yar har har and a bottle of rum

Sitting atop the knoll under which he had raised his children in the barrow, gazing out over the knolls like a lord viewing his demesne, Chaos Saxe had found himself terribly unsatisfied. He was tired of viewing the same landscape day in and day out. He'd been raised here and had known nothing else as home until he had claimed a pack in the mountains, and then that had been 'home'. As he was getting older he was starting to wonder what else he was missing out on, staying in one place, especially now that the kids were grown and didn't need to have a den to stay in. It was a little too like being tied down for him to be comfortable with the idea that the knolls were where he'd live and die. Sure, maybe he'd die there some day. Someday he'd be too old to travel and he'd settle down somewhere knowing that's where he'd die. But he wasn't old yet, and he refused to admit he might be getting out of his prime. He'd show the babies he was still a force to be reckoned with.

While Crew had been a failure, and a pack would tie him down to one place which was exactly what he was trying to get away from, he had like leading and he had liked the companionship that having a pack had offered. As a loner, the only company he had was his kids, or Valen when he sought him out, and while Chaos didn't mind being alone he was a social creature by nature. So not a pack but... what about a group of like-minded rogues willing to travel with him as their leader? The more he was thinking about it, the more he liked the idea. A nomadic pirate band, wandering around and raiding the poor dumb bastards whose packs were stuck in one place. He wondered if he could convince his kids to join him - sure, they were old enough to be on their own, but it would be nice to do it with them. The family that pirates together, stays together, after all. Hell, maybe he could drag the old man along for his experience. If Valen were younger Chaos could see him pulling together a band of his own, and if he was being honest with himself Chaos really wanted to show him that he was living up to Valen's own example... even if he was doing it in a Cascade sort of way.

Lost in his thoughts, he'd decided to meander down towards the river that bordered what had once been Imperium's territory for a swim. With a coat as dark as his, summer in the south wasn't always the most pleasant proposition, but a good splash around the river always took the edge off. The silver band in his coat rippled colors even more weirdly than it did when dry, like an oil slick in the water as Chaos splashed and paddled around.