Post by Victor Adelai on Aug 20, 2010 9:35:14 GMT -8
The night was still.
The large native halfbreed sat halfway up a tree, blending into his surroundings perfectly. A night bird chitters quietly a few feet away. A single figuration of clouds moves to obscure Luna's light. The world is still and peaceful. The perfect berg nestled sweetly on the Issaquah plateau is dark, completely ignorant of the one sitting above their town filled with hate.
The gathering had been strange. Never before had Lightbringer petitioned to join a sept. The Load-Bearers had ever been mobile. Wanderers by trade and desire, they would move to a place and work until it was time to move once more. But the words of his beta rang in his head.
'I am tired of wandering,' he had said. 'This is a good place and we are clearly needed. It is only honorable to defend a caern such as this.'
Wise words. And so the alpha had been moved to challenge so that his pack might have a home. And his challenge had been greeted by a sneer. Did all packs have to save the world before they were granted entry?
Words cannot describe the rage that had filled his heart with the sentiment of the Elder. Their pack had cast themselves against every enemy the sept brought forward. Their pack had planned tactical death against those enemies too large to face directly. Their pack had taken land to shepherd, and indeed found this nest most foul. Their pack had even refined a suicidal plan to save the world and turned it into something manageable.
And the words of the Elder for such selfless courage? Lets see how saving the world goes?
The hidden ahroun sitting in the tree stills his grinding teeth once more.
At the words of the Elder, his heart had hardened. They would not ask a second time. Their time was too precious to be bound in chains of honor to a caern that would disregard such service so foolishly.
And then the sept had stood for them. It was strange seeing so many whitemen and women standing in defiance of their Elders. The pack of Volcano and Earthquake, Minerva and Raven, even the humble pack of Fox. All had stood to lend support to the children of Hummingbird. Few things had the power to move a hating heart, but the actions of his cousins had done so.
And then he had realized the strangest thing of all. The challenge had been answered, and it wasn't a quest for the Load-Bearers, it had been a challenge to the sept itself. One issued and answered within a single breath. The moment passed, they had a home.
How long had they wandered without a home? It was meaningless to contemplate now. Their boarders would be patrolled and their common enemies slaughtered. A debt of honor stood with each of the packs to rise in answer to the challenge of the Elders.
Here was home. With cousins who welcomed without hesitation. It was a good place.
