I was born the elder of two to a high-ranking warrior in our small pack. We had many enemies, due in part to our placement in a territory with few natural resources and game, and in part because we weren't known for our sweet temperment. We didn't pick fights, but we swiftly dispatched of anyone who started one with us. We learned to fight early, and were trained to feel no shame for defending ourselves or our honor; we were taught from the moment we could walk that a fight that ended in death was just another way to assure you would never be threatened by the same foe, and not to waste time with mercy because no one in the world would offer you the same mercy. Maybe it taught us to be cynical. Maybe it just taught us a reality the rest of the world hasn't learned yet.

[Adolesence]
It was clear by the time DuskHeart, my brother, and I were teenagers, that we had wildly differing views of the world. He left our pack to head to a place of more civilization, a mixed-species village down in the valley. His rebellion was met with surprisingly little ill-feelings; we were an understanding family, and his leaving did not strike us as any sort of an insult. We kept in touch.

When he gave birth to two pups of his own, I received news of it, and was appropriately happy to be an uncle. I was also growing increasingly aware of our enemy's restless nature and their desire to harm us deeply, and when members of our pack began to fall from mysterious disease, I began to realize what was going on. I bid my family farewell and went in search of my brother.

I could have expected it, but I didn't. By the time I had reached the village my brother raised his children in, a number of spies from my old pack's enemy had closed in on their den. I listened in, realized that the pack--disgusted with the constant war with us--had finally decided to obliterate us; I learned from them that my parents had been killed, and that they, believing me to be dead, were now searching out the remaining members of our blood, under the impression that they were still under threat.

I got to DuskHeart's side too late. His mate slaughtered, his spirit broken, he was stumbling blindly away, carrying two pups in his maw, limping terribly and bleeding. He was being pursued by three lupes, larger than he, and they were closing in. I made my move. I slid in between my brother and his aggressors, and did battle with them, weaving in and out on thin, spidery legs, using every skill I had gained; I was a sloppy fighter, in comparison with what I am now, but I was skillful enough to deal them damage. One died, the others fled. I almost followed them before I remembered DuskHeart.

I turned back to him, kneeled at his side; he had collapsed, and was drawing in long, shuddering breaths. He nudged the pups toward me, told me to take them to safety. I took them under my care, buried him when he died, and set about a new life, the sole survivor of my lineage and an unwitting father.

[Adulthood]
The female pup died within a week, from weakness and cold. Her brother, who was far bigger and stronger, managed to survive, but it was looking dubious how long that would last if I didn't do anything. I stopped one night, carrying Sakorias--the pup--into a cave, and tried to think. He needed food. We both needed protection. He was too young to hunt, and I couldn't leave him alone. We had no pack to return to. We had standing enemies. What we really needed was a place that could protect us...

I caught wind, through rumours--I've always been rather good at collecting rumours--of a gathering force of mercenaries under a particularly powerful, if eccentric, figure within the village. I went to visit Aldath, one day, at his home; he dismissed a pup, a small red female, to usher me into his chamber, and we talked. He asked me what skills I could offer. I explained about my training, said I believed the pup would show promise. Said I offered to train Sakorias all on my own, that I wouldn't disappoint him. Offered to work only for room and board. He agreed, and hired us.

We fit in well. It was a small group at our joining, but by the time Sakorias had grown old enough to start training, we were fleshing out and gaining notoriety. By the time he hit his early teens, Sako was already larger than most of our peers, and we worked well as a team. Life went on in a simple, ageless way--I spied, gathered information, wormed my way into inner circles; Sakorias followed behind me and slaughtered those we were pointed at. We made friends of our fellow assassins, and fit in pretty well. Aldath was going insane, but it didn't bother me terribly much; we were safe and being trained every day by our superiors, and we were becoming specially skilled.

It was bound to happen eventually, I suppose. Aldath went utterly mad; apparently he set fire to the village in the mountains, then came back in a state of delerium and set fire to his own den, killing his mate and children. It's always been a scruple of Sako and I that we'd never charter a hit on a pup or a pregnant mother--more or less our only scruple, really, and our comrades had stranger one--and we disapproved. The order started to crumble, and we started to leave. We were held by no contract, so we set off to wandering.

We wandered for quite sometime, searching for a pack that would accept us for our unique talents. Sakorias had grown quiet, perhaps a touch sullen, but the two of us make a powerfully inseparable pair. I had little doubt we'd be an asset to any pack that would take us...but we had scruples. We needed a pack which would provide us with the proper amount of violence so we wouldn't get bored--all we had known was a life of killing, and it would have been too hard to change. Besides, it's hard to get much friendship from "good" packs when they know your background has been in paid slaughter.

So we found refuge in The Evil Shadowed Lupe Pack. They looked at us uncertainly, mockingly, when we came in, and set one of their larger members on us. We fought. We were apparently impressive, as we were inducted; perhaps the question was only whether or not we would survive. Still, I apparently impressed a female, Slash, who offered me special attentions and requested me to bear her pups. We fit in well enough, I suppose. It gives us a place to be, at least, and something to do...yeah, it's not so bad at all.