Gunnveig✒️

Gunnveig had a lot of older siblings;
Gunhild was the oldest sibling. She took the role as oldest sibling pretty lax, most of the time. When she didn't want to be involved, she didn't, and when she wanted to, she demanded to be heard and claimed the right to be listened to.
Gunnela was the second oldest. She was the one who actually stepped up to take care of everyone, and she was pretty good leading them all, and she knew it. If someone questioned her, they could be sure they would be in trouble, and that's why her and Gunhild did not get along very well.
Gunvor was the third oldest, and she took after Gunhild a lot, except she was more involved, but she never really came with any solutions to problems or ny helpful ideas, she mostly complained and scoffed.
Gunnar was Gunvors younger littermate, and he truly only cared about himself. Everything he did and said were always for the benefit of him. Sometimes what he needed was exactly what the rest of the family needed, too.
Gunnveig was the fifth sibling.
The last sibling was Gunnleif, Gunnveigs younger brother. He wanted to help everyone and make the pack stronger, by deciding everything by himself. Since he was the youngest and littlest, no one took him seriously and it bothered him a lot. Unfortunately, he took this out on Gunnveig, bossying her around.

Gunnveig herself, well, she was in the middle of all of these agressive wolves, and she did not fit in. What one of her siblings would take as an insult, Veig took as a correction and opportunity to better herself. She never thought of herself as better than anyone else, and she always tried to help everyone. These are good qualities to have, but not in a family like theirs. Veig was constantly put down by her many siblings, and she grew quiet over time.
-
"Shut the fuck up, Vor," Nela growled from where she laid in the shade of a bush.
"I'm just saying she should stop being such a pussy," Vor scoffed, and this time she was using more hurtful words. Veig looked around for someplace to run and hide to stop the conflict, and she saw Gunhild just coming home. Oh no.
"And I'm saying your opinion isn't helpful you little twat," Nela and Vor growled at eachother.
"What's the problem now?" Hild walked up to them. Nela shot Vor a glance, obviously asking for her to pretend like it was nothing.
"Nela is pretending to boss me around again is all," Vor whined and Veig could see Nela trying to come up with a plan.
"What subject matter were you arguing about?" Hild was in a parenting mood.
"I was just trying to help Gunveig out, she was complaining about Leif."
"I don't see why that's a bad thing. Nela?" Hild turned to Nela, who took a breath.
"She wasn't giving advice, she was being mean to her!"
"I was not being mean, what the fuck!" Vor started shouting about what she had been saying to Veig, and Veig tried to cover her ears. Nela came over to her.
"Come puppy, lets get out of here," she said and they started going.
"Where do you think you're going?" Hild snarled at Nela.
"Veig is upset, I'm taking her somewhere to calm down!"
"Oh cause you think you're so much better than all of us at giving advice?" Vor rolled her eyes.
"I'm not trusting you taking that pup anywhere, Gunnela, come back here right now!" Hilds voice was cold. Nela turned around and walked up to her, and they started growling and yelling at eachother. Gunveig sneaked behind a tree stump and then ran to her usual hiding spot by the river. It was so quiet there, the only thing she heard was the water and some birds. Veig breathed in and out slowly until she stopped shaking. After a while she heard some rustling in the bushes, so she hid up on some rocks, until she heard the voice.
"Pup, where are you? I'm sorry they scared you like that," it was Nela. Veig came out of her hiding spot, and Nela helped her get down from the rocks and hugged her, "I swear those wolves get worse every day."
Veig just nodded and pressed her face against Nelas shoulder, wiping her tears into her fur.
"It's okay to be scared," Nela reassured.
"I-I'm not scared.. I'm just sad that Leif doesn't like me," Veig sniffled, "I'm his sister.."
"I'll talk to him," Nela said, and Veig wanted to tell her no, but she knew that if she did, Nela would be offended and talk to him anyway, so Veig didn't say anything.
-
When asked about their mother, every sibling said something different.
Hild had known their mother for the longest, she loved her and would've done anything for her. Nela was the same, but she seemed to hold some secret regrets as well. Vor and Gunnar were pretty neutral, they cried and said they missed her but then they could say nasty things about her having too many pups and stuff. Leif was mostly angry at her. Gunveig didn't know her mother very well, or at all really. She died when her and Leif were very young. Veig knew her name had been Lög, and she knew that she must've really liked the name Gun, since she named all of her pups Gun-something. Maybe she had known someone named gun and named her pups after them? Veig fantasised about her mothers secrets, about Gun, whoever that could be, and whoever her father was. Maybe Gun was her father? That didn't make sense, her siblings knew their father, his name had been Håkan and he died a long time ago.
-
A branch smacked her in the face. Ugh! The bushes were very thick around these parts, and Veig was bigger than last time she was here. Growing up sucks. She was agile enough and crawled her way through the bushes.
"Huh?" She sniffed the air, it smelled different here. Very different. Veigs stomach turned, because it smelled like wolves, and the smell of wolves to her meant her family. And her family meant fighting eachother and belittling her. The scent she wanted, and that made her happy, was the scent of fresh air and water and pine trees. The scent of being alone. Veig grunted and ran as fast as she could away from the uncomfortable feeling. Suddenly her paws weren't on the ground anymore, and she landed on some thorny bushes.
"Fuck," she groaned as she tried to turn over to her feet without ripping her skin on the twigs. Fear struck her as she heard:
"Hey, are you alright?"
The voice was far away, probably up the hill she just fell from, and it sounded familiar. Please don't be any of sister, please she begged as she heard the wolf moving towards her. As it helped her up, she accepted her fate as she saw the dark fur.
"I'm sorry.." Veig begun, before she looked up and saw an unfamiliar face. An old wolf with pitch black eyes and a confused expression stood before her.
"Pup, you're bleeding. Let me take you to my herbalist, alright?" The old wolf ignored Veigs apology, and started leading her away. Veig breathed out. The herbalist was one of the places where she felt less awful, because her herblist wasn't so mean. Usually she just said weird things. But this wasn't the right herbalist. Under a waterfall they met a sleepy but cheerful young wolf, who smelled familiar and looked familiar too, but the two attributes didn't fit together.
"Did I hit my head?" Veig said out loud. It all felt like a weird version of her reality. The young wolf looked at the older one with a silent question.
"Well, it was a steep hill, she might have," the old wolf said. The herbalist went over to Veig to examine her, with questions like what happened, and what's your name, and does your head or neck hurt, and can you feel this? and Veig yipped at the pinch the herbalist gave her. Soon, Veigs wounds were being treated, and the old wolf was sleeping over by a wall.
"Your wounds aren't so bad, but seeing as you're feeling confused, I suggest you stay here until tomorrow just in case," the herbalist put one last glob of salve on Veigs back, and then noticed that Veig was looking at the old wolf.
"Her name is Frida. I think she's sticking around because you remind her of a wolf that she lost," the herbalist said, and started walking away, "I'm Nypon by the way."
-
Veig was on her way back to where she fell. Months had gone, and veig had found out a secret; she was related to someone in a different pack. A whole family in fact. It must be the pack with the familiar herbalist and the old lady. Veig wanted to find out.
"You're back!" She looked surprised, and Veig was surprised to find her at the same location as before, too.
"I.." It was hard to explain, "do you know my family?"
The female smiled, "I think I do."

The old female, now Veig knew her name was Frida, led her toward her packs territory. Veig could tell by the scent that it was big, and that they had a bonfire, and she could hear singing. But Veig wasn't led to the bonfire and the singing. They stopped outside a cave, and Frida told Veig to wait outside.
After some moments, at least three pairs of eyes were shining at her from the dark cave while Frida emerged with a tender look on her face. The other wolves, still in the dark, mumbled to eachother. They seemed unhaopy with Veig being there, but when they came out some of them had tears in their eyes. One of them nodded silently at Frida.

This new family was so much kinder. Veig could tell they were reserved, but Frida ensured her that it was just because they were scared of Veigs family.
"Mörka can tell that you have no ill intent, I'm sure of it," Frida said, "but she is smart, she knows your old pack is trouble for us."
Veig and Ivar got along though. Soon enough Frida died and both Mörka and Ivar became very protective of Veig.
-
One evening Mörka came to Veigs cave, lit some candles and told her a story. Once upon a time, a pup was born to a powerful alpha. The pup was dark and had moonlit eyes, and she had a brother who was bright with sunlit eyes. Night and day, Skade and Ull were born to the great alpha Tyr on a spring evening. This was the story of Skades family, their family. It was mostly a bunch of names, a family tree, until one pup was born. Back in the day, it was considered bad for a pup to grow up alone, and he was born alone. His parents adopted siblings for him, but they were found dead not long after. The parents were concerned that the pup was responsible, so they named him Himlaklar to inspire him to be good. Things did not go as they wanted though, and Himlaklar grew up to be an awful wolf. Eventually, he attempted to assasinate his older brother and the alpha of the pack, as well as a little puppy. Mörka paused when mentioning the puppy, and sighed.
"Who's the puppy?" Veig asked.
"Her name was Skugga, she's not so important right now," Mörka said with a tear glistening in her eye. Skugga must have been important to her.
The story continued. Himlaklar was banished, thought to be dead, but in reality he started his own pack and started terrorizing our pack, killing our pups. His pack grew and he had pups of his own. Mörka looked up at Veig with a serious look on her face.
"That pack is the one you grew up in. Your siblings and you are descendants of Himlaklar."
-
Before Gunnveig left the world, she had two pups. One of them dark with grey eyes, and the other warm brown with bright yellow eyes. Gunnveig felt accomplished, despite all that her family and her ancestors had been through, had done, all the bad that Himle had caused-- It all ended with her, as she raised her two girls with gentle care and lots of love. There were superstitions about them, because Mona looked like a member of Skades family, while Nora looked much like a member of Himles family. But Mona was older than Nora, and she defended her little sister with all that she had. Gunnveig died happy, knowing that she had done right by her family.