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"Why does the Wolf Sing?"
She sat within the protective circle of trees, on a natural-looking "chair" of rock, facing her master and teacher.
"Because it is his way of grieving, celebrating, or proclaiming his decision on a matter to his pack-mates", was Cat's prompt reply.
"Correct. How do you tell which of those he is doing?", her master said urbanly.
"When the Wolf grieves he sings at midnight. When he celebrates he sings at midday, but when he proclaims a decision he sings at dawn. Master, why do you ask me this? You, yourself, taught me since I was but a child."
"Cat, you are to be the next Wolf", he told her quietly,"you are going to lead our people as a whole."
"Don't you mean the tribe? I was not born to rule the entire country", she was silent knowing the rebuke was coming.
Her master sighed and said in a simple tone of voice,"The Alpha has sent his reply to our request to make you the Alpha of this tribe. The message was simply this,'The candidate you have selected has been foretold unto me since time first dawned, this Cat is now my heir and
successor to the Throne of Wolves.' ", he glanced at her and sighed," Cat, your name is no longer Cat, but it is now Jaenelle."
Cat, now Jaenelle, stared at her teacher and surrogate father in absolute disbelief, and none of it joyus,"Master, what does that mean? It means that you can no longer teach me or house me or be my foster father anymore, doesn't it?", it wasn't quite a question,"It means that I will have to go away and leave and never come back, unless it is on a formal visit, and I can't take you with me to wherever I have to go", she looked at her teacher defiantly,"If that is what it means then I refuse to go."
Her teacher suppressed a sad smile and he said instead," You cannot refute what the Alpha has said. You cannot deny his rule. Yes, it means everything that you think it means. You are leaving with a caravan next week."
Jaenelle stared at her father and began to cry," Papa! Don't let them take me away! I don't want to leave the first home I have had in years. Ever since my original clan and family was destroyed 500 years ago, I have been alone, and I have wandered. My birth name is Briar Rose.
Gaia changed it when I pledged myself into HER service 520 years gone, to Jaenelle. I do not want to go", she wept for the first time in nearly 530 years, finally releasing her pent-up grief,"I changed my name when I found the tribes to Cat, so nobody would know who I was. And yet, even my anonymity has been taken away from me. Papa! Please, please don't let me go!"
She never in 18 years thought that she would be forced to leave the only home she had ever known. She howled in anguish, and as she did so, she would never know that every Wolf in every planet and every country could hear her, and that each one in kind swore total allegience
to her as their leader.
 crypticxguide · Thu May 17, 2007 @ 07:54pm · 0 Comments |
