Our Father who art in Heaven
Hallowed be thy name
Thy Kingdom come thy will be done on earth as in heaven
Give us today our daily bread
And forgive our sins
As we forgive each one of those who sin against us
And lead us not to the time of trial
But deliver us from evil
For thine is the kingdom the power and the glory
The Millenium Prayer, by Cliff Richard, from the album The Whole Story: His Greatest Hits, released in 2000
I took a pause from recounting the tale of my adopted pups, as I released the squirming Heart from my grasp, her accented fur neatly brushed aside. Heart never stopped moving, one of my more hyper pups, and she was often the one encouraging the others to play, despite their ages.
I could read Noble's face easily, reminding me of the similar expression he had pulled many years ago. I nudged Peace with my muzzle, my tongue snaking out to tease her, as she jumped away, her smoothed out grey accents instead spiking up ever so slightly.
"Peace, will you go get Honour, Spirit, and Tempest please?"
She bounded off, disappearing into our makeshift Den as I turned to her brother, who had since shifted into a sitting position, his reddish russet fur, with his own accents, sitting smoothed down. I had just spent a while grooming him, as was customary for a pack members remembrance.
After I had groomed my final three pups, we would be setting off to say our farewells to the Pack Elder, of whom I had rarely met. But he was there for Strawberry in her time of need, and his own pups were in the Pack- and I knew all too well the all encompassing grief that followed the passing of kin.
"Do you trust them, Pa?"
He was not the first of my Pups to ask the question, but he was one of the most calm. I knew exactly what he was referring to, because the tone of loss was heavy handed under his low croon. He held a lot of guilt for what the humans did- he and his sister both- and both were guarded because of it.
It was more subtle, hidden, in Peace's personality, but not so much in Noble's. I nodded slowly, a meaningful glance being set down the tunnel that my last three pups would be coming up any time soon.
"Yes, Arthur. They are different. They are wolf. They have had a war with the Vampires because they hurt a Heart, and their reasons are just. I joined their Pack because I chose to, not because I was subjugated. You have no fear. I will not force you to join this Pack, you may roam freely as you have for many of years. You are certainly old enough now to seek your Heart."
He knew I was being serious when I referred to him by that name. It wasn't something we did very often, the name a remembrance of a past long ago. He looked down at the ground, scratching it slightly with his different coloured eyes that were a mirror of my own.
I butted his head, crooning a soft noise to him like I did for many years later. The events of that night, that led to his change, haunted him for many years after, and unfortunately the list of those nightmares only kept adding with age.
"You say that, but what do you mean by that. That they are wolf?"
I smiled a little, because it reminded me of a few of my other memories. I had a collection of them by now, both of the good and bad variety. 'They are wolf' was certainly a weird phrase, considering they are not a wolf biologically. They had the spirit of a wolf, had the form of a wolf, but for all intents and purposes, they were not wolf.
"I told you when you were young about my Mother and my Father. 'They are wolf' was a term she used to say to me and my brothers when I was young, and asked about why we never harmed or maimed lost stragglers, or necessary forest-dwellers, even if they attempted to hunt us first. She said something that sticks with me. 'They may not be wolf, but they are wolf. They are brave, stick together, and bound like a wolf. We respect others like us, but not us, and we are respectful to all forest-dwellers. We share many qualities, but we must stick to them. They are wolf in the sense of Pack, and family, and kinship, and they have the strength to be strong. Any human that stands up to all those qualities are a wolf, in all but blood.' It is not simple to understand, but the phrase was saying that they had similar qualities that we do, and have honour and loyalty. They are a wolf in spirit, but not in blood. I suppose that is exceedingly literal in this case."
He hummed, in deep thought and looking significantly older then he was for that brief moment in time. He didn't get any chance to speak or ask me questions about the old tale from my mother, as my three rumbustious younger pups came tearing out of the tunnel, fur tussled and mussed and in need of a good groom.
I say rumbustious, but perhaps that was more accurate for Spirit and Tempest, and not for Honour. She was so quiet, and when I say that, I mean that in all seriousness of the word quiet. Words were practically a different dialect for her, in the sense that she wasn't likely to make much noise.
"Calm down a little guys."
Noble's tail swept, flicking them on the nose as he began to disappear down the tunnel. He nosed Honour on the way past, as she looked back quietly, eyes dwelling upon him for a brief second. Her white fur was neatly pushed away, and she was easily my neatest pup in terms of fur cleanliness.
Tempest subjected himself to my grooming first, his blue-grey fur being one of the most colourful amongst all my pups. Where all these fur colours came from, I assumed it was somewhere within my lineage. But I never knew my grandfather, nor my grandmother, and so, my parentage through the generations was largely unknown.
Even if I did know that, I was not the most experienced person in terms of lineage. I ran my tongue along his fur, pulling it back neatly and giving him a nice appearance. Since cleaning my pups was a fairly monotonous and laborious task, I allowed myself to drift back into the story of my adopted pups. It would be a quick way for the time to pass, and I was never one to leave a story unfinished.
I carefully lowered Tempest down onto the grass, near my Mate as we took a minute to do a quick headcount. All my pups, youngest to the eldest, were safe from the ensuing flames of the red-hot, and there was no more fumes contaminating our lungs. We could breath clean air once again. Breeze, in all her majestic beauty, nosed around the pups, checking them with silent snuffles and small nudges.
The light was shining on her, illuminating her beauty for all to see, but to contrast the joy I felt about seeing my Mate, we both looked at the remains of the forest. Trees had tumbled down, beaten into submission by the flames. Forest-Dwellers were fallen, scattered across the grass, bodies midstride as we realised they had failed to escape the chaos.
Amongst everything, we realised that the red-hot was still eating the forest, endangering those who had failed to escape the ensuing chaos. There was no sign of Amelia or Arthur, and I had my doubts that they would have just fled without telling us. The last we saw, they were making sure the Den was empty, and were intending to follow us out.
But they hadn't. I looked to my Mate, as she matched my look with one of worry. Despite ourselves, we had grown attached to the two younglings, and they were our own. Wolf but not wolf, as my mother would have said. Breeze knew me better then I knew myself, so she nudged her head towards the forest, and licking my cheek, flicking her ears.
"Go look for them. Take Whisper. They went the way we came, that much I can see."
"I will. Run safe, Breeze. Be careful, my Heart. "
Whisper flanked me, as we broke into a run, heading into the hell-scape that was our former home. It was difficult to track any scents in the ensuing chaos, and the thick fumes, choking and constricting did not help us much either. Between my own and Whisper's powers, we managed to thin out the air to the degree where we could breath a little easier.
The heat was still something to be reckoned with, but every so often Whisper would surround us in a little whipping of wind. We moved through methodically, and I used every power at my disposal to find the two younglings. And eventually, a long while later, we did. They were dark, covered by the grass as they laid limp on the ground, skin ashen and pale, various limbs being scarred with angry welts and the scorn of the red-hot.
Whisper batted with the red-hot as I carefully grasped the torn remains of Amelia's leg-fur, pulling her free from the wreckage as my powers pushed the log up. She looked ill, worse then she did a minute ago, and I knew we had to get the both of them out of here.
Their injuries were dire.. and I had the gut-wrenching feeling that this wasn't going to turn out well. I pished her limp body clear of the fumes and the red-hot, before turning back to her brother, who was trapped underneath a fallen tree, edges black and its life dead and fleeting.
"Whisper- on three, help me push the log up."
She nodded, coughing and hacking a little as the smoke irritated her lungs, with my lungs following closely in pursuit. I stood at one end, so that I was facing Amelia at all times, as I lowered myself to the floor so I was looking up at the log. Whisper positioned herself so she was facing me, and her eyes were fixated on the log, pulsing with power.
Her pale fur swirling in the air like leaves, and her claws digging ever so slightly through the ground. I trusted Whisper with her powers to an extreme extent, as she had been the one who had practised independently, and as such almost had absolute control.
"1...2…3"
Purple crawled up the log, bulging out and becoming a tangible thing, gathering at the base. As my power became more concentrated, supporting the strain of the log with ease, the wind snaked underneath the small gap, pushing up. My shadows curled up, twisting around and around in the representation of a tree trunk, thickening.
With one push, we sent the tree trunk skidding over to the side, quickly becoming encapsulated in the hungry red-hot. My powers dissolved quickly as the wind returned to a passive sphere around us, as Whisper dived in and snagged his hand, pulling him out. We positioned him onto my back, as I secured him with my powers, creating loose bands of shadow to hold him in place, as my daughter took Amelia, securing her with braces of wind.
With no consciousness, there was no chance they could hold on themselves, and walking slowly wasn't an option. We both broke into a sprint, backtracking to where my Mate was, hoping that the two younglings on our backs would hold on. I would not have them stop being-walking because they were harmed trying to save us.
We were in our hastily dug Den, a long distance away. The limp forms of Amelia and Arthur's were in one of the main rooms we had- my pups and my Mate had- dug out, faces still ashen. Their heads were hot, like the red-hot was lingering around their heads.
Torrent kept dampening their heads a little, while also making the stone slabs around them cold and soothing. If I had to rank their skill with controlling their powers, Torrent would have the second-best control, making delicate shapes and swirls with ease. Their hearts were slowing, bit by bit, and none of the remedies I knew were working on them.
We'd exhausted all of our options, and I was beginning to think that I was going to watch these younglings die. That night, I was curled up around Breeze, sitting quietly and absorbed in my thoughts, as she groomed me from head to toe, something she liked to do for me. It was something I had missed out on growing up.
"Shadow."
I turned to face her, tilting my head slightly as I listened for the echoes of any stirring beings, human or wolf. The smell of ash still lingered around us, haunting us and reminding us with their ever-presence that we had lost our original home, because of the humans. It was yet another reason to hate humans. With their greed and their selfishness, they had just about killed two of their own. I licked Breeze on her muzzle, admiring her fur silently, as she looked at me with pitying eyes.
"Have you tried using your mother's powers?"
I shook my head, casting my eyes towards where the two younglings were laying. I resisted the urge to go to them, spend their last moments with them, reassure them somehow that I would not let their sacrifice go in vain. I would avenge them, even if blackmail was rarely a courtesy we could indulge.
"I do not know what it can do, nor how I could use it. It's wily, unlike my own power which coexists within me. It is not mine, and I have no idea if it will listen to me, nor what I could do with it."
The look in her eyes as she turned to face the room where the two younglings were was familiar. It was, after all, the look she wore when she was looking at our own pups. It seemed she'd adopted them as her own, for better or for worse, regardless of the fact that they were human. They had saved our lives, which was one of the ultimate trials of loyalty.
Giving up on gathering any sleep, I stood up, shaking my fur off. I sighed, looking at her with adoration in my eyes. I'd do anything for my mate, and she knew that. She never took advantage of it.. and I couldn't deny her the one thing she'd ask me for.
"I'll try my best. But I make no promises."
She looked at me, head on her paws for a brief moment, before she made to follow me. There was no telling what my mother's powers would do, and I would not have my mate in the firing line. I chuffed, before running my rough tongue along her cheek, pushing her down ever so slightly She needed her rest after the days events.
"I don't know what will happen. You need to rest. I'll handle this."
She looked like she wanted to argue, but I fixed her with my best glare. She would stay here. Regardless of what she wanted. Her and the Pups safety was my priority, and I couldn't afford for any of my pack to get hurt. I bared my teeth, hollow of a threat, and she laid back down once she realised I was as serious as I could be about it.
After confirming she would stay there, I made my way through to the room where I had been spending most of my waking moments, outside of hunting and caring for the pups. I stood between the two of their limp forms and allowed my powers to expand outside me, lining the walls and roof of the room with a purple haze.
I opened my eyes, pulsing with power and the hum of my shadows echoing around me as the walls thickened, no longer becoming see-through. The corridors of the Den became obscured by purple, and continued to thicken until I was certain that nothing was getting through it. Then I reached deep within myself, past my powers which responded to my presence with an eager coo.
I pushed it away gently, before diving even deeper to the power that had lingered within me for so long. It responded cautiously to my touch, carefully nudging my prod, as I pulled it out. Where my shadows were cold, the other power was warm, where my shadows were methodical, the other power was playful, teasing, eager to please.
Bringing it up to the surface, small blades of grass sprouted around my paws, as my eyes became even brighter, small wisps of power jumping throughout my fur like the wind. My claws dug deep into the earth, as the foreign power asked me what I wanted. Using the experience I had with my powers, I branched down below, connecting a path between the two Pups and me. Happily, it ran across to them, brushing around my own power without interacting with it.
Heal them.
I pleaded, almost desperately pleading for them to be safe. They (the powers) seemed accepting, but before they set out to hopefully do what I asked them, they turned to face me once again, a question inevitable amongst the nature of the powers. It was like they were sentient, a being, but they also weren't at the same time.
We can. But there will be a cost. Are you ready to accept it?
I nodded without thinking twice. There was no verbal answer, but they turned and disappeared into the two limp younglings, their forms becoming surrounded in a green light. There was a hum of energy as I felt frozen to the ground, feeling drained as the power leeched off of me and into the pups.
So he has said, so it shall be done. Whatever the son of the Mistress commands, shall be done. But with deals come consequences, and not all of them good. Yet so it shall be done.
There was a quiet resignation left, as the power continued to leech out of me, yet I stood steadfast against it all, my determination or my powers never wavering in the slightest. It would all be worth it in the end if my Mate was happy, and after today's events, I think we all needed some happiness.
Notes
Red-hot – Fire
being-walking - living
Author's Note
Hii everyone!
Hope you guys are all doing well. I'm exhausted. I have maths homework due for tomorrow that I'm stuck on, have two major tests coming up, and I'm working four days next week. On the upside, tomorrow is Friday. That's super optimistic for me.
QOTW: What's a guilty pleasure song you like to listen to? I think for me it might be Taylor Swift's old album Fearless, or maybe Skillet. I'm not overly fond of Skillet, but there are several songs I do like. I'm also fond of Legends Never Die, by Against the Current.
Anyway, I need to attempt to finish this maths homework, so I'll see you all next week!
~Cait