Word Count → 313 :: --
It had not surprised the Aquila to find his mother had taken in another boy to fill the gap Itachi had left. He recognized the process of grieving, and he accepted it well enough. Kaena’s weakness for lost children was something he attributed to her own losses—never mind she had slaughtered one daughter—and perhaps a fear that those who remained might too abandon her. Gabriel had been capable of identifying this but not empathizing with it. After all, his children were no longer his own. Despite Talitha’s deep affection for her father, he recognized that she now flocked to her brother and was pleased with this. Ezekiel after all had been the one to chase after her; not Gabriel, who could not abandon his duties.
Though snow still littered the ground, it had been warm enough recently for it to melt around the well-worn area surrounding the caves. He had slept late following a rather long patrol, though his sleep was not as long as one might expect. Wolf-sleep, as it is in the wild, occurs with the animal being awake for around five hours and then sleeping for one or two before cycling. Gabriel was no exception to this, and rose from his most recent nap with a toothy yawn.
He made his way from his den and towards the others, something he did daily. Usually the caves were empty during the day, given how frigid the nights remained, but today he was not alone. A mud-colored boy was lingering near his mother’s cave. Gabriel approached him quietly, and tilted his head to see what it was he had drawn. “You must be Makhesthai,” he said, recognizing the boy from his appearance (and mother’s scent). “I’m Gabriel.” If his own wolfish build did not give him away, the name would. That and the same star tattooed over his right shoulder.
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