Ask ☉✒️

Karl was a big and proud wolf, yes, one to admire. He was humble, not the head of the family but still acting graciously as the big brother to the younger male who was. They weren't brothers, but that's how it was in the Ull family. And Karl looked a lot like Ull. He embodied their ancestor very well. Karl found a mate that he loved, and everything was fine, until they had pups. One of them looked quite like Karl, and one of them.. didn't.
"I never thought this of you, Järv!" Karl snarled, "you're young, you have power! Why would you do this to me?"
"I didn't! I never touched Ashwhisper, I swear to you," Järv tried, but Karl growled at him.
"Shut up! I can't listen to your fucking lies," Karl left Sinewy river, he settled down a bit north, by the foot of the mountain, with his mate and the pups.
-
It was dark. She hadn't many memories yet, she was too small, but she knew she was alone and that she wasn't usually alone. She got up and walked around the huge roots and stems. She sniffed the big leaves and the moss, looking for familiarity, looking for a soft furry tummy. She had no word for mother yet, but she was looking for her still. Soon, she became tired and laid down again. The sun rose and set. Things rustled in the trees. Her stomach hurt and she was whining uncontrollably.
This wouldn't be something she would ever remember.
-
"Bye pappa!" Ask shouted as she ran off with her aunt. She was going to learn that her pack was bigger than her family, she was going to go to the capital; Somnolents seat.
"What does a beta do?" She asked her aunt during their travel.
"I help the Alpha with whatever she needs," Dag responded.
"What does the Alpha do?" Ask really knew nothing, and Dag chuckled.
"The alpha is like the mother of the whole pack, she decides everything," Dag explained, "Have you seen the full moon on a starry night?"
Ask nodded, she had seen it once with her pappa, he had pointed out different constellations and names of the stars for her.
"Imagine you're a star, and everyone in our family are little stars, and everyone in the pack too," as Dag explained, Ask imagined being a little shining star, "if we're the stars, the alpha is the moon."
"Woah," Ask whispered as she imagined a wolf shining white like the full moon, "is she really big?"
"No!" Dag laughed, "she's normal sized, you'll see. How are your pappa and your uncle doing?"
"They're normal,"
"Still hate eachother?"
"They always hated eachother," Ask replied. Dag hummed, but didn't say anything.
In Asks eyes, the alpha did shine like the moon, or the sun. She greeted her graciously and with excitement, as if she had longed to meet her. The alpha knew a lot of things, and Ask got to follow her on duties and she learned so much about the pack. There were four families in each compass direction, and the alpha lived in the middle. Appearently, there had been many alphas before, and this one was a descendant of Ull just like Ask! The night before Ask would travel back to Sinewy, she woke up in the night and heard the faint voices of the alpha and beta.
"I should kick him out. I should kill him!" The alphas voice said. Ask became a little bit scared.
"Calm down, I don't know if that's the best decison," Dag replied. There was a weird silence, as if something was spoken without words. Then she heard him.
"I don't know, alpha."
"Pappa!" Ask burst out of the cave and into the moonlight, right into the furry chest of her father.
"Oh gods, teddy, you should be sleeping," he pressed her against his chest with his big paw.
"Are you here to take me home?"
"Ah, no.. actually, I was thinking that you could stay here for a little while more, if you want to," her pappa said. Ask pulled away and felt conflicted. She liked Dag and the Alpha.
"Will you stay, too?"
"No," he shook his head, "but we will meet soon again, I swear to you."
-
She had tears in her eyes and backed off from him.
"Pappa- I mean.." she stuttered, "I understand that you have a real family now, it's okay."
She ran off as quickly as she could. Her pappa wasn't really her pappa, it was so confusing. Her real pappa, where was he? She remembered now, she had an uncle when she was little. She visited the old burial ground ruins, the ones that Alpha Natts mate had restored the paint on, to look at the family trees. The last person in the family tree was a female named Freja, and the investigation didn't go much further. Ask stayed away from her Pappa- no, Järv. That was his name. She stayed away from Järv and his new family, his beautiful ablazed pups that Ask had thought were her siblings.
-
Järv started crying, Ask had never seen him cry before.
"My pup! You're back!" He limped towards her and she accepted his embrace.
"I heard you weren't well, and despite it all, you raised me and I can't deny that, even if I'm not your real pup," Ask said and let the old wolf sit down by the fire. The starry sky glittered above them and everyone was asleep.
"You are my pup, Ask. More than anyone," Järvs voice was raspier than it used to be, "I've had you since you were only a week old. I named you, I fed you! It was hard, you were too little to be taken from your mother, but the herbalist helped me."
"Why did you take me from my mother?" Ask almost felt angry, and Järv averted his gaze. His one white eye glistened while the black one didn't, and he reminded her of her own reflection.
"I guess it is time to tell you. I felt like it would be best to not let you know, that the truth might hurt you, so I kept it from you," Järv sighed, "your father, he must've gone mad because he had always been a nice wolf before. When you were born, he accused his mate of cheating on him - with me."
The story continued.
"I had never done such a thing, and one of the pups looked just like Karl," Karl, that must be the name of my father, "so the litter was undoubtably his. He took his family and left. I wanted to settle things with him, so I went to try to find him. Far off into the woods, I heard the weakest little cry. I will never forget, never. The shock of seeing you there, a newborn pup all alone, abandoned.."
Abandoned to die, Asks eyes started tearing and Järv licked her cheek.
"Don't cry," he said.
"Not even my father wanted me.." Ask whimpered.
"But I did. I took you in as my own and I have loved you ever since, Ask. Oh Ask, I named you after your mother, because I was sure that she loved you just as much as I did."
"Where is she?"
Järv almost choked up, he looked very uncomfortable.
"When you were several months old, Karl came to take you. He had somehow found out I had you, but I knew about it so I had sent you off to where you'd be safe. I refused to let him have you, because of what he had done to you. He became hysterical, started shouting and saying many things, confusing things but awful things. I can't remember, but he did imply that he didn't want you alive, so I attacked him," Järv took a long pause, then whispered, "my brother."
Many questions ran through Asks mind, but she dare not say them out loud. Järv must've noticed.
"I came to my senses, and I banished him. I had to make sure that he stayed far away, so we patrolled the area close to where he and your mother lived. This way, we also found out that your mother, Ashwhisper, was ill.. Deathly so. We don't know how long she had been sick. Grief can make even the kindest wolf go mad, and that's what we think happened to Karl."
"So my mother is dead.." Ask whispered, "and Karl?"
"Karl was several suns older than me," Järv had grown old and didn't have long left in this world either, so Karl must be long gone. As Ask looked up at the twinkling sky, she felt like she had lost everything. But when she looked at Järv, she knew she hadn't. Tears formed in her eyes again.
"Thank you for saving me," her words earned her an embrace, and she said carefully, "is it okay if I'm your daughter again?"
"I never considered you any less than that."