Soldier's Flight [A Guardian Angel]

Prologue II

Is that so? Well, I guess it is a different story for me. I remember every single day since I was born. I remembered the hot sun that basked my skin, the bare soil that gave way to blades of grass, and fallen leaves that crunched beneath my paws. Heh, it's like it was yesterday, you know...

It was just me, my mom, and the everlasting nature all around us. It gives and takes from us like...like a crow. As in how they mob every single thing from you, yet they also give you a sign that food is just afoot. 

We were surrounded by soil, grass, trees, shrubs... I remember the mists of the Endless Vale wrapping around us like a coiling snake as we try to make our way through the top of the frontier. You Ouranian wolves seem to have a thing for high ground, huh...

Well, I can't help but see why. On the first night when we stayed within the cracks of the mountains to rest, the sky shone like a diamond reflecting all the colors of the sun as a thousand more of those suns twinkled in the sky.

Ah...and how could I forget? The mists were rivers of light as well. I could certainly remember them reflecting the colors of the skies as I sat there in awe.

It was quite beautiful indeed. My mother told me the story about how Nadi, the vain river serpent, tricked the heavenly bodies into creating them for their entertainment, yet in turn, this form of beauty was able to be seen by many others, thus sealing itself as Nadi's first blessing to the world.

Well, life has its ways, does it not? Why else would we be together right now if it weren't for the blessings of Alatus Lupis that led us to this very moment?

...

Fate deals with its hunts in its very own way. Sometimes the path that fate carves for us is incomprehensible. I won't lie when I tell you that I often feel disheartened at what it brought me. 

But even so, fate has its ways of giving. Alatus Lupis has led me to you, and that is the greatest blessing that I could ever receive...

-

The golden wolf looked at his inferior who crouched before him in shock. His eyes were wide open to the point where the diameter of his dark brown irises could be seen. Silence filled the once lively cave that echoed their chatter. 

The inferior wolf looked up at him, his amber eyes meeting a pair of dark brown ones as he smiled meekly.

"What's wrong, Sariel?" he asked in a soft, gentle voice. The golden wolf blinked once and looked away, his jaws moving slightly, prying open to ask this question that burned in his mind.

"Why do you still have the courage?" he finally asked, his eyes glistening as he forced himself to face him. The inferior tilted his head in mere curiosity.

"Courage...to do what?" he asked, to which the golden wolf replied.

"To face me," he answered. The inferior chuckled.

"I'm not as courageous as you think, dear Sariel," he responded. "There is no courage within me. I've just made my peace with you. That is all."

Sariel could only nod, even though he would not accept that answer. "I still don't believe that."

"Typical Sariel..." the inferior said with a soft giggle. "You said the same thing all those years back...when I told you how I'll always cherish you in my heart."

Sariel's breath caught in his throat. His face grimaced slightly as he looked to the ground.

"No, you won't...I know you won't." Sariel said with conviction, but the inferior was not convinced by his denial. He simply smiled and looked up at him, not breaking eye contact.

"You're not the only one that has made up his mind, Sariel," he said. "A part of you lies in my heart. And even if I no longer lie in yours, well, it won't stop me from holding you dear."

Sariel then looked back at him. At this moment, all of his bottled-up feelings directed towards this inferior before him were threatening to spill out of his mind and into the world for him to hear.

He gritted his teeth. He had no choice but to let it out, then.

"Of course, you wouldn't change your mind! You never once thought any different of me than someone that is dear to your heart and that's what frustrates me!" the golden wolf yelled, scrapping his claws in the slate floors of the cave. "How could you love someone like me anyway? Why won't you love someone else more worthy instead?!"

The inferior wolf tilted his head, but his gaze held a hint of sadness.

"It's not like you're the only person that I had ever loved, Sariel. I love my mother, my medical wolves that treated me, and the wolves that I had bonded with during my time as an Ouranian wolf. And you are a part of the circle that I hold dear to me." his amber eyes then shone as he glared at him tearfully.

"I love you, Sariel. Why can't you accept that?" 

Sariel then glared back at him. The moment he saw tears forming at the corners of the inferior's eyes, his gaze softened and he looked away in shame.

"It's not that I don't accept your love..." he spoke gently, returning his gaze to his inferior. "I just...I just don't understand why you chose to love me...why me? After all that I did to you that made you end up here, I...I don't deserve this. I don't deserve you."

"You don't. But even so, I still love you. You may not deserve my love, but here I am, still sharing and giving a part of myself to you." he said gently. "A feather means nothing to a wolf if no one places any value on it. It will only become precious to a wolf, if that wolf thinks it so."

Sariel looked at him in realization. "You..."

The inferior smiled at him. That's when the golden wolf realized that his inferior had a pair of long white feathers attached right behind his left ear. They were ragged and slightly ruffled, which touched the golden wolf deeply as his lips stammered, struggling to form words. He then looked at the blue-gray wolf that lay before him, looking up at him with his soft, gentle gaze.

"Why, Seth?" he whispered softly, as if those words were only meant for him and him alone. In that moment, Seth smiled, his gaze lingering on the pair of dark brown irises that stood before him. The inferior then spoke, in an equally quiet, gentle voice:

"Because I never had a reason to cast you aside, Sariel..."