King Elk Forest drive my heart into the night

Dusk had just settled over the Wilds as Ghost made his way into the Teekon Wilds, following the river that cut through it into the forest itself. Briefly, silver gaze swept over the dark canopy and trunks of the massive and ancient trees that made it up but he pushed forward. In a different life Ghost might have admired their strength and taken the feral beauty of the King Elk Forest with wondrous eyes but that life had been long passed, murdered by The Officer as he turned the once innocent boy into a predatory mercenary for hire. The beauty of things, of life were lost upon the wraith as he moved with nimble steps and a charlatan's purpose. The truth was much more complex than he made it seem. There was no regret for ending the aging Officer's life...the girl that Ghost had been instructed to pupnap would be given the life that Ghost had never had: she would grow and know the love of her mother, her father. She would have dreams and the ability to fulfill them. She would not be a marionette — she would not be like him. Yet one good deed could not erase the blood that gushed from his ledger, could not erase the collection of souls he'd amassed. Four scars that resembled tally marks were visible on his left shoulder but it was missing one. Marking himself was not something he could do on his own, unfortunately, and while it was a small number it was also many. Four of his own ilk he had hunted down and slaughtered like sheep.

He was free from The Officer. The last breath the elderly wolf had drawn had seen to it, confirmed it, but it was something that Ghost struggled with. He was lost. He lacked the direction he had solely relied on The Officer to give him. What did he do? Where did he go? What did he do when he got there — where ever it was he went? What was he looking for? What did he want? All questions that swam aimlessly around his mind without the inkling of an answer. He didn't know. Ghost was not sure that the transition would be a possible one, was not sure that he could ever understand the mechanics of a “normal” pack life. It was a daunting thought; and one of the few things, admittedly, that inspired fear in him.

He gave a soft shake of his head once, drawing him out of his wandering thoughts, re-focusing his eyes and attention upon the path he'd chosen, moving deeper towards the heart of the King Elf Forest, continuing to move North. It seemed like a good place to start: keep going north.