Greatwater Lake It's time you stop thinkin' and wasting the day

He'd crossed the mountains like they were going out of style.  Mal had no reason to stay there and wanted distance between himself and a past that was now empty and meaningless.  This first year of life seemed like nothing but this rough attempt to create a wolf that would bend with every breeze, but with each time someone had tried, he fought back.  From the one instance where it was simply Too Much for him to deal with as a tiny pup, he stood defiant.  Nobody taught him otherwise, nobody tried to save him except out of pity.

Now whatever monster he was -- must be, given how everyone always left -- could bloom into whatever hated creature he should be.  He had no fear of coming to the water's edge for a drink, barely doing a rough scan for other wolves in the area.  He was far enough from the sea he didn't expect to see anyone threatening.  No, he was probably the threatening one, wasn't he?  No fear, nothing to lose beneath a dreary sky and nothing ahead but what he made of it.  They had all assumed he was a monster.  Might as well make the best of it and fill the hole left by his now missing sisters with his own wants and desires.  Mal licked the water from his lips and turned down the shore, prowling.

Here was this great empty world, and he could go find a place he could be king over the unworthy and weak-willed.  It sounded amazing on paper, at least, and in his frustration and simmering anger he might just go for it.