Doubt in faith, in the belief that Atka would never steer him in the wrong direction, was never an option for Kerberos. He was a devoted follower of the Light, had given himself to her wholly ever since the day he had seen her rise from the sea foam in Shearwater Bay so many years ago. Though it was not doubt that caused him to think that he wondered when she would allow him to settle down. He had been a Wanderer for a while now, had been called from Bon Dye by Atka, beckoned to depart what Jinx, Lecter and himself had built there. Jinx’s belief in his abilities as her second in command had been the greatest thing to happen to Kerberos and yet, he had been required to leave it. Kerberos had always been a homebody, had never truly wanted to leave Shearwater Bay, did not want to leave Silaytok behind, for there had been a brief hope in Kerberos when he had found out that he wasn’t actually related to her (though finding out he was directly related to Lecter he could have done without knowing for life). He was not a wanderer by nature, liked knowing that he had roots somewhere.
Yet again, Atka guided him back to the Teekon Wilds.
Without question Kerberos did as the Mother Of Light required of him, clutching his precious pearl wrapped in the seaweed he had trained himself not to consume. This time, she brought him to Horizon Ridge, of course Kerberos had noticed why after he had found himself a den and tucked his pearl away into a darkened corner where it would be safe in it’s seaweed wrap. This pack was located on a beach and stretching before him, as infinite as Atka herself was the ocean. It’s gentle roaring accompanying with each lap of ice cold salt water against his long legs was like being home back on Shearwater Bay all over again. Where the sea was, Kerberos felt home. Until Nutaaq had explained the truth of his birth he had never really understood his deeply rooted connection with Sea, of course when he found out he was the spawn of the Siren Queen all the puzzle pieces had fallen into place. Fur colored of dried and wet sand - except for the cream of his throat and underside (the color of Lecter’s fur beneath the blood stains) was frosted with dried salt water, bits of seaweed tangled in the coarse tendrils of fur. Kerberos refused to bathe in anything but sea water because the smell of it was comforting to him.
The beach had drawn him to it that morning, though he contributed to the pack by filling the caches when he hunted, and patrolling the borders, but his time, when he wasn’t helping with pack duties, was spent in the company of his beloved Sea and Atka. |
The home that Akhlut had established so far from Echo Cove and some distance from Sirensong Cove and Shearwater Bay surely seemed to have a magnetic draw towards those who'd called each of the other seaside realms home. Blood calls to blood, he'd told Jinx once, and now he found blood--or something quite like it--seeking him out again. Kerberos's name, like that of Jinx and his mother's many previous brood, was not unknown in the home of Siren Queen and Warchief, and so without his sand-hued half-brother's knowing it, Akhlut knew that they were kin.
Kerberos was his Sea Mother's son, got by the dark shaman Lecter, whom Akhlut had never had the displeasure of meeting. His mother hadn't liked to mention it, and it seemed to have been a point of contention between Nanuq and Aktaie, some old wound that was beyond their youngest childrens' understanding. Yet Kerberos seemed to carry none of his sire's purported wickedness, and indeed Akhlut had seen the male enjoying the Sea as much as he himself did. The dark Alpha craved the masculine companionship that a brother could provide, and so he went down to seek Kerberos' company. He only hoped that Kerberos did not share Jinx's distaste for their familial bond.
It was a morning that Akhlut considered nearly too cold to swim in the Sea, but Kerberos seemed to have no compunctions; he looked quite at home with foam clinging to his fur, leaving salt trails where it dried, seaweed snarled around his limbs. Akhlut's smile was warm and without reservations, so hopeful was he that this would be the family member who stuck around, who would be a true companion, who wouldn't betray the pack for another, who perhaps honored the Sea and Atka and the Light as much as Akhlut himself.
"Kerberos Nereides-Kesuk," was his greeting, revealing that though the other male had not given his surname in their brief meeting, Akhlut knew it. He knew it by the scent so reminiscent of their shared mothers, whether they be by blood or by adoption, and he knew it by the features that resided on the tawny male's face. "My mothers are Aktaie Nereides and Nanuq Kesuk. I am Akhlut Kesuk-Nereides. I should have told you, on our first meeting, that I knew of you, but I had been recently betrayed by the last blood relative I chose to speak to of my parents. I apologize for misleading you."
Jinx's abandonment stung like claws in his side, but as much as he hated her betrayal, he had no desire whatsoever to have her disloyal self within his ranks. He ought to have gone with Pied's instincts on the woman to begin with, and now his Gamma lay injured in her sickbed, Jinx had gone from the pack with disgrace following close behind, and their numbers had thinned as winter's last grasp or wanderlust or sheer disinterest in pack life sent of few of his lower-ranked away. Still, Akhlut was not discouraged, not when Atka sent him a brother who he hoped was as much a warrior of the Light as he himself. Horizon Ridge would flourish still.
It didn't matter to Kerberos that it was colder than Dante's hell outside. It did not matter that the water was just chilling as ice as it collided with his hocks, licking at the cream fur of his underside as it rose and fell to meet him. It did not matter that anything creature would be questioning Kerberos' sanity – he didn't care. He was a far cry from the melancholy child he had been, and even then he was different from the hermit teenager he had become after. Though Kerberos himself could not see the astronomical changes he had made, instead seeing only the vagueness; he had changed nevertheless. A greeting caressed sand colored ears, foreign and yet familiar at the same time, surprising Kerberos. The Aok peered over sea green eyes taking in Akhlut's relatively familiar form, gaze inquiring even though Kerberos lowered himself into submission his stomach touching the wet sand, squinting temporarily against the saltwater that splashes upon his muzzle as it crashed over him before he rose to a more neutral stance. He shuttered once with a shiver though he uttered no complaint of the chill that had crept over him in that moment. "How do you know?" Kerberos asked quietly, muted, almost certain that he'd introduce himself simply as 'Kerberos'. For a lack of not being sure which name to consider himself, or if he held any rights to either of the names regardless, he always shied back to using 'Aok'. The son of no one.
The perplexed expression dancing across Kerberos' face vanished to one of diluted shock when Akhkut explained how it was that he knew who and what Kerberos was. It came to be known in a matter of seconds that Akhlut was the son of Aktaie -- Kerberos' own blood mother -- and Nanuq, Kerberos' adoptive of sorts, mother. At hearing their names (though he had not known Aktaie very well) his heartbeat raced a little inside his chest as he stared at Akhlut with blatant wonder. "N-no," Kerberos stuttered, picking up the habit of his childhood and cursing himself to the pits of the Sea for it. It was beyond embarrassing. "I...It's ok. I uh," Akhlut had dropped the nuclear bomb of surprises upon Kerberos and the Aok was struggling to understand what, exactly, he felt about it.
So it was not just the Sea that Atka had guided Kerberos too, but also, his half (adoptive) brother as well? Kerberos did not know much of his own litter, knowing only that he was the son of Aktaie and Lecter. That have been all that Nutaaq had been able to tell him, that and that he had been a tool of both of them -- at assurance of the Nereides and Shearwater Bay's alliance. "How is Nanuq? A-and Aktaie what is she like?" He couldn't seem to contain his curiosity about his birth mother having never truly gotten to know her in the same way he had known Nanuq. "I don't think either of those names are available for me to call my own. I have always been an Aok." Kerberos corrected Akhlut's previous greeting of him softly, almost sheepishly.
Akhlut felt a warmth diffusing in his chest, for he was pleased beyond measure to have brought to Horizon Ridge a wolf who was, like himself, a man who could taste the salt of the Sea ever on his tongue, and could hear the words of the bear gods in his dreams. Even though Kereberos had admitted no such abilities and they were nearly strangers, Akhlut felt in his soul that this was his spiritual brother, a wolf pulled between two faiths, simultaneously tugged in both directions. It would perhaps be up to Akhlut to ensure that he knew that the ways of the Nereides and the ways of the Kesuks were not polar opposites, but could co-exist and co-mingle.
The mysteries of faith would be theirs for discussion another time, however, and so Akhlut cozied up to the topic of his mothers and his growing up in Echo Cove, the ancestral home of Kesuks and the chosen home of more than a few Nereides....