But ever since that day, it had become almost a chore to get out of the den. The pain of his injuries affected him more than what he allowed to show when in the sight of his family. Though he still felt a twinge along the fresh scar stretching from chin to mid chest, his leg bothered him the most. It had grown stiff and aching even though he had tried to keep it from happening.
Yet every morning, he returned to his perch at the edge of the world, and faced the sun as it greeted the day. This morning was no different, aside from the presence of his son stretched out next to him on the rock. He could feel Kiion's gaze on him, but continued looking out over the land, so far below them, as it stretched endlessly south.
Shifting to a more comfortable position, Hephaestus winced as his leg protested the slight movement.
Kiion reached out a paw to his father, little bolts of lightning dancing between his toes, and touched the paw to Heph's leg. "This bothers you more than you show, doesn't it?"
A sudden, pleasant warmth crept through his wounded limb and Hephaestus let out a deep sigh of relief as the pain left him for the first in many weeks.
"You've always read me better then your grandmother. Athena did a hell of a job on me."
Kiion nodded, his gaze on his father as the old wolf watched the sun's rays kiss the horizon. The sounds of a waking land began in earnest now, and the mohawked male took a deep breath of the crisp morning air.
He remembered that day clearly, remembered seeing Athena struggle to her feet. The look she had thrown them all had been filled with so much hate, but none of them had followed her as she fled. They had all rushed to Hephaestus, to their alpha. To the wolf that he been so caked with blood, so still, he had looked dead.
"Where do you think she went?"
The alpha shook his head and finally tore his gaze from the blinding rays of the morning sun to look at his only child. "To be honest, Kiion. I don't care. As long as she is not here."
~~~~~~
Days and days she had ran, putting as much distance as possible between her and those she hated, ignoring her hurts, her hunger, everything. She simply ran, leaving a bloody path across the land. Her wounds were never given a chance to heal, and kept re-opening. She could smell infection, but still she ran, single-minded in her need to just get away.
However, one evening, she simply collapsed, deep in a forest she didn't know, surrounded by smells that were strange to her. Until Death loomed above her, curious and pondering. Sleep prodded her wounds, sending pain rippling through her, and she lost consciousness soon after . . .
~~~~~~
Kiion stared at the empty, brilliantly blue sky, his face turned into the gentle breeze. Leto, Tawa, Dione, Kaj, and Heph had all gone hunting, his father refusing to stay behind again now that his pain had been dulled. But Kiion had declined the invitation, feeling a sense of foreboding creeping through his bones.
The gentle breeze suddenly shifted, the light of the sun disappearing behind clouds dangerously black that had not been in the sky moments before. A wind picked up, roaring over the cliff edge, so loud it sounded like a great beast. The force of it shifted him, sent his fur in every direction, ripping the leaves from the trees.
As quickly as it came, it was gone, and his sense of foreboding grew.
"Something's coming . . . "
TBC
