Disclaimer: I own everything!! BWA HA HA HA HA H(cough, choke, hack) fine I lied. I only own my OC.
A/N: Wow, I got this one done faster then expected. It may be shorter than the other two but I still think it's good. The next chappie may be a while in coming as I am going to work on my LU story for a bit now. By the way, Raine is pronounced rain. Rain as in H2O(l) precipitating from H2O(g) which is suspended an atmosphere composed of 78.0482 N(g), 20.9463 O2(g), 0.93422 Ar(g), 0.03811 CO2(g), approximately 1 water vapor and 0.002 of trace other elements in their gaseous forms. Well enjoy!
Chapter 3: Raine
Morning sunlight filtered in through the small window on the east side of the room accompanied by the sound of Empire soldiers beginning to go about their business. The silver wolf Murtagh had rescued the day before awoke when the sun fell on her face in the corner of the room. As she sat up, yawned and opened her eyes her heart gave a jolt. It took her a moment to realize where she was and what had happened the previous day.
She stood up slowly but winced when she put her weight on her left hind leg. She began realize how sore she was. There was hardly a place on her body that didn't ache. Her sides were bruised from all the savage kicks she had received, her legs were stiff and they ached from all the time spent on her paws. Those were only the parts of her that hurt the most.
One other thing she began to notice was the sharp pang in her stomach. She hadn't eaten a decent meal since she had been captured so long ago in her homeland.
Home. That single word brought to her a flood of memories. Some of them were happy, others sad. She had been captured in her homeland, shoved in a cage and shipped off to this strange land to be the tyrant King's pet. She had had no say in the matter and the Wizard had dealt with her immediately.
Before she could slip into a state of depression, a smell she hadn't noticed before drifted to her nose. She recognized its source before she could see it. It was food. Delicious, savory cooked meats. She looked around the room hungrily and found the plate of meats on the floor not far from her.
She stood up slowly and gingerly limped over to the steaming plate of food. After a quick sniff she quickly began to eat. The food quickly eased the pain in her stomach. The poor wolf hadn't properly eaten since she was taken captive. She was finally eating a proper meal.
When she finished she licked her chops and headed for the window. She sat down, being careful not to agitate her already injured leg, and placed her head on the window sill, looking out to the castle grounds below. Closing her eyes against the sun she began to think about her current situation. She was now stuck in a land not her own, restricted to a stone building and surrounded by cruel humans.
She opened her eyes slightly and corrected herself. Not all of these humans were cruel. The one who had spared her, Murtagh, had been the first human in her life who had shown her kindness, but she could see he held a heavy burden in his heart. Something was troubling him deeply and it plagued his mind constantly. From what she had seen of him, he had a cold exterior and did not show his inner pain. She smiled to herself. She had always been good at seeing a person's true self.
As to here current situation, well, it wasn't that bad, she guessed. At least she had a warm, safe (relatively), and dry place to sleep and she had received good cooked meat this morning. It could be worse. She could still be with the bandits, or she could be the king's pet. Worse yet, she could be dead. She sighed and resigned herself to the fact that she would be stuck here for a while. It wasn't home but it wasn't that bad either.
Once again, the thought of home brought back a flood of memories. Her homeland, Callore, had been a place of wonder for her. Everything there was ancient and each blade of grass, each insect had a story to tell. The land and all of its creatures were kind and generous (except the humans, but was a different story). The different creatures were all equal and the Emperor was not a tyrant to his people. However he was relatively cruel to the other races he shared Callore with, races such as her own.
How she missed her own people. Among them she had been respected, loved, and others came to her for wisdom. She knew more about Callore than most, but even she did not know every thing there was to know about the ancient land of Callore. Only the Spirit Gods had that type of knowledge.
The humans had their own god in which most believed, but there were those who didn't. Some of the other races worshipped gods created in their own image. The gods of her people were different. They were spirits of nature and elementals, guardians of emotion who created and guarded the lives they were responsible for. Unlike all the other gods who were alive solely in the beliefs of those who worshipped them, hers were real. She had met one before, the one from whom she had received her name.
When she came back to herself she noticed a storm was quickly gathering and it would break before long. She spent the rest of the day watching to process of the storm and drifting in and out of thought with the whipping winds outside.
When evening finally came and she was lying her head down on the window sill, the door opened. She turned around abruptly, ready to bolt or defend herself, even though in her weakened state, she couldn't do either very well. However, when she saw who it was that was entering, she relaxed immediately.
Murtagh looked amused at how startled she was. It was actually quite funny to see a wolf practically jump out of her skin. Despite his earlier mental self-beatings, he was happy to see her feeling at least a little better.
The silver wolf, now less startled and a little embarrassed, settled herself back down as Murtagh approached with another plate of food. Even though she had just eaten this morning, she hadn't eaten in days so she welcomed the food with, well, and open mouth.
As she ate her food, Murtagh sat at a writing desk against the wall and watched her. It wouldn't be much longer until she was ell enough to be on her won and he wouldn't have to worry about Galbatorix finding out what he had done. As he stared into space, a new thought occurred to him. What if this wolf had been raised in captivity? If that was the case then letting it go would be the same as killing it.
Murtagh sighed heavily. Why did this matter? It shouldn't matter. He didn't have time for trivial things like this.
Something touched his leg and he looked down and saw the wolf with her head on his leg. No, this poor creature wasn't raised in captivity. He could see it in her eyes. They were wild and independent. The sound of rain on the window was one of the only sounds that could be heard now. He placed a hand on her head and smiled a rare smile.
"I bet you can't wait to get out of here and back to the forest." He could have sworn he saw her smile. "I wonder if you have a name." he said this more to himself then her but her ears perked up immediately. Maybe this wolf could understand him.
The wolf stood up and gingerly limped over to the window, now blurred with the rain. When she reached the window she looked over at Murtagh and back to the window again, beckoning him over.
As Murtagh stood to walk to the window, he thought of how different this wolf was, physically and, quite obviously, mentally. She was larger than any other wolf he had seen and her fur was much softer. Also both her ears and her tail were longer that normal.
As for her mental capacity, it was quite amazing really. She knew what death was, he had seen that yesterday. She also seemed to have emotions like any other sentient being he had met and she possessed a sense of self. She even seemed to know her name. As far as he knew, animals didn't normally act like this.
When Murtagh reached the window the wolf motioned her head towards the window, indication something outside. He peered out the blurred window, trying to see what she was trying to show him. After a moment he could have sworn he heard her sigh. He looked down at the wolf, which was shaking her head sadly, incredulously. Now she looked up to the clouds and what was falling from them. It still took him a moment but he finally understood what she was saying. Murtagh looked down at her.
"Raine? Your name is Raine?" She smiled a toothy wolf grin, which looked very funny, and nodded her head. "Huh. You really are different." Murtagh was looking out the window again as he placed a hand on Raine's head. She growled happily, proud of herself for making a human understand her. It wasn't home, and even though she still wanted to return there badly, this wouldn't be a bad place to stay until she could.