Shadowwyn Moor Don't you know it is just the chemicals in our veins that causes pain?

Paging Saatsine!

After her encounter with Winter’s Wake at Qeya River, Shadowpaw had enough information to begin tracking the “reindeer herders” Southbound. It was a fairly easy thing to do, for their path closely followed the large herds of caribou who churned the ground wherever they ran.

To both her surprise and horror, the trail led through Lost Creek Hollow. Her birthplace. The home of her Moonpool. She picked out the familiar scent of Ksura among them. More questions than ever before began to pop up in Shadowpaw’s mind as her imagination architected what could have possibly happened to her mother and family.

Shadowpaw skulked near Shadowwyn Moor as the odor of wolfscent became strong.

morwenna's sister had come to join the saatsine, and while sun eater was pleased by this turn of events, they compelled the chieftain to look toward the taiga once more.

he was not yet ready to leave, and toyed idly with a caribou femur, letting it drop so he might kick it across the glossy drifts. a thin shadow drifted there, a slender spill of quillblack. he approached with the confidence earned, tail lashing once as he searched her scent for swiftcurrent and did not find it.

"who you?" commanded the hunter, his one eye making short work of her finer details.

o no i got big daddy

An imposing man interrupted Shadowpaw’s reconnaissance. He was large, brawny, blackfurred and spoke in broken common that gave the impression of a neolithic savage.

Though the girl did not know if the reindeer herders were the original threat that had driven Silvertongue, Wren, and the others from Riverclan, it was easy to see that this hale wolf was capable predator. The cadence of Shadowpaw’s heartbeat quickened when she fell under the scrutiny of his one eye… yet even he could not make the apprentice’s bloated ego shrink.

“A traveler,” Shadowpaw replied without giving away any particulars. Her hunched body crept backwards to keep a healthy distance between them.

“I followed your trail from the Taiga… I seek the wolves of Qeya River… There were gifted healers among them,” she said as one ear turned as if to punctuate her sentence with a question mark.

lol not big daddy haha

 

this one too wore a star, but there the resemblance to morwenna ceased. had the stranger been hungry? she wore the marks of a rough life in her pelt and musculature.

"river is mine. hunters are mine. when i come, no healers." and no leaders, though he kept this information aside for now. nostrils scrutinized her scent with a bovine snort. 

that femur lay in the drifts behind him, forgotten at present. who was she?

"some stay. others go. name?" he uttered in a second command, direct as he wished. there were caribou to hunt and blood to be spilled steaming into the white snow.

The shepherd’s simple answers only fabricated more questions in Shadowpaw’s mind. Had he taken the river? Had Wren never returned? Had most of the pack abandoned Qeya before the hunters arrived? Where had they gone?

"The ones I'm looking for are named Ash Star, Wren, or Ksura. They had children, too. Do you know them?" she asked

He asked her name again, but Shadowpaw was reluctant to give it up.

“I'm Morwenna,” she lied, the pseudonym randomly plucked from her conversation with Winter’s Wake.

It was a bad choice.

"not know these names," sun eater growled impatiently, though the stranger's next claim provoked a cold chuckle.

"morwenna is wife to me," came the cut of flashing teeth. but the star on her forehead was undeniable, and again he suspected the things he had refused to know.

long limbs moved in range stride to corral the younger wolf, his teeth grabbing for her now. a swiftcurrent spy, he had decided, pushed by own nerves to a breaking point which threatened to find its target in the girl if she did not submit.

Morwenna is wife to me, the man said with threatening fangs.

Shadowpaw had misstepped. The unassuming name had betrayed the girl and became evidence of her deceit. What she thought was little white lie, wasn’t – evidenced by how quickly the man ate up the distance between them.

She cowered like a dog. “What’re you doing?” Shadowpaw shot as the last thimble of her hubris was poured out. She scrambled and tried to flee. “Let me go!” she resisted as her escape was cut off.

The man’s teeth found her haunch next. Shadowpaw yelped a horrible sound in panic and dropped to the floor. “Stop!” the girl cried.

her shouts did not dismay the man, who snapped his teeth on the open air beside her flesh. "o'daetl," ordered sun eater in a thrumming growl, though he did not explain his words. another moment of refusal or hesitation and he would simply drag her into shadowynn by the darkshot nape of her neck.

despite his malevolent look, it was not hatred which drove the chieftain. he was used to being obeyed, and if she had been one of the river wolves, her life too belonged to him,

and there was a reason: he meant to do as river walker bid.

The foreign command elicited only a momentary pause and blank stare from the yolk-eyed girl. She balled up, but he was quickly upon her and seized her nape like a whelp.

“No!” Shadowpaw yelled as she writhed. She tried to spin around and snap at the hunter with amateur aim, but there was no deterring him. With her tail firmly tucked against her belly, Shadowpaw fought until every muscle fiber of her body was completely fatigued.

"Let me go!" she wailed again. But, at this point, even if he did release her it was unlikely Shadowpaw's body had the energy to run.

he dragged her with ease through the snow, stopping only when he felt her curl fawnlike and silent. assured then that there would be no running, sun eater released her flesh and rolled his shoulders.

"i tell story," he grunted, settling before her in a way that demanded attention upon him. "i come to river. no leaders. two women. a man. they fight me. we bleed," he went on in a careful monotone.

"one woman have blue eyes. she say she leader. she fight other wolf there. she leader, she say, so i kill." it was not flung with any pride; he spoke in a tone that said only what had gone on before.

"river wolves stay. become saatsine. ask place for children to come back." pointedly he stared at the girl, at her starred forehead. "now you here. i keep."

Shadowpaw’s protests became weaker the further she was dragged. Fear overwhelmed her mind and prevented any scheming of future escape. For all the intelligence and cunning the riverwolf thought she possessed, it mattered little when faced with a man who had actual conviction and strength.

So, when she was dropped it was like a piece of deadwood. She landed in the snowy vegetation with a thump and groaned, neck beyond bruised and sore.

I tell story, the man said.

Fuck you, was all Shadowpaw could think, though she didn’t dare utter it.

Her anger and righteousness was so enflamed she barely comprehended the words he said, not wanting to absorb any of his barbaric drivel.

But what he said…

….!

Shadowpaw’s heart nearly exploded from her chest.

Surely, there must have been another blue-eyed wolf among the Qeyaians. Someone other than Ash Star, her mother. Someone else who would take up the thankless role of leader and die while protecting their family from threat.

And the way he said it! The way his words were emotionally agnostic! As if her whole, beautiful life was reduced to a simple blip in time!

If Shadowpaw had ever known what to expect when she reached the Moors, she might have never come at all.

She thought of Starclan. Of her family.

She thought of Winter’s Wake and his True Fates.

Of poor Silvetongue, ruined in the desert.

Shadowpaw’s whole body felt acidic. She felt sick. She felt regret.

Pure, molten animosity burned in her wet eyes as she looked up at her mother’s murderer. “I don’t belong to you,” she spat.

ah — ah. there it was, the glinting truth which now stood in the girl's hateful eyes. the woman buried at the river had been someone to her, and for a moment sun eater considered prising this blood-claim from the girl.

just as fast, the impulse passed. here was the third captive he had taken in his life. what had gone on before did not matter, and his great shadow loomed over her in a chilled silence which he allowed to stretch and stretch.

"no," he agreed at last in a quiet voice, though the single eye flashed with an answering contempt, a deep bemusement at her defiance even in the face of pain. a warrior. perhaps the qeya wolves might have earned a better outcome had she been among them.

"not me." he stood now to his feet, chin lifting, paw raised to prod her up as well. "now you belong to river walker."

sun eater had not hurt the girl, not truly. but he was not above teaching her the lesson that ash had learned, anguish first before attempt was made. maybe in his age he had become softer, and she its first recipient. intriguing. "move."

I don’t belong to you.

Yet when his long, cold shadow eclipsed her, his silence spoke the loudest of all.

Shadowpaw shrunk as it dawned upon her that, though her spirit remained no more pliable than stone, her body had been commandeered.

She swallowed a burning lump in her throat.

No, his quiet voice ominously agreed.

Shadowpaw’s stomach dropped and a strong feeling of dread iced her bloodveins.

Now you belong to river walker.

Serendipitous, wasn’t it? A riverwolf for a riverwalker.

Shadowpaw bared her teeth, but the corners of her mouth were downturned as she fought a crying sob.

Move, came the next command. This, too, Shadowpaw refused until forced as she clung to the strands of pride she had left.

in sullen silence the girl at last obeyed, and it was cause for sun eater to at last call @Kekoa to the moorland. 

he did not speak to the captive; he stood close above her, and without warning he lunged to knock the young one down harshly into the snow, to crouch over her with his teeth glinted in the half-light. "i call the ghost talker. holy man. give respect. not need two eyes to live," sun eater warned, a twitching muscle along his jawline adding impetus as it tugged the ragged edge of his own empty socket.

saatsine's time here had come to an end. he waited only for the blessing of river walker before he took them away.

Sun Eater called, and so he came. He always did, like the obedient child he never had been for his parents. Now an awkward teenager, maybe the obedience came from admiration rather than the blood they did not share. To be taught such ruthless nature even if only through observation, maybe it was why the river walker often appeared before Sun Eater and Sun Eater alone.

In a way, he feared that he was becoming similar to the spirits that he so often scrutinized in the privacy of his wanderings.

Knocked into the snow beneath the chieftain laid a woman he did not know. Close to his age, though maybe a bit older.

Approaching the pair, he looked to Sun Eater with tired eyes and waited for an explanation. What was his business with the girl, and what did the ghost talker have to do with it?

Shadowpaw’s strong instinct of self preservation prevented her from trying anything risky, mind overwhelmed as her new reality sunk in.

She hobbled a distance further in the shadow of the ebony man until he stopped to call another.

Yelp! Shadowpaw cried out in surprise when she was suddenly thrusted face-down into the snow. Threatening fangs hovered so near the girl felt the heat of the reindeer herder’s breath – his ugly, hollow eye socket a cautionary warning.

Ghost talker. Holy man. Give respect.

Starclan give me strength, Shadowpaw inwardly pleaded as her owlish eyes glimpsed up at the sky.

~

A wolf answered the call and Shadowpaw watched him approach with a disdainful gaze. He was tall, but slab-sided, with a russet colored pelage. Young, she gleaned, unlike her captor. What she hated most of all was his aloof expression. As if taking a hostage and mistreating them wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.

She seethed, bitter, and pressed her hot, damp cheek to the ground.

river walker drew close, urging a deference from sun eater that came for no other. "ghost talker," rumbled the chieftain. "you ask i give you wife in summer. see now. we keep. teach to be saatsine. you have what you want when sun is hot."

if he was crueler, he might have given her now, though he did not see the same malice in river walker. they were both quite young; she would grow into the role commanded.

gently, far more gently than before, sun eater pushed the girl toward the ghost talker of the saatsine.

so long as the spirit man was settled, so would be the caribou lives which had been taken by his teeth and that of others. "i ask morwenna to care for her. to keep, teach."

A wife; that was why he had been brought here. The ghost talker had nearly forgotten his request.

Stranger or not, his expression softened now. What does she need to learn from Morwenna? He asked, eyes breaking from the face of the chieftain to look to the woman laid in the snow.

He felt some sense of panic now. He knew what was expected of a wife, but what of a husband? If she truly was his now, then it would be necessary to learn.

Head leaned down to sniff at her, to check for signs of illness or injury. Should Sun Eater have injured her at all, he would be rather offended now that he knew who she was intended to be.

Shadowpaw did not miss how the presence of this ghost talker evoked polite, deferential reverence from the barbaric ebony man. He was like Jekyll and Hyde… did the holy man know how his acolytes acted? Or was he just as cruel and violent as his constituents?

She pondered this this until the herder spoke his intentions.

It dawned on her that ghost talker and river walker were the same wolf.

Wife!!!

Shadowpaw began to think of all the hideous ways she would inflict pain upon the shepherds.

Disemboweling. De-sexing. Nail-pulling.

Starclan will rule over Saatsine, she silently vowed. I will take your children. I will make you suffer. And then I will kill you.

The cleric stooped down to inspect his new acquisition as Shadowpaw was gently presented to him.

But the rivergirl’s face was anything but kind. Her hard lemon-yellow stare, filled with vitriol, watched the man until the whites or her eyes were like two crescent moons. The look of a dog just before it bit the hand that tried to pet it. Yet she showed not one tooth tip nor uttered a growl – convinced the one-eyed shepherd would make good on his threats.

However, she noticed, with ghost talker present there seemed to be a bubble of protection from the dark wolf’s abuse...

"she teach how to obey," sun eater grunted as he watched river walker mull over the strange girl. she herself watched the ghost talker with a wild light in her eyes, one of barely controlled fangs. he knew that panic and had fed it in others more than once.

"scared wife not serve well. she run away." river walker should not try to have her now; he had the chance of other women on which to slake his desire while he waited. pressing his advantage now would only result in an attack from the captive.

"ghost talker. your children safe from long march." only the holy man decided for his own blood who would be brought and who might be left behind to die. "i bring your share of last kill." he stepped back in the snow, guarding with a look but sensing she would not run. at least now. "then i gather others. time for saatsine to go from valley."

with another look leveled at the captive's rigid back, sun eater turned and sauntered off across the drifts.

Sun Eater's words only earned the slightest of nods now, the eyes of the holy man all too focused on the dark coated girl.

The look upon her face intrigued him; he was unsure if he should feel pity or fear. He could not understand her anger for it was not an experience of his own, and yet he supposed it to be fair. However, if she were to be his then surely it was his job to care for her. Be kind, at the very least. If he could care for his Chieftain, then he could care for a wife too.

Can I ask your name? He asked upon the exit of Sun Eater. A question he thought simple, though she would not know him as anything more than River Walker or Ghost Talker. He had given up his own name for Saatsine, it was buried deep inside him now.

The dark shepherd explained his plan to domesticate the feral star-wolf. He made it sound so easy! As if her will was made of glass! But when he turned away to leave, Shadowpaw got another look of the empty socket upon his face… and she was afraid all over again.

They were to leave. How far would she be taken?

Qeya had fallen. Silvertongue was lost in the desert. Her mother was dead.

No one was coming to save Shadowpaw.

“Morwenna,” she spat, shaky voice overflowing with rancor, to spite the dark Shepherd even though he had gone. They would never know her true name – not if Shadowpaw had anything to do with it.