Phoenix Maplewood King Rat

Location powerplay of @Saena, PM me if you want me to change it! It's late... weird post is weird. I think I got a little carried away.

There was a shadow. Formless and shifting; it watched, hovering above the loam as Reek found his bearing. The ringing in his ears was constant, but thankfully, it's near spectral shriek was drowned out by the droning sound of the river. The old river had always been a source of comfort— Reek clinged to it's familiar memory and found himself clinging to it now once again.

The familiarity was striking. But, it had been so long. Years had passed, and yet it felt as if he had never left.  The valley, the river— all there, exactly as he had left it. The White River Valley stretched before Reek's eyes, bathed in bright white light... like he was seeing the world through some shitty instagram filter. The brightness was nearly painful, save for the shadow which continued to contort on the riverbank.

"Nothing," the shadow creaked in an all too familiar voice before finally taking form. He towered above Reek's skeletal frame— unnaturally large in stature, Cato had always been a man of intimidation. Reek could only cower backwards as his eyes met his uncle's face; black and ghoulish, yet peppered with markings of age. "That's what you are. Your whore mother too," he spat with vitriol.  The words cut deep and Reek could barely muster a dry whimper.

"—Uncle?" croaked Reek, voice meek and meager. For a moment, he barely recognized it as his own. But soon the information clicked, it wasn't a question of who, but when. He was a pup, back in the valley, barely pushing four months old.

"I'm not your uncle," snapped Cato, cutting the pup off before he could get a word in edgewise.  "You're not family."

"But—" sputtered the pup.

"What is your name?" He snapped grinning smugly as he cut the pup off once more.

"I dun wanna—" Reek whined. It was unfair, all of it.

"Name," repeated Cato, grin gone. A stern grimace took it's place.  

"Reek," he offered reluctantly and defeated. His namesake; his legacy.

"And what are you?" Cato inquired with a self-satisfied grin spreading across his maw.

"Nuthin."

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Reek awoke with an awkward clamber as his orange eyes sprang open in the darkness. His heart raced frantically in his chest as he sprang to his feet and wildly looked around where he slept. It was all still there. The life that he had built for himself. His mate sleeping beside him, his pack, his happiness.  All accounted for. Allowing himself to relax a bit, his heart rate slowed. However the lump in his throat still remained.

He needed a walk.  

Awkwardly stepping over his sleeping mate (if he hadn't already woken her in his panic), he made his way to the creek and dunked his head in the cool water.  When the ripples eventually subsided, Reek paused to look at his reflection. He had greyed so much; the stress of losing the rise taken it's toll on the alpha considerably and for the first time, he finally noticed it. But most of all, Reek seethed with anger.  His ghoulish features, the greying— he looked so much like him. "Fuck you," he groaned, slapping the water with his forepaws so that the ripples would distort his image away.