I've decided to start on a really old idea for a fanfic. I'm trying to focus on Outclanner, butI'll also update this one whenever I get the chance to.
Disclaimer: I do not own Wolves of the Beyond or its characters. I claim no ownership over my original characters and give my permission for anyone to use them.
Prologue: Before Memory
Fenna gently licked her newborn pups. They were so beautiful. Her mate would have been so proud if not for that horrible tail! Her dirty yellow and white fur was raised with fear when she thought of what would happen. Four little pups. At least...at least three of them will have a chance at a good life. Oh, Lupus, please...Lupus, don't let Shibaan find me. I'll leave the clan, I'll raise them as lone wolves, just please, let him stay with me.
Her poor, cursed son suckled along with his siblings. He wasn't missing a leg or nose, no! This wolf could have grown up just like the others. It wasn't like his deformity was keeping him from helping the pack. "It's not right!" Fenna growled. "He's as perfect as the rest, and I will be banished for it?"
He had two brothers, one yellow, one brown, and a small sister as white as snow. Fenna wondered if she should make up names for them. The whole pack saw me going by-lang. There's no use. She'll find me soon. But...I would have named her Dasmil. The malcadh would have been Cellidh, and his brothers would have been Fyren and Seraf.
She sighed. Her second litter. She'd thought her life had been going so well. Oh, Cadd! she thought. She loved her paw-fast dearly. How would she even go on without him? Could she take another mate knowing Cadd was still alive? Her older daughter would be distraught. The laws Fenna once found fair and sacred now seemed ugly and dark. It was wrong! Why would Lupus let her family be torn apart over a missing tail?
A wolf's scent hit her like a falling boulder. No! She couldn't have been found so soon.
"Fenna?" called the voice of the MacDuncan Obea, Shibaan. "The pup, Fenna." She crept into the den, her gaze fixed on the malcadh. Her eyes lacked the luster of other wolves, turned dim and emotionless by her sad duty, but Fenna thought she detected a hint of pity in them.
"I - " Fenna's voice cracked. Tears streamed down her muzzle as she drew her tailless son toward her. Whimpering, she nosed him over to the Obea. She knew what the Obea would do to the other three if she did not give him up. Shibaan nodded slowly. It had to be done.
Fenna looked over to the other three. Her heart broke when she realized she would not get to see them grow up. They would be given to another she-wolf to raise. They would never find out who their first mother had been.
It's better this way. They wouldn't want to know about what happened to Cellidh and Cadd and I.
Shibaan started toward the nearest of her usual tummfraws, gazing down at the helpless pup with her cold, dead eyes.
Sorry for shortness! Lael the one Fenna called Dasmil. Don't worry, the rest will be about her. I just wanted to give her a more interesting past than being born in a healthy litter and raised by her real mother.