It had been a very strange few months. The pink wolf bore it all with his usual stoicism, a calmness that suggested that he had failed to perceive the full situation. This was not true, but Nova wouldn't begrudge anyone for believing it. He certainly would do nothing to convince a person otherwise if they believed it.
But still, today there was a lot on his mind.
Months ago, Aislin had approached him with an offer to leave the pack lands and go on an important adventure. She had assured him at the time that it was a matter of imminent importance, that a terrible thing was coming, that she'd dreamed of it. He hadn't totally believed this, but he hadn't disbelieved it, and so he had come along.
And then so much had happened. First they had met those two wolves, Sindre and Dubhe, and it had been fortunate really as there was no way they could have kept themselves alive without Dubhe's hunting experience. Fubar's pups were born, and the little girl died. Then Aislin and Cue's pups were born...and then that dark thing happened, with the monsters from the shadows, and their numbers were fewer now.
That had been a tragedy, and something to mourn, and Nova had stood by and offered comfort in that strange, mostly silent way of his. But it was not his grief to shoulder. It was a loss, and it affected him, but it did not shatter him the way it did those who had lost loved ones. Fubar had lost nearly everything. Cue and Ais were devastated. Even Dubhe was mourning Sindre's death, that brother he had adopted.
And Nova had....well, he hadn't much to begin with. But he still had Melka, in as much as he'd ever "had" her. He still had her company, the two of them still outsiders to a degree, and that was comfort enough.
But then things had gotten really bad. The earth had trembled and the sky belched fire, and they had run, run, run for miles to escape. Now they were somewhere new, with no idea of where it might be, no idea of where home now lay or if it was even possible to go back there. He'd lost his lynx in the chaos. And he wrestled now with the idea that, quite possibly, everyone he had ever known outside of this pack might now be dead.
Had Aislin been right all along?
Or was the disaster just a terrible coincidence?
Did it matter?
It was a devastating blow for a wolf with such a huge family. Leaving behind everyone had been easy enough when he thought they would be safe and sound back home. But now the grief that gripped him was huge, too huge for words, and so he sought out some solitude in their new temporary camp, settled beneath a tree and simply staring into space, expression calm and vacant as his thoughts rolled together like waves on a choppy see.
