Grårygg ✒️

"Here it is," the wolf leading his way said in a strange accent, while orange light started shining onto the furs around her ears. Dioder couldn't help feeling curious about his new pack, despite his sourness over being cast out by his old one. They entered the territory. A grey male came up to them.

"Gick allt bra?" Dioder didn't understand a single word, but he didn't have to. The question was directed at his guide, who responded in equally alien words. The grey male looked at Dioder and gave him a welcoming nod as he let them past. 

"I'm bringing you to the alpha."

Dioder walked silently next to his guide as his ear twitched to the left, and his gaze too. Two wolves whispered and looked at him. They reached the alpha on top of a hill.

"Welcome to our pack," the alphas accent made the other wolf seem like a neighbour. He could barely understand what she said, "I asked Granit to bring you here because I wanted to meet you. We don't get a lot of adult wolves joining our pack like this."

-

When Granit had showed him around a bit, she joined him for a snack, probably as a welcoming gesture, and two females walked by giggling and glancing at him. He couldn't help it anymore.

"What were they talking about?" He asked Granit. She looked up at him, glanced back at them and spoke.

"I should not tell you others secrets, but they probably didn't know you can't understand their language, so maybe they wanted you to hear," she smirked, Dioder became even more curious at this and looked at her eagerly, "They think you're handsome. It's your blaze, they think it makes you look royal."

Dioder almost tried to look at his blaze. He felt a bit exposed, not being able to look at something on his own body that others could see so clearly. But does it make him look royal? He sat up a bit straighter. He was a royal, he was a prince, albeit cast out.. It only makes sense for him to look royal.

As he made friends, they kept speaking in their weird accent, and even tried to teach him things. He was really bad at it, and only learned to understand a few words. His new friends nicknamed Grårygg, which he learned means Grey back, because they simply could not learn how to pronounce his name, and it faded from his mind..

-

Grårygg had a large friend group. The alpha was a part of it, of course, until she died.