by
Not every fight ends with glory and honor: sometimes the best you can do is live on.
Just when the wolves of Long Valley thought the war couldn't get any worse, a sneak attack cost them everything. Assaulted on two fronts and looking down the abyss of total extinction, the Pack Father will offer full surrender to the lesser of two evils. Now, forced to serve their conquerors and ground down daily into the dirt of humiliation and desperation, the pack will discover: can they afford to pay the price of survival?
Pack Father Navin must live with the 'choice' he made for the pack. Pack Second Cyneburg must bow to the conquering general who will use her authority but refuse to heed her words. Elizabet must face bringing a child into a world that cares nothing for them. Follow them as they struggle on and reach -- uncertainly, painfully, endlessly -- for some hope of continuation and a new beginning.
Because the true price of survival is this: you need to find a way to go on afterward.
Genres:
Tropes: Enemy to Ally, Fallen Hero, Pseudo European Society
Word Count: 13090
Languages Available: English
Tropes: Enemy to Ally, Fallen Hero, Pseudo European Society
Word Count: 13090
Languages Available: English
Navin Wolf, Pack Father of the Long Valley Wolves, strode into the court of Queen Alfhard as if he owned it. Looking neither at the gaping courtiers surrounding him nor the soldiers who escorted him. He looked only at Alfhard. She would have called his stare a challenge except he did not meet her eyes.
When he reached the foot of the dais, he stopped and waited. Alfhard studied him for a moment. He was smaller than she expected. Slight, with a hint of fat in his cheeks and belt, but hard, for all that.
Her examination didn't bother Navin; he'd expected it. The wolf within him paced fretfully. They knew what was to come, Navin and his wolf. And neither of them liked it.
The herald belatedly announced him and his purpose, "…come to offer surrender on behalf of the Long Valley Wolves and all of their pack."
READ MOREAlfhard had known, of course, that the offer of surrender was coming, but she had expected a messenger, not the Wolf himself. That he put himself in her hands without even a promise of safe conduct spoke of great trust or desperation. Possibly both.
"And what are your conditions, Pack Father?" she asked.
His eyes flickered, flashing golden for a moment before returning to their human brown. It startled Alfhard, who had heard all her life of the wolves but had never met one before. She was sure it meant something but didn't know what.
"One condition only, Majesty," he replied, the strain in his voice belying the calm on his face. "The life of my people."
She knew then that he was desperate. But why? He was losing the war but still had the position and forces to demand real concessions.
She accepted as Navin had known she would. In some ways, she had no choice. To reject his surrender under such easy terms would anger her soldiers, who died daily in the war, and their families, who wanted them home. At her signal, the Lieutenant who headed the Wolf's escort stepped forward.
"Surrender your weapons," the soldier demanded. Navin unbuckled his sword belt and let it fall to the floor.
"Surrender your armor." The brigantine took longer to remove but was discarded likewise.
"Surrender your honors." His tunic, this time, bedecked and embroidered with all the markings and honors of his life. This he folded and crouched down to place on the floor.
"Surrender yourself." His wolf-sister tried to rise at this, but he silenced her with a memory of dead cubs. He knelt and put his arms behind his back.
COLLAPSEContent Notes: attempted genocide (off screen), child murders (off screen), prejudice, violence, abuse references
