Arrow Lake & i wonder (not for the first time) what happened to your wings

Her babbling broke his concentration, and he gave her a squint. I am an idiot, and you are sexy, he concluded, hoping to stem any arguments that may ensue. But I'm not gonna stroke your ego here, nor am I gonna tell you any sexy stories. I was thinking more along the lines of, you know, my childhood in Trigeda.

Trigeda. Verx gave a wistful sigh, glancing away. There were so many wolves there. I never wanted for friends. There were a gang of us yearlings, always getting into trouble. Hannibal, Trajan, Cyrus, and Vercingetorix. The nightmare quartet. He laughed, tossing his head back with mirth. Oh, God, we were terrible. But at least we were loyal, and dedicated to learning how to be warriors.

One time, Trajan and Cyrus got into a fight over a girl. Uh, can't even remember her name. I didn't think she was that pretty, but those two were head over heels for her. Except Trajan, he was terrible with the ladies, Verx added, looking at Aure. Talk about paw-in-mouth. Never saying the right thing, tripping over his words. Good guy, but man, super awkward. And so, Cyrus wooed her and fucked her, and Trajan got upset about it, because he'd been in love with her for a really long time.

He would have killed Cyrus, had he been in Trajan's paws. That was hormones, for you. Anyway, Hannibal and I had to deal with this fallout, he said, rolling his eyes. Try to fix the rift and all. Turns out we didn't need to, because Cyrus died on a raid, and she got super sad and turned to Trajan and they, uh, lived happily ever after, I guess?

Not Cyrus, though. Death came to everyone, but it came much too early for his friend. Were the others still alive? Did they wonder about him, every so often? He hadn't seen his adolescent friends in moons and moons; life was so different now from what it once had been, and he didn't know how to feel about it.

So, I guess that was an explicit and gruesome story, just not involving me, Verx said, gaze clouded over with memory. Fuck, he'd kind of made himself sad now. That definitely hadn't been the plan.