Orphen moved with the pace of one who was hurried towards something of great importance. Her strides were swift, her head down into the motion, her tail held still behind her. She was a well built she-wolf, with thick muscle and long, strong legs. The essence of a wolf; fierce, strong and determined with a sense of loyalty that put all other species to shame.

Her son, however, the one who travelled with her, was not.

He had started lagging behind, his scraggly, skinny and recently wounded form no match for the female's quick-set pace. He missed his friend. Missed travelling with her. It was easier going than this. He could barely breathe!

Whimpering, he drew to a halt and, hesitantly, sat down, watching as the female began to disappear.

"W-wait!" He called, ears back, head low. A picture of shame and weakness. But it had always been this way. A wolf who barely survived alone but too full of self-hatred and shame to think of joining a pack. He was, after all, a fake wolf. Barely a wolf at all. His mother - the she-wolf now turning back to look at him - was a wolf. A true wolf. But his father had been nothing but a lowly dog and he their tainted little spawn.

Orphen was striding back towards him, growling and snarling. She was a fierce wolf, most certainly an alpha in body and spirit. "Get up!" She demanded, moving to his back and snapping at his hindquarters. "Up!"

Fluke whined, lowering himself onto his belly and then tipping himself onto his side, ever submissive.

"Can't." He croaked miserably. "Tired."

"We're only half way there, Fluke. We have a long way to go yet. Up!" She was losing patience with this no-good son of hers. Perhaps she shouldn't have brought him along after all.

"Ah can't!!" Fluke insisted and she noticed, suddenly, the scent of blood on him and realised some of his wounds must have reopened. Wounds caused by that demon of a wolf who dared call Orphen a daughter.

"Fine." She sat, angrily, and glanced around them. They were in a shady little glade, out of the rays of the late afternoon sun in unclaimed lands somewhere west of the Outriders.

And then after a moment of listening to his pained breathing, she allowed her anger to seep away and, gathering herself, she moved closer to him, nosing at one of the wounds that had begun to bleed.

Fluke whimpered.

"Be quiet and let me help." Orphen snapped, setting herself to grooming away the blood-clotted fur. She wondered whether she was getting soft in her old age. Or whether maybe she just wasn't haunted by the past so much now that it could be coming to an end. Maybe, if they warned Gizmo and found Sirena, then it could all end and she could finally move on, rising from the ashes of her pained memories.

By the time the wounds had been cleaned, Fluke was dozing and Orphen took her leave to hunt. There was fair game in this area and she had hunted here many times before her days as an alpha at Sanctity Pack. A moment later and she came across a whole gabble of rabbits out to graze in the afternoon sunshine. Their brilliant eyes and long ears ever aware that danger might be out there.

They were right.

Orphen made quick work of hunting one down, running after the twisting, darting shapes of the rabbits and catching one in her teeth.

Successful, she returned to a dozing Fluke and dropped the rabbit in front of his snout. His eyes flashed open and she sniffed. "Eat up."

Fluke didn't argue. His belly was empty and free food was never turned down in this world. He gobbled up the warm flesh quickly, not even bothering to ask Orphen if she might be hungry. He was certain that if she was, her dominating streak would have had her eat the rabbit first.

And, belly full, he felt well enough to move again - if only for a little while.

"Ready?" Orphen asked, glancing at him from over a shoulder.

"Ready." He replied stiffly, getting to his paws and stretching each leg in turn.

Orphen, nodding, moved on ahead, keeping her pace a little slower for Fluke's sake, even though she wanted to do nothing more but sprint the rest of the way.

/fin.