Blacktail Deer Plateau soft words don't

coming together was not the culture he had been born into. at least, not this rigidly. bands of loners, sure, finding places to sleep together, keeping warm and fed. but not structured packs. not families. and it had never gotten very cold in the south, not even in the mountains, and aditya had rarely ever wandered there.

grayday explained that he, too, had come to the wilds before his fourth winter, and found refuge with a pack as well. it must have been quite a year for the man, then, to have ascended from newcomer to alpha over a vast territory.

he smiled, chuckling softly. "my story. . .is complicated. it's one of those stories where i could regail you for hours about all the small details. but at the same time, i feel like so little of true significance has happened to me that i could sum it up in a minute or two. i think," he decided, stretching a little, "that i'll spare you and opt for the second option."

aditya looked out to the forest. "i was born fatherless. for the first few months of my life, i had my mother, my uncle--or so he said--and a few of their friends. but they scattered, one by one, and shortly after i was weaned, my mother died." he paused for a moment, not so much out of sorrow but reflection upon the mysterious circumstances regarding that particular day of his life. "or not. i never saw her body. i just know i woke up one day and she was gone."

"so i've spent the rest of my life a drifter, moving up and down the coasts without any real purpose," he continued. "i've loved, i've lost. i've lived a very full life, and yet, at the end of the day, it bothers me to know that i've not left any real legacy behind."

he looked at his alpha. "no one to remember me by. no future generations telling my tales. i have been so good at living life to the fullest that i have given it all to each moment, leaving no impression." laughing again, he smiled sheepishly. "so, in just a few words, that's me."