Blackfeather Woods Great big world

The sun was low in the sky, rendering the forest near complete darkness. He trot out of the wood, entering a small clearing where the light penetrated the leaves more so than in the deepest wood. He had grown accustomed to his life in the deep woods, though recently he had felt the oddest feeling. Guilt. He had no name for it, but at quite times, it consumed him. Reek. Vuk. Jhala, Terich-Mir. Where were they all, and we was he not more upset? He should be. But he loved his new home, the places to explore, the land, the secrets and mysteries that so called to him. He felt...at home, changed to better adapt here. He sorely missed his mother, and yet he went on with his daily life, trying to forget his guilt and sadness in daily going-ons. 

But now the worry and saddness he felt at not seeing his mother in so long flooded back. He would find his way back, when he was big and strong. But now...there was so much to do, and he didn't want to make the bigger wolves angry. Not like Xan had been. So he paced the clearing, tail switching back and forth as he went, wanting something to do, something to strive towards so he could ignore his bad feelings. He'd see Vuk again. He would.

Pale eyes squint at the sight of Potema's foundling waving his way across the clearing. He had been resting, hiding in a dark place, concealed in shadows, when the noisy waddling of the kid broke his slumber. He was doing it all wrong, from the way he walked to the path he'd chosen to do so. He was bathing himself under the light instead of prowling in the shadow, and an itch made the Dark Master rise to correct him.

Damien had little hope of the pup staying within Blackfeather Woods for too long. He had been found at an advanced age, and if it was given some thought the boy had probably already escaped at least one pack before if he was alone when Potema found him. But in all honesty Damien didn't really care if he stayed or left. But for now, there were things he needed to do like everyone else that would improve his chances of staying would he want that.

With head low and slow moves Damien came out of his hiding spot, blocking the pup's way and staring right at him as though he was waiting for an explanation of his activities. Testing him in every way he could was the only way he knew whether the child had at least some potential.

Walk, turn, waddle some more. Walk, turn, waddle some more. The pup had no idea of his clumsy walk, so different than the prowling adults, but he wasn't thinking of that at the moment. He was thinking of Larksong, his friends, his family, and-Damien. The pup froze, glancing up at the man a short distance away. The alpha, the leader, the one to show respect to. Seff wasn't stupid, and as the male gazed at him in silence, he did not speak up crudely as he might have done when he first arrived here but greeted him with respectful words. "Alpha Damien, um, Sir."  

As he had done on his initial greeting with the male, he bowed his head, but not in the jittery, excitable way he first had. It was done deliberately and quietly, out of reverence to the dark male who was, in Seff's mind, fascinatingly different. He had not seen him face to face until now, last time having been at his entry into the pack. He shifted his weight, sitting as formally and rigidly as he could as he looked to Damien. His gaze asked a silent question, and Seff answered quickly after a brief pause. "I was looking for some...herbs that Potema showed me. Then I was...thinking, sir" he said quietly, feeling like he was doing something wrong.

Damien did the same as the pup and took seat in front of him. He was different from what he'd been when he arrived to Blackfeather Woods, Damien could easily tell, and a sense of vindication eased the previous skepticism that the pup had caused in him.

Seff explained he was collecting herbs for Potema, which added to the gratification, but the last bit was what interested Damien the most. "What were you thinking?" asked the dark prince curiously, turning to a more polite stance in return for the kid's own etiquette.

It did not seem that he had done anything wrong, rather, the King seemed rather nice. At his quiery, Seff answered after only a brief moment. "I was thinking about m-" the pause that interrupted his words was minuscule, and could be derived as a stuttering pause in an unfamiliar word. "mephala" 

He had decided on the change in sentence only after a faded, tarnished image of his mother's face that his young mind desperately clung too. He did not want to talk about his bad feelings, not with Damien. He was much of a stranger to the boy, unlike Potema. Maybe he'd talk to her. But now, his thoughts turned to Mephala, and in turn, Raas. "Can I sees Mephala? Or is she..." he paused, searching for a word not yet firmly rooted in his vocabulary. "like Raas?" he finished, assuming that this wolf would know all about the god. His young mind clung to that last meeting with Reek, and such the ensuring talk about Raas. He assumed that Damien would have heard about the Sun god as well. Everyone did, didn't they?

Damien caught much more from the stuttering sentence than Seff would have wanted him to. Damien was hard to fool, but he was no genius anyway. He was suspicious for a moment, thinking that maybe there was something else clinging to the mind of the spiderling, but a question had been issued, one that Damien actually felt important see it was responded.

"Mephala cannot be seen. Her realm is obscured to every mortal, and she keeps to it, pulling her strings from her pillar palace." he answered with propriety, but there was something else he wanted answered himself. "Now, why can't we see Raas?" he asked as though he was testing the child, but actually wondering who the feck was even Raas.

faded. faded where his memories of Raas, quickly replaced with lore of the Daecric Princes. Sometimes, he confused the two, though his meeting with Reek was faded, almost obsolete save for the way the boy clung to the memory. "oh" he answered to the question, disappointed that he would not be able to meet Mephala after all, or any of the other princes. 

Damien's question was a test, it seemed, to the boy, a question of his knowledge. "cause he lives in the sun and he watches you but if you look at him your eyes hurt." he blurted in a single sentence, all his knowledge summed up. to test the theory, he glanced up, but the sun was hidden by a bough and he looked down in slight disappointment.

It seemed there was a connection between Raas and the sun, and just like the kid, Damien glanced upwards, failing to see the sun through the thick foliage. There was nothing about the sun in Damien's cult, nothing strange given the Daedra's obscure nature. All he could remember was something about it being just a big hole in the sky, but he believed there was nothing divine about it.

Damien was not opposed to believing there existed other great forces out there besides the Daedra, but none deserved veneration as the latter did. Nirn (the mortal plane) was contained within Oblivion, the realm of the Daedric Princes, so they were the true lords of existence.

"Pathetic," laughed the young shadow darkly, sharing a coy smile with Seff. "Raas can only see so far as light goes," he concluded as he stepped out of the clearing, out of Raas' reach, not minding the fact that he was not familiar with whatever powers the sun god was attributed in Seff's former culture. "Daedric Princes have no limits,"

pathetic.

the word earned a confused look, was he pathetic? were his words? but at Damien's coy smile Seff's own grew, and when he stepped out of the light of the sun, Seff understood. Raas was nothing. Raas wasn't in the caves, the deep wood, the night. Raas only presented himself in limits, while the Daedric princes were everywhere. always, even on the brightest day, there would always be shadows. 

"Raas is weak." the boy agreed with a smile, understanding flaring in his eyes. his smile was that of someone sharing an inside joke, and there he accepted the Daedric Princes much more firmly. Raas, the sun, hardly showed itself here. Perhaps....it was scared. Damien's simple act proved Raas had no power over him, over anyone, and the boy stared at the male with something much like respect.

we can probably finish this one...?

Kids were wonderful. Seff was easy to pull into the dark side of faith, proving that youth could only ever hold potential. That was the reason why Blackfeather Woods needed to grow from within by breeding their own kind. And although he was pleased by Seff's response to his comments on Raas, Damien cared had little hope on his permanence in Blackfeather Woods. He had come too late.

"Indeed," agreed the dark master, inviting the kid to step into the darkness with a gesture of his head. "You'll find strength with us, Seff," he promised, vaguely making an effort to extend the child's time in the dark forest.