┤There we go! Got a little too into it, lol. I can find the thread that Jantus's tale depicts, if you've ever got time enough to burn XD├
Well, this was an amusing enough conversation. He was having a good time talking to this little she-wolf, cut up and pitiable though she was...though, to hear her tell it, she wasn't pitiable at all, but gave as good as she got. That made him like her more, honestly. She didn't let her hurts drag her down, and that was a good trait in a person. Jantus was never disdainful of those whose injuries cut them deep mentally as well as physically; he had known someone else to lose an eye, and it had soured their disposition terribly thereafter, and they had never recovered their fun-loving spirit. No, he was not critical of those that could not shrug off such wounds, but he thought that doing so made a pack a happier place, and therefore thought it was better when people could, himself included. After all, so many people were dying back when he lost the eye, he didn't figure he had the right to gripe about it for very long.
"Naw, I get enough rank recognition back home," he answered to her mock-deference. "But even then, I wouldn't be that kind of leader if it killed me." He tilted his head slightly at her query, and frowned down for a moment. It wasn't as if she could slow him down; she could probably run three times as fast as he could right now, even with her missing toes. He knew she'd have no trouble at all keeping his pace.
"By all means, come along," he smiled, extending his upturned hand in the direction he intended to set off. "It's been a lonely enough march. I can't scowl out at the wilderness forever, and with a rough-and-tumble lady like yourself, I'm sure no one will give me any trouble." He snickered a bit at his wit, such as it was, and started off down his path, assuming she'd follow closely behind. "I don't know what your friend will think of it, though. I'm a big wolf, with a big appetite! I can't catch him, but I'm plenty strong to take on a deer in this form." He was mostly joking. He wouldn't be making any attempts on this "Alastair"'s life, not while it clearly seemed to have some relationship to his new companion. On the other hand, it wasn't always easy to catch food in this form, and it would be awfully tempting, what with a deer willingly being so close for an extended period of time. Either way, he doubted it would come up: the deer would be a fool to get anywhere near his reach as they walked.
Walking merrily on his way, he shot back to an earlier point in their conversation and decided to pick it up from there. Someone like her might be interested in Skoll, and himself, for that matter. After all, to someone who fights as often as she said she had, someone like the bronze wolf would certainly have been impressive. That was what Bold and he had thought when they finally got to see the old wolf fight. They had respected him for the courage of his crusade before. They were awed by him after that.
"As for Skoll, you bet he was. Something, that is. I said mean, but that 'ent the half of it. He moved like no one else alive. Don't get me wrong; wasn't faster than most, nor stronger than me, but it was like he always knew where to go and what to do. Always knew the weak point to strike, always knew where you were gonna attack and what to do about it. First showed up in my pack injured, asking us for troops of all things, for a war he wanted to wage. The people he needed to fight were of a real bad sort, and there were a lot of them. Nastier than you would believe, or nastier than you will believe, because I don't wanna describe them just now, raw business that it is. A dozen of us went with him, less than half the pack, since we were pretty big at the time." He took in a breath, and scented the air as he did, a brief flare of sunlight through a break in the canopy falling in a column all along his height.
"Anyway, I never saw him do this personally, but after seeing what he could do, I believed the tale. Had friends with him that attested to it, though neither of them had seen more than the tale end of it. Turns out--and this was long before he met the wolf that killed him--Skoll was the guardian of a pack in a land north of this one, a place called Storm. Twelve of these raider types--of the sort I mentioned earlier--come in, bearing weapons and mean-spirits, all. Seven of 'em trespassed across the border under cover of dark, plannin' on slaughter and other, worse things, which I said I wouldn't mention.
"He takes upon them in the dark, and single-handedly kills all seven. They cut him up something terrible; he told me later that it wasn't an honorable thing, him having killed three of them in the dark before the other four found him. Believe that? Seven on one, and he thinks it wasn't fair 'cause he used the dark! So anyways, he kills seven of these monsters, and patches himself up right quick, before comin' down the slope to the border where the rest are waiting. Three of 'em ran when the death-howls of their comrades were comin' down the hill, so there's two left. He just walks into where they're waitin', bold as day, and cuts through their fell work on a prisoner they'd taken. Kills one immediately, and cuts up the other as bad as the other four cut him up. Then, this last one tackles him to the ground and they have it out.
"Way he says it, his hand was messed up, and I saw that much: was wearin' a brace all the early months I knew him, and he was bleedin' bad and his enemy was so frenzied and wild that he couldn't control him with just one hand, and couldn't use those skills I was talking about earlier. This part one of his friends saw: he goes crazy himself, just as crazy as any wolf with the rabies, and the two of them fight it out like they were on four legs, rollin' and tearin' and shreddin' at each other for minutes and minutes until finally the intruder's body gives out, and Skoll's right after. They'd savaged each other to the point of dyin', and they both would have. Turns out the stranger he'd saved, a she-wolf named Sarah, knew some healing. Fixed up Skoll, said she wasn't sure if the other could've been saved or not, but she didn't try." He smiled to himself, remembering the tale, and how he'd scoffed when he'd first heard it. Then, the first time he'd seen Skoll fight, how impressed he'd been, and all the subsequent times until, finally, he found that he believed that story.
"Too ridiculous to believe, I'd say, but I'd swear it was true. He never lied to me, far as I could tell. Had no reason to, not about that. He definitely was great. Just not great enough to dodge his death there are the end. No idea what attack it was that brought him down. Must have been someone of terrible ability, though." |