02-03-2010, 11:30 AM
[html]http://i950.photobucket.com/albums/ad34 ... bott0m.png); background-repeat:no-repeat; padding-bottom:240px; background-position:bottom center; background-color:#252237">
 Jantus could tell that something was troubling Jefferson. He had become a fair hand at reading people during his experience as alpha, but some concealed it better than others, and some other than that didn't need to: their expressions did not naturally give him anything he could read. He didn't know which type this alpha was, but either way he couldn't guess what was the matter. Something about the whole affair had either touched him, or reminded him of something. If it were about the deceased, Jantus would want to know, certainly. There was no way he could fathom that it was about the scarred wolf's own past and the things he had done along the way. He smiled at the name he'd been given, and nodded respectfully in turn. He doubted he'd be coming back himself, which was a sad thing, as the two of them had hit it off. The children might, though. In fact, some of them might yet decide to remain and live in this place. He doubted that the gravestone would bring them much closer to their father, but it would improve their chances of hearing of him. Not that most had anything good to say, by what Skoll had told him...still, time would tell. Kids often enough got the itch to travel and settle abroad, and in this case there was only one parent to be crestfallen by the fact. It might be that they wanted to stay here and live in the place their parents had called home, though Inferni would likely never take Asphyxia back if they learned of her brood with Skoll. It might also be that they would decide in time to officially join Snow-capped Pine, which to him was the best option. The Souls territory was an important place; it was where Skoll had chosen to find his peace after his life of war, and it was because he had lingered here that he'd been present to answer the threat which had faced them all two years ago. Jantus planned to explore it and get his fill of it while he was here. Nevertheless, he still felt that the Pine and other places more alike to it were the real home for stories and lives like Skoll's, and the best place to live up to that lineage. It slipped his mind sometimes that both Asphyxia and Skoll had wanted their children to avoid the bloodshed that each of them had seen in their time. "We're honored in turn to have you with us. Tough old birds like you are well-respected in the culture of the Pine, and as the one who rules over the land where our friend is buried, well, that earns you more regard still. It's a hike down to the Pine, but we'd be glad to have you whenever you should decide to turn up." Jantus looked at all the others, who had at this point gone past them, away from the grave. By now, Aivyr had left. He lived closer to this place than anyone else, and the giant wasn't sure that this would be the last time the white wolf visited Phoenix Valley. Skirnir, though, the brother...he remained, looking at the stone. The old wolf couldn't read...Skoll had never learned more than a handful of words himself, and his brother had never come down out of the cold reaches of the high north. It occurred to the Pine wolf that maybe he was etching the characters into his memory, so that he could write them down somewhere near his home, and create a memorial there. They hadn't known each other long; guilt as much as love was the cause of this focus, he thought. The alpha of StoneTree murmured something too quietly for the other two alphas to make anything out, before turning and passing them by. Jantus turned his eye back to Jefferson and gave a deep bow of his head. "I think that we are ready to leave now, Jefferson. Lead us as you will." |