Tormented Tarns children of the mist

Lol...first posts are always weird.

As the miles stacked up behind the trio, Saor found herself reflecting on their journey and thinking of home a lot.  She loved to travel, of course, and the three of them had had a pretty good time since striking out on their own.  The weather was warm and placid, food was plentiful, and the freedom of having nowhere to go and nothing to do was actually quite enjoyable.  Yet in spite of everything, part of her still missed those familiar woods nestled in the protective embrace of granite peaks.  She missed her mother, that sweet, naive, and unassuming she-wolf.  While she sorely missed her sisters, Grey and Lestra, part of her was glad that they had stayed behind.  She wasn't sure how her mother would fare if all of her children left her at once.

Dirge had been the primary concern.  Cross, the alpha of their pack -- who also happened to be the pups' grandfather, though he had never taken kindly to them calling him that or attempting to pursue that sort of relationship with him -- had treated the lone male of their litter with increasingly pronounced suspicion and mistrust as Dirge had come into his second year.  He had always been indifferent toward the pups, sometimes even outright contemptuous, since their mother had conceived them with an outsider and borne them illegitimately.  It had taken every ounce of Kasaka's dignity to beg her father not to kill her newborn pups as she licked them clean on the night of their birth.  And even though he had grudgingly relented to her, his anger had never quite burned itself out.  

Because the truth was that the aging alpha had not been able to sire a litter of his own for some time, and the pack needed a new generation.  The benefit five new puppies meant to his pack was not lost on him.  However, also not lost on him was the fact that one of them was male.  As Dirge grew, Cross fear that someday the boy would be a formidable contender for the alpha male.  Therefore, his treatment of young Dirge was harsher than that of his sisters.  Maybe he hoped that Dirge would leave before a challenge ever had a chance to arise.  Certainly, his worries were not unfounded -- as the pups matured into adulthood, Dirge was easily larger, stronger, and faster than Cross.  Saor still wasn't sure exactly what chain of events led to Dirge leaving the pack, but when he did, there was never any question that she would be tagging along.

As far as she was concerned, it was all for the better.  Because she was tired of dealing with Cross's shit.  Dude was a dick.

She caught Dirge's eye as he glanced back at them, flashing a grin at him.  It really is better this way, she thought.  Maybe they could find a nice place of their own and settle down.  Where they stood now, at some lovely little precipice to a vast, mountainous, coastal paradise, was certainly nice enough.  She inhaled deeply the scents of summer -- fresh grass and sunshine on warm earth, with subtle notes of sea salt and wild honeysuckle -- and sighed it out with an air of satisfaction.  Waving her tail, she looked at Nyx questioningly, wondering if she felt the same.  Or we could just travel forever, she thought. She really didn't care.  As long as these two were with her, it mattered not at all.