The Sentinels Days when we'd fight, we'd fight til I would give in

You will find something someday, Oni told himself as he strode along the grassy fringe of the coast. His shoulders dipped with defeat and his steps were a sway, his whole self painted in tones of hopelessness and despair. His hopeful self-talk was only an effort to keep his chin up. He'd been rejected from exactly seventeen packs since leaving home, and that sort of thing began to weigh down on a young, shy fellow like him. While he reasoned that eventually he would find a pack that wasn't just looking for strapping, powerful lads to hunt and guard caches during the winter months, it was hard to maintain a realistic outlook when he felt as useless as a lump of turd.

The next pack scent he came across made his belly lurch dismally. Here's number eighteen, he thought hopelessly as he pulled up to the borders, or at least as close as he dared get. The pack resided in a forest that seemed like it was constructed for giants. Oni momentarily forgot himself as he followed the line of a towering sequoia far up into the sky. His jaws parted in brief wonder, and there was a half-hearted shake to his tail as he thought about what it would be like to live in such a place.

But then he remembered himself. Oni swallowed thickly, then threw his head back to howl for attention.

when the call came, deirdre extricated herself from her task of taking stock of herbal life. her youth did her very little favors in regards to her herbal knowledge, but deirdre sought to become a master of her work. as the seasons changed, so too did the herbs that were offered. though the sequoia's kept their greenery, little else had. it saddened deirdre to see the many of the flowers she loved so fall into a rest, though she knew they would return to her in time. 

the youth arrived to the borders swiftly enough, the shadows of the sentinels giving way to the light that was the queen she had become. the lower branches of the trees seemed to grab for her as she moved, though only few caressed at her furs. she paused before him, looking very much the regal, but her eyes were warm and her smile was true! greetings, she spoke, her voice gentle and light, welcome to donnelaith. i am deirdre stella mayfair, sovereign of this place, and then she fell quiet, allowing him to introduce himself in turn, and explain to her how she might be of aid to him if he was in wont of it. her eyes were quick to assess he was in good health, and the onyx man was truly pleasing to her eyes; he was stocky, though certainly not rotund, and his eyes were a shade of green that she favored. all this worked into his favor, though truly, deirdre would of surely thought him lovely even if he were not fair to the eye at all.