Ariel was lost in thought, tabbing her toes against the nice wooden floors. Her father had quickly ran around her, getting to her front and grabbing her by the shoulders.
'Is this actually getting to him?' A laugh almost left her, but she held it. He was infinitely more annoying. He couldn't take half of it.
Ariel was snapped from her thoughts by her fathers words.
"Some day you are bound to surpass your mother. You were born to achieve greatness. I'm deeply sorry if I messed with your time with that boy, but-"
"Where is mother?" Ariel said with a hint of impatience. I haven't seen her these few weeks. It feels as though it was forever ago." Ariel paused, as she began looking at Renly with worry.
For one of the few times in her life, that arrogant and calm, stoic expression had had seemingly fallen as Renly looked at his daughter with eyes widened and brows raised, his body had gone still.
For a moment her father had looked like a different person. "Are you not feeling well?"
Ariel questioned, only for Renly to seemingly shake himself out of whatever he was thinking before looking to both of his sides.
"Come with me."
Minutes later Ariel and her father were walking through a mostly open field. They had left their place of training entirely.
She turned around and looked at the tower, standing magnificently, a fortress in its own right.
"Oh gods, it's her! Ariel the bright blur!"
Ariel turned around to see a mildly amused Renly next to her who raised an eyebrow, and a bunch of young wolves around her age.
Seven in total, they swarmed her as the closed one tripped and almost fell on his way. Renly was close to outstretching his arm and blocking the boy from getting close, but Ariel pushed it to the side before
The young boy and his friends came closer. All of them got in close, and kneeled. With that, she went through and patted every one of them on the head.
Once they got up they went on their merry way, more excited than when they came. All the while Renly was the most confused. He simply turned around and put his palm on his head. "Young lads these days…and all their stupid superstitions."
Ariel looked at him while squinting her eyes. "It is no tradition. I simply have Noteriety and people like me. You would have never let them get that close."
Renly simply nodded. "Ah. And the people, they call you…bright blur?" He said as he chucked a bit.
"Nobody calls me that," Ariel corrected. "It was just a name made up to impress me on the spot."
'At least I hope so. It was awful.'
"Besides. It's time to focus and tell me where mother is."
Renly turns around and looks towards Ariel with an unmoving and deadly serious expression.
"We will not be able to stay here very long." Ariel looked towards him in surprise. "What do you mean?"
"My daughter, I need you be honest.
Was it not odd to you that all of your friends had begun rigorous training at just the same time as you?"
Ariel didn't reply, simply tilting her head and listening closer.
"Do you wonder why we seem to have the whole continent at our fingertips, yet are seemingly only kept within a select few villiages? Have you heard from one of our neighbors in a while?
Not elite bloodlines, but other villages. We sent a few scouts to check out the long claws. you had a few friends there if I remember correctly.
What they reported to see, was that very place in ruins. Me and a few others had went to go and see ourselves.
It was not as they had described, It was far worse. Me and Earbon had to fight with all of our might to make it out alive."
Ariel had never seen her father this worried before. 'Erbon? Is that not Nero's father? Who could threaten him?'
"The things we're able to easily regenerate from any blow that didn't have aura imbued into it. I watched some men pour everything they had only for it to not matter."
Ariel wasn't sure what to do with such news, but one thing that kept sticking out to her was the fact that he had never given an exact description of what they had looked like. Why?
"So what happened?" Ariel asked.
Renly scoffed in reply. "Guess. We ran away, with those things still following us."
Ariel's heart dropped to her chest. "And they will be here?"
Renly nodded. "Soon. And it will be up to us, those with talent and those with power to defend everyone else until we are ready to move."
"And how long will that take?"
"Months. Those things can infect all, including our prey. We have to begin putting guards on the perimeter and even the outskirts of our territory so that we don't lose ground and food instantly."
It seemed that While Jairo was fighting in his war, She would be fighting her own.
"And what of us when we arrive?"
"We will be subsumed into a middling family in a more stable and powerful region. Whichever one we choose, we will have to lose our status and be absorbed into a bigger house of wolves. That is why your mother is already trying to make ground and prepare for when we arrive.
A part of her souls was finally put at ease knowing what her mother was up to, but a hind of curiosity replaced it.
"Father, is what you told me true? Do powerful werewolves have a more soft appearance?"
"Yes. No fur, no claws at least at first. They look like…humans. And no, it is not what they are, it is a form that they take and constantly hold over the rest of us who cannot do such things. If it were up to me I would not like to be around them either, but I will not let pride kill our people."
After a long sigh, Renly opened up his arms for a hug. Ariel walked into it and for the first time in weeks, she embraced him.
Once the hug ended, her father stepped back with an annoyed look on his face. " I would love to stay really, but I have people to speak to in a meeting that would put even the most patient scribes to sleep. Take care ladybug."
After waving her father off and watching him walk away, Ariel sat down and looked at the sun. "It seems while you are fighting you're war…I will be fight mine."