Silver Creek in a city with no seasons

for @Eshe (: welcoming my little shark back to the wilds!

the power of grief built caverns deep within a once young wolf. wide and dark and capable of swallowing all other emotions whole. pike had grown despite his hollowed interior, perhaps a thick skin kept it all from crumbling down. four years of self-loathing had not created the most romantic of wolves, but he at least had learned enough work ethic and trade skill to keep himself alive and fed, however miserable a life it was. 

in all fairness, pike had tried. he tried for months at the hollow under his mothers care before he took a cowards approach. tried to liven back up, tried to fit back in, play with his siblings and the other youth in the pack, learn new skills, be a good son. but as far as he pushed down the guilt of his father's death, it still haunted him every night. it preyed on his dreams and pulled at his heart. it built caverns.

and so he ran. ran as far as his once gangly legs could take him and ended up god even knows where. and then he just kept going. he was alone until survival instincts forced him to make a home within a pack, where he swept along at the bottom ranks -- hunted and patrolled. he was born from a king and would die as a peasant, and it was apt punishment he'd always thought. to have a hand in your own father's death... 

until he met her. it was terance's silent, brooding hopeless romanticism that clawed it's way through pike's blood. it is not a woman's job to fix anyone, but it seemed that the redleaf-disarinno men would always need a woman's delicate, healing touch. a curse brought upon by something, surely. amber, was her name, and at first pike was not sure where she'd gotten it from. coat as white as snow and eyes almost as black as the night sky. she was a healer amongst one of the packs he resided in, and he'd only had the pleasure of meeting her after a scuffle at the border, where a bite mark went a little deeper than usual. it was in the midst of a shockingly sunny winter day, when they left the medic's den for fresh snow, where he saw the flash of fire in her dark gaze. in the light of the sun, they were truly spectacular, like stolen embers. 

it was this woman that pike finally shared his trauma with. while some may stare baffled at someone who took four years to overcome something like this, amber would speak softly and nod along as pike strained to find words to describe it. it was only her that could get him to see the scale of the incident, that he could finally remove the blame he'd placed on himself as a child. and while pike had taken this kindness and fallen in love with her hidden fire, she did not love him back. she did not owe him that, anyway. but he took her advice and his now broken heart, and travelled back to the place he was born. perhaps to find his mother... perhaps just to try life one more time. he had siblings, somewhere, maybe they too roamed these wilds still. 

feet planted in the silt, the creek babbling just before him, pike took a deep breathe in. he had grown up by a creek, but was it this one? either way, a drink and rest would suit him well. he stepped ankle deep into the waters, dipping his head to lap at it. just at the edge of the clearing, still shaded beneath the dappled trees, pike took a moment to scan around before headed to a wide-trunked tree, lowering himself down to rest. he leaned back against the base of the tree, taking another breathe. inhale, exhale. 

this time would be better.