Blackfeather Woods Farewell

Late to the party, I know. Been busy.

It was not the howl breaking through the silence of the woods that urged him to respond, nor was it the command behind it, but the meaning of the sound itself. The sorrow that surged within it was easily detectable, prompting the Inuit to rise and answer with his presence. He knew not of the sickness that had befallen the Queen, her ability to keep it hidden having surpassed his knack for picking up on things. Somehow, though, he knew why he was being called—why the pack was being called. He’d known before he’d even arrived at the scene, a twisting sensation in his core telling his subconscious all it needed to know. When something like a death hits, however, grief was always right there along with it, clouding one’s mind and filling it with delusions. Perhaps it is a dream, the mind might argue, and the heart believes it. All sorts of ideas, both logical and not, filled his thoughts, giving him all sorts of reasons as to why the pack was summoned. The lesser regions of his mind knew the truth, but he was not ready to believe them. Not ready to be informed of the tragedy that had struck. Ignorance is bliss, after all, but turning a blind eye can only last for so long.

Kove hovered in the background of things, eyes drifting from one body to the next, but the priestess could not be located. He knew, then, what had happened. He accepted what had happened, but also could not stand it. He knew Meldresi to be older, but not so much so that he found it acceptable for her to be taken away. Life, death… one cannot exist without the other, the Inuit knew that, but thinking that way did little to ease the pain he felt. She was his Queen, the ruler of Blackfeather Woods and the first leader he’d pledged his allegiance to without being born into it. Now, though, she was dead. He could not bring himself to care as the children were introduced, just barely catching their names, for his focus lied elsewhere. They were the last of the Queen’s children, and he knew he should pay attention simply because of that, but he could not. Instead, his fiery gaze remained locked upon the entrance that hid her body away, legs unable to move any closer.