pack, you have to the flat rock to attack and more pack wolves than the other.” Sitting back a moment, Athena answers questions before saying, “It will make more sense once we start playing. Now, you go first. Roll your knuckle bone!” The earthen woman talks Alboin through how to ‘roll’ the bone, directing him to move to move halfway to the nearest pack when he lands on the straight line. With that done, she picks up her own knuckle bone and begins her turn. The pair play long into the day and Athena watches Alboin grow more and more interested as the time went on.


WC: 813
Total WC: 1721

"Athena Nocturna"