She had no idea what she was going to do. No, to say that wasn't exactly correct; she knew exactly what she was going to do, she had no choice. She just didn't know how she was going to do it. Terror and desperation raged in the black wolf's head as she huddled in the ruins of the man-made fort. The beauty of the spring evening was lost on her as she covered her ears with her paws, trying to stop the voices that screamed at her to act. The world had fallen apart around her in the past few days, and she was so very close to losing everything she loved. Even now, she had no idea where her siblings were, tasked as they were with their own horrible directions. Each of the four had been sent alone to accomplish their goals, the desperate sight of their terrified mother the constant vision spurring them on, along with the evil light of madness in Khaiaphas' orange eyes as he bid them leave in the darkness.
He was a monster, Eydiss was sure of that. The fanatical madness of the Dawnrunners rivaled the darker insanity rampant amongst their arch nemeses, the Stormbringers. And it was the sorry fate of Eydiss' clan to be caught in the terrifying crossfire. The game between the two huge clans of Solbjorg had been played for centuries, and though it changed with each generation, it never faded away. Peace had been so achingly close not so very long ago, but it had been shattered with the loss of the only Dawnrunner the Stormbringer's had ever respected: an impressive king known as Melchior. His death was of course blamed on the Stormbringers themselves, throwing the two sides back into the bloody conflict of their forefathers once again.
The Purging, as the endless war was referred to by both sides, affected not only the two warring clans, but many of the smaller ones that made their homes in Solbjorg Valley. Any wolf thought to have Stormbringer influence flowing in their veins was immediately marked for extermination by Azrael Dawnrunner and his horrifyingly efficient bloodline. His own offspring were not spared from his hatred, his daughter Abigail having been slaughtered by his own order for her involvement with a Stormbringer male. There'd been word passed back to the Valley that her accursed children were still alive, and Azrael was not one to leave loose ends. And now, it seemed the Stormbringers were acquiring quite the foothold in the distant lands southeast of the Valley. Ever eager to make daddy proud, Azrael's son Kaiaphas had volunteered to take a contingent to the lands of Nova Scotia to Purge it of the threat the bloodline of Fenris posed to all of existence.
Eydiss Villieldr and her family were now firmly caught up in a war they had wanted no part in. Her mother's affair with Wraith Stormbringer had inadvertently sealed their fate before her children had even been born. Those children were now effectively walking into the maw of the beast, treading on the territories of Souls that were now home to a branch of the Stormbringers themselves. Eydiss held little love for her father's family, and she extinguished any hope for help from them that tried to surface in her desperate thoughts. Swallowing hard, the young female steeled herself for the task that had been set for her. She rubbed her red-stained cheeks to wipe away the tears of a young girl faced with no way out, and tried to settle the storm that was churning in her belly. Her four legs still shaking a little, the blue-eyed female quietly stepped out of the darkened ruin, the moon's normally comforting light feeling strangely cold to her now. She pointed her paws to the southeast, the shaking fading bit by bit as she walled away the heart that was pounding in her chest. There was no use in lamenting what must come, Eydiss and her siblings had been left with no choice. Their mother's life depended on their success. Neither failure nor a soft heart were an option.
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