Chapter 430: The Wolf & The Pup Part 1 (Patreon)

Ebon darkness warped around the air, tearing space itself and revealing the Null beyond. The wind howled as it was pulled into the nothingness of the Null. At the darkness’ center, a white gemstone blazed with blinding light. Streaks of ivory flames stretched out from the gemstone like falling stars in the night sky.

With each second that passed, a pulse of searing energy echoed out from the gemstone, burning and pushing away everything in its path.

A man as tall as any giant, with silver skin and jet-black hair, stood alone in the darkness. The ivory flames tried to consume his body, but golden flames wrapped around him in a glorious inferno and shielded him. With great effort, he slowly inched forward and reached out towards the gemstone.

“Solis, wait!” Lunae’s panicked voice broke through the howling winds.

The man glanced back and his burning golden eyes stared at a beautiful reflection of himself, a woman with snow-white hair and bright silver eyes, his twin. “Sister, it is the only way.”

“No, it can’t be! We’ll figure something out, please, don’t do this,” Lunae cried out.

“I’m sorry,” Solis whispered.

“Father, stop!” Bellum bore through the darkness, one step at a time, her arms braced in front of her as the ivory flames echoed outwards, trying to banish her away. “Father, if you do this, you could destroy everything you love! Lunis! The Valley tribes! The Ebon Realm! Everyone will die!”

Solis shook his head grimly, “They are going to die anyway if I don’t.”

“Lunae, Bellum, there’s no time!” Holo shouted from the edge of the darkness. “We can’t let him reach the stone!”

“Brother, please, I’m begging you. Countless thousands will die.” Lunae’s voice broke, “I can’t fight you.”

“Then don’t.” Solis raised his fist and clenched it tightly until his claws drew dark blood. “Sigte, remember? One Life Above All Others. You and I, always.”

He turned his back to them and reached for the ivory gemstone.

Lunae’s silver eyes widened in fear. “Solis, stop!”

~~~

“Solis, stop!”

Lunae’s eyes snapped open and she jumped to her feet in a painful roar. She panted heavily and her shoulders shook with every breath. Lunae glanced around the empty grove and slowly regained her bearings. She looked down at her paws and realized she was in her wolfen shape. She was in Vulture Woods.

It had all been a dream. A nightmare. A memory. A horrible moment she wanted to forget, yet it always found her in her dreams. The reality of that day was bare like an open wound and its truth bore into her thoughts every waking moment.

The gemstone was gone. Lunis was gone. Solis was gone.

Nothing mattered, not anymore. She wandered the woods alone and in silence, an immortal waiting to die.

“~Ahah! I found you!~” a tiny voice squealed in delight.

Lunae groaned under her breath and turned around to find a small blue child standing behind a tree, his insolent chubby finger pointing at her.

At first, the child had appeared in front of her maybe once every few weeks. Over the last few years, it became more frequent, until now he was somehow finding her almost every day.

She had given up on trying to understand how this powerless baby continued to find her in the middle of the forest. Let alone how he managed to sneak past the Sylvan Mothers and go unnoticed by the countless predators prowling the woods, although perhaps that was because he was so small, even for one of his kind.

In fact, he was so small that she could squish him underneath her paw. All it would take was one single step and the little pest would be gone. It would be so easy—

“Lunae?” Stryg cocked his head to the side. “Are you okay?”

She narrowed her eyes, “Are you really asking a goddess if she is ‘okay’? Are you an idiot? Oh, right.”

Stryg swished his legs from side to side, “Sooo, are you okay—?”

“—I’m fine,” she snapped.

“Great,” he smiled warmly.

“Hmph.” Lunae laid back down and closed her eyes. After a few minutes, she cracked an open and spotted the six-year-old standing a few feet away. “You’re still here.”

“Uh-huh,” he nodded vigorously.

“...”

Stryg leaned on the tips of his toes back and forth while his hands fidgeted.

“...What do you want now?”

“Ah!” Stryg reached into the sack he had strapped over his back and pulled out a stuffed leather ball. “Let’s play a game!”

“...You came all the way out here, risking your life, to play— a game?”

“Yep.”

“...”

“Okay, so it’s really easy. Even you can learn.”

She frowned. “What is that supposed to mean?”

Stryg dropped the ball on the ground. “All you have to do is kick it to me and then I’ll kick it back to you.”

“This is stupid.”

“All the kids in the village think it's fun.”

“Then go and play with them.”

Stryg’s shoulders drooped and he stared at his feet. “...None of them wanna play with me.”

“That sounds like your fault.”

He shrugged and tried his best to smile, though there were clearly tears in the corners of his eyes. “They think I’m strange.”

“You are.”

“They always talk a lot. I don’t like talking a lot.”

“Really?” she raised her eyebrow in doubt.

“Except with you.”

“Lucky me,” she grumbled.

Stryg sniffed and rubbed his nose. “So, why don’t we play together?”

He kicked the ball to her. His form was terrible and the two of them watched as the leather ball rolled sideways and missed Lunae completely.

“I–I’m not very good,” he said abashedly.

“I can see that.”

“Maybe if we play I’ll get better?” he said, the light of hope twinkling in his lilac eyes.

“I’m in no mood for your stupid game or your idiotic presence.”

“Just one game then?”

“No.”

“Only one?”

“No.”

“Pleeaaase? It’s only one!”

“I said no. Now leave me alone before I eat you.” She snapped her jaws in front of him to prove her point.

Unlike the other creatures in the forest, Stryg didn’t run away in terror at the giant wolf’s bite. He didn’t even flinch. Instead, he giggled almost as if she was tickling him.

Lunae furrowed her brow in annoyance. “What is wrong with you?”

His smile fell and he looked away in shame.

“I… I don’t have many friends,” he admitted quietly. “I don’t have any friends really… The Mothers say Sylvan don’t need friends. We’re warriors, we have tribemates and that’s enough. But,” he wrung his hands together, “I thought, if you could play with me, then maybe we could be friends?”

“We’re not friends.”

“O-Oh… I see.” Stryg bit his trembling lip and bowed his head. “I’m sorry I bothered you.” He turned around and dragged his feet away.

Lunae snatched the ball up with her tail and threw it over his head. The ball landed softly in front of his feet. Stryg gasped and turned to her with a big smile on his face.

“One game,” Lunae warned.

“Eheh, one game!” he nodded excitedly.

~~~

Aurelia ran through the trees, searching each branch and bush in a wide perimeter around the village. Orange mana flowed through her veins, empowering her every step with enhanced agility and speed. Still, as the hours went by and the sun began to set she could not find her son.

Where are you? she thought worriedly.

The air suddenly grew cold and she stopped in her tracks as frost-mist slowly rose from the ground all around her. A massive white wolf emerged from the mist.

Aurelia threw herself to the ground and placed her forehead on the grass. “My goddess!”

“Rise, Fifth Mother of Blood Fang,” Lunae said in a solemn voice.

Aurelia jumped to her and hesitantly looked up.

Lunae lowered her neck, revealing a small boy lying atop her head. “I found this one in the woods to the north, or more accurately he found me.”

“I’m so sorry! I let him out of my sight for one moment and he was gone,” Aurelia said anxiously.

“He seems to have a knack for disappearing,” Lunae said dryly. She shook her head gently and the boy slipped off.

Aurelia caught him with a deft hand and pulled him into her arms. She stared at his closed eyes and looked up at the moon goddess worriedly, “Is he—?”

“He’s fine. Just tired after playing ball all day.”

“I’m so sorry he bothered you,” Aurelia bowed repeatedly. “I’ll keep him in my sight at all times from now on and I’ll double the guards at the gate as well. He won’t leave the village again, I swear it.”

Lunae scoffed and walked back into the mist. “Do not swear a promise you cannot keep.”

~~~

Lunae’s wolfen ears twitched. The sounds of twigs breaking and tiny feet brushing through the grass echoed behind her. She didn’t need to look to know who it was. Her sensitive nose picked up his familiar scent over ten minutes ago.

“~I found you!~” Stryg called out triumphantly.

“It hasn’t even been a day,” Lunae muttered.

That Fifth Mother couldn’t even keep her promise for a single damned day.

“I came to play!” Stryg ran to her with a skip to his step.

“Let me guess, you want to play ball again?” she rolled her eyes.

“Yeah!”

“Look, yesterday was a one-time deal. I don’t have the time to play with a—” Lunae stiffened and her snow-white hair stood on end. The scent of blood filled her nostrils. She spun around and stuck her snout in front of the child. The goddess stared intently at the boy’s face.

Three thin scratch marks stretched across his cheek.

“Who did this to you?” Lunae asked in a quiet, intense voice.

“Huh?” Stryg touched his cheek and winced at the stinging pain. “Oh, I got in trouble this morning with First Mother. She told me to work together with the other kids but they didn’t want to play with me yesterday so I didn’t want to work with them either. First Mother got angry and she slapped me.”

“She slapped you…?”

“Her claws were sharp. They hurt,” Stryg mumbled. “B-But I’m okay now! I can still play, I promise!”

Lunae reached out with her teeth and picked him up by the collar of his shirt, and threw him over her back. He landed softly on her fur.

Stryg scrambled over to his usual spot, the top of her head, and grabbed her fur. “Lunae, I can play! Really!”

“We’ll play later.”

Stryg puffed his cheeks in disappointment. “Where are we going?”

“To find a very stupid goblin.”