After spending a day exploring, he climbed back up to their den. Feeling exhausted mentally and physically. He had to take a lot more time to navigate his paws then his siblings and it wasn't fair! He was slow and clumsy, and he felt he would never be as fast as the second slowest of them.

He found his mother sitting on the balcony overlooking the pack and collapsed beside her. Smaller than her still, through his paws were an unsubtle shout that it wouldn't be long before he outgrew her.

He sniffed, shocked to realise he was close to tears. He buried his head in his mum's coat, unaware that the sharp little nibs on his forehead weren't comfortable. “It's not fair! They don't have stupid paws. Selene is like the wind, and I can't even walk in a straight line.” He sniffed into her coat.


"Citadel""Ignita"

Ignita had settled herself on the balcony overlooking the Col. She had let others start to handle the storage room since her pre-delivery confinement and now she felt no hurry to hide herself away back in there. Now she had young ones to mind and keep an eye on. She liked this spot to see them. They always knew where to find her and she could see them from here easily. She had noticed her eldest make his way back up to the balcony after a long day of exploring and navigating his new freedom.

She tilted her head sympathetic as she noticed his lowered posture and stomping stride. She braced herself as she watched him come closer and slump next to her, burying his hard and sharply pointed head into his furs. She tried to hide a wince and stifle a grunt. The poor boy had the body awareness of a poorly coordinated and blind elephant.

She hummed a low soothing sound, bending down to give him a gentle kiss. "She is fast isn't she?" Ignita remarked, "It doesn't seem fair." She agreed.

To keep her side intact and less poked she artfully scooped his face up to look into his deep golden eyes. "You used to be much clumsier! Already you're moving so much better than you were before!" She remarked and smiled warmly. Would he understand that this meant he would get better at navigating his paws as he grew?


"Speech"

He let his mum pull his head up, though his golden gaze was glum. As far as he could tell, he was getting worse at least confined to the birthing den, he hadn't been able to fully stretch out. None of them had. They'd played in tumbles and rolls. That had suited his body better.


Now that they'd been given their freedom, he was seeing the extent of what his siblings could do with their limbs. The more area they had to play, the more easily he fell behind or tumbled. He sighed, a deeply world weary noise. His mother simply didn't understand. Like his siblings, she was graceful in her body. He donked his head lightly against her. While her words weren't a comfort, at least her presence was.

Her words didn't reach him. She stifled a grunt as his hard head fell on her again. She sighed along with him and reached to smooth the fur under his ear with a few kisses.

"I know Baby, I see how hard you are working. It really does seem your body is giving you more of a struggle than the others. But I promise it won't be like that forever. You see your Daddy right? He's bigger than everybody else. I bet he had problems with his feet just like you when he was your age. He's had lots and lots of practice to help train his paws to move the way he wants them to. It'll take some time. Maybe you won't be as fast as Selene, I don't think anyone is going to be as fast as her, but that's okay, she'll never be as strong or as big as you! We all have our strengths." Jamie and Iska were going to be intellectuals. She wondered if City was going to be as large as his father. He was already towering over his siblings as a toddler.


"Ignita"

“You think I’ll be as big as Dad?” He asked, whisper-soft, with a touch of awe. Was that why his paws were so stupidly big compared to his siblings? He wasn’t sure he had the right of it, and was almost afraid to be wrong. Being the tallest would be almost as cool as being the fastest.


He straightened up a little, feeling a little less dejected now. He shuffled and rearranged himself so he was sitting alongside his mother. His head rested on her paws as he looked up at her. “Will you tell me a story, Mumma? How did you and dad meet?” He wanted to hear about the world, about the people that mattered to him. His mum seemed to know everything/

She smiled sweetly down at her son. He was such a handsome boy. The way his big golden eyes looked up at her through his charcoal and indigo fur was a wonder. It made her heart ache for more blue and gold babies than their five. She certainly had begun to get greedy. She nodded to his awestruck whispered question. He could very well be as tall as his father.

She sighed contentedly as those words appeared to strike a chord with him. She breathed through trying not to chuckle as he straightened himself up. As if he was about to put on his father's coat right there.

He had something else in mind as he settled in next to her, his big gold eyes looked up at her from her paws. It won't be long before those golden eyes would be looking down on her for certain.

She flicked her tail in surprise! My that was a question. She could almost feel her scar tingle slightly at the thought. Reminding her of the day her life truly changed.

"Well... Hm... Where to start? I came from a desert land across the sea. My evil stepmother encouraged the others to bully and hate me. She was the queen of the land." Why not start at the very beginning? Tell her son a little about who she was, and where she had come from at the same time. Her voice weaved the story into an easy cadence. Her voice rose and fell with solemnity and enthusiasm.

"I built myself a boat when I was still a yearling. It floated on the water for days. I didn't know it was going to take me so far away from home! When I landed on the shores of Boreas, it was also a desert. I thought I was back in my old desert home but nothing was familiar. I was so lost. And alone. I traveled across boreas from there, northward. Until, on my birthday I happened upon The Veterans Plateau. It had many trinkets and things to look at! I was so excited and started to gather things. I thought maybe I could build something with the strange things I found." She paused to see if he was still listening. This will be a good history lesson for him. She hadn't even gotten to how they met yet.


"Ignita"

Basilisk may enter her threads without warning.

His mothers words were so completely unexpected that he almost couldn’t comprehend them. Ignita? Bullied? “But why!” he burst out before he could stop himself. He didn’t want to interrupt the story, but the idea of anyone hurting his mum filled him with sudden anger. Enough to distract himself from asking what a desert land was like.

Her mother continued on, talking about adventuring out on a boat to see the world. That sounded like a lot of fun! He wondered how hard it would be to build a boat. Maybe he would be able to find some of those materials on the beach, when he was allowed down there. Hmmm…

But he didn’t let himself get too distracted, and continued to listen to the story. “What happened then mumma?”


"Citadel""Ignita"

She smiled and chuckled lightly at his impatient outburst to why she was bullied.
"I wish I knew, Lovey." She said between breaths in her story. She could tell a lot of her story was sparking his questions! Good! It'll give him ideas about what he could find out for himself! She hopefully brushed passed the bullying enough to somewhat satisfy him.

He prompted her to continue. She laid a dainty paw over his bear-life mitts, nearly a hair bigger than hers already, yes, he was going to be a big boy.

"Well, then I met your father." She smiled, "It wasn't anything magical though. He was looking for someone to help him with his new status as leader of the Armada. He liked the way I was organizing the things I found. He claimed me as his slave to work for the Armada." Should she tell him his father was the one that marred her? Maybe another time, when he was older. She didn't want him going about and trying to re-enact anything and scarring his siblings.

"He brought me to a cave at first while he dealt with the change in leadership. When he came back to get me..." Oh, would he have wanted his son to know his aunt had nearly killed him?... no, probably not, "He came back to get me when it was safe. I was working for the Armada for a while before we really started feeling like we loved each other. We worked well together. He thought so too. I worked hard to prove myself and earn my own rank! I was the Steward for a while before your Daddy loved me so so much that he helped me make you five!" That was probably vague and sufficient enough for such a young mind, right?

"Basilisk" | "Ignita"

“As a slave like Pluteus?” He asked for clarification, wrinkling his nose in confusion. “But you're the Consort, the most important lady of the pack!” He pointed out, as if her story couldn’t possibly make sense. But she went on to explain how she had worked her way up the ranks, and eventually had made him and his siblings.

“Is that why Daddy says I have to work hard on my skills?” He asked, tilting his head up at his mother. “To work my way up in the pack?” He was sure glad he wasn’t a slave. He didn’t think he’d make a good one. He barely liked getting orders from his own parents, let alone anyone else!


"Citadel""Ignita"

Soft gentle eyes and soft gentle paws. Her other paw idly brushed over the top of his, then brought it up to rub one of his dark ears.
"Yes, like Pluteus. I am now, certainly." She smiled and sighed. He asked innocently about why he has to work hard on his skills. She nodded matter-of-factly.

"Well yes, everyone pulls their weight and works hard to better the pack. We are stronger together, safer together. Your father knew that his role needed support, so that's why he recruited me, for my skills. Everyone has a place that supports everyone else! No one person can be or do everything!" Her warm explanation hopefully painted the light maybe one day he'll be big and strong, but he can't possibly be the best at everything. His father knew where his shortcomings were and prepared and delegated where he could.



"Basilisk" | "Ignita"

Citadel ducked his head when his mum rubbed his ear. He wasn’t a baby anymore! But then he remembered no one else was looking, and rested his head over her paw, looking up at her. So people worked together to fill in the missing pieces? Were you supposed to just… inherently know where you’d fit? Because he still didn’t know what he wanted to be, or do. Or what he was good at. Right now, he was good at being big and clumsy. He wasn’t sure that was a good thing.

“So what was the desert like, mamma. Do you miss it?” He wanted to know. What made it different from their current home? Would she ever take them back to see her homeland?

"Citadel""Ignita"

She held her paws back when he took his ear away, she wouldn't press any physical touch if her children didn't want it. He asked a curious question and she tilted her head at him. She turned her golden gaze to the Col where she could see it from the patio. The mountains drew up around them, trapping moisture and air to feed the mile-high woods below to the east. These mountains were formidable and hard to navigate if you weren't familiar with the paths and the pass. The caves were winding and dripping and wet. How could she describe the desert to him?

"You know the hot springs?" She asked, looking back at him, had he tried the hottest water yet? "Think of that heat in the air, that heat in the rocks, coming off the ground. Feel the sun on your back here?" She trailed a ticklish couple of dull claws over his shoulders where the warmth of the sun was hitting him, "Think if that warmth got even hotter and hotter and hotter the more you sat there. It's a lot drier, the plants are a lot spikier, and sparser." She watched him, wondering if he could even imagine such a place.


"Speech"

Citadel was a thick coated wolf, and a big wolf. He tried to imagine that heat, the spiky plants, and fewer of them. He honestly wasn’t sure that he could imagine anything like it. It sounded so alien to him. He scrunched up his nose in thought, before blowing out some ait at his mother. “You didn’t say if you missed it.” He pointed out, a sudden flash of fear spiking through him. She wouldn’t miss enough to leave would she?

Would she want to go home one day? Sounding suddenly very small, he looked up at the desert wolf, eyes wide. “You’ll never leave us, right mumma?” he whispered


"Citadel""Ignita"

Ignita's eyes scrunched delightedly as she could almost see the gears turning in Cit's mind. Making all the calculations and considering himself in the scene. He was going to be a formidable tactician eventually if she could harness it with him. Him and Iska both.

She giggled and shook her head, and rubbed her nose from him blowing at it.
She looked up at his question. She hadn't had much time to think if she really missed it, honestly. Her soft golden eyes drank in the snow-covered peaks, and pines along the edge. The granite, basalt, and obsidian litter the edges of the sharp angular slopes of the mountains. The treacherous paths that wound their way over the cliffs and the copious warrens full of nooks and crannies and crystals and dens and stairs and corridors. A wind picked up around them, tugging at her sandy and alabaster coat. It promised a warm and scorching summer.

She shook her head. "I wouldn't trade this for the world." She turned to him finally, "I could never leave you all, not in a million years." She'd have to be buried before she'd leave her family. "Nothing calls me back to the desert. All I need is right here!" She brought her arm over her son and tugged his big hefty body under her chin, trapping him gently and holding him firmly just enough for her paws to find a tender tickle spot to run her claws softly into.


"Speech"

He watched as his mother lifted her gaze to the Col. Feeling an odd sense of anxiety as he found himself wondering what she was thinking. Was she missing her home? The place where a wolf had encouraged others to bully her? But when Ignita spoke, they were words of reassurance. That she wouldn’t trade this for the world. He relaxed against her again.

“I heard Wylan and Ollies mum left them.” He admitted, explaining in part where that odd little worry had come from. There was evidence here that it happened, that mothers could leave. He giggled when Ignita pulled him closer, letting her do it this time, though he squirmed and complained when she started to tickle him. When she stopped, he relaxed into her embrace. “I love you, mom.”


"Citadel""Ignita"

Even though she had been raised in the desert, and knew it well with its harsh beauty. She liked how the wind here in the Col bit into her thin coat during spring. How the summer felt wet but cool enough to breathe in. She loved how the caves offered privacy and adventure, sometimes glittering and sometimes surprising. She loved the bustle of the market and how everyone here had a job to do. No idle paws.

He admitted that he had heard about Ollie, Wylan, Zions, and Wynter's mother leaving. She hummed in ascent, her head nodding sagely. It would make sense. Of course, he would start to worry about whether or not she was leaving!

He let her pull him in and when the tickles became more annoying than fun she quickly stopped. She hugged him firmly, safely, he was soft, if a little pokier than Wylan's bear, Glacier.

"My sweet boy," She replied, nuzzling him, "I love you too."

"Speech"

He leaned against her for a moment, simply enjoying the simple pleasantness of a quiet moment with his mom. He could still feel questions bubbling around in his skull, but took a moment to decide on any one to voice. “Would you take me to a desert, mumma? Are there many to explore?” She had spoken of two in her story, did that imply that they could be everywhere.

Oops, that sparked a new question, and while he tried not to ask too many at once, it sort of fell out. “Are there many mountains, too? Are there many beaches, are there lots and lots of the same land? Or are there more types than what we have here and the desert?” he found himself wondering. There was just so much to learn. How did you ever decide where to begin?


"Citadel""Ignita"