Hemlocke

"Did he love you, ma?"

"... He did, but not enough to matter."


There once was a King of a pack of wolves who chose a she-wolf to be his mate. She was his equal in every regard and the pack adored them, but none adored them more than the sister of the queen. And none adored this sister than the King.

The King decided that he chose a suitable Queen for the pack and now would chose a lover for himself. The sister battled internally between the love of her Queen and the love for her King, season after season she chose her sister until one night she chose herself.

"Just one night for us to play pretend. Only one."

But way leads to way and the natural, though sometimes unfortunate, reality occurred where the love between King and Mistress manifested as a single black puppy. None knew who the father was and to ensure that it stayed that way the King exiled them both under pretense of betrayal.

So the sister scrounged to feed the pup, spending a majority of their years between territories in the Hemlock groves that she named her him after.

"That's what we are, understand? Hemlocks. We are our own shelter, we are self-sufficient, we let the rain roll right off of us."

And so they were. Hemlocke grew and helped his mother hunt as best he could and they lived a life they could eventually describe as quiet, well-enough, and sometimes even content. But they weren't wolves of medicine, and one winter was far too harsh for his silver-muzzled mother and her spirit left with it to make way for spring.

Hemlocke was alone. And, being more used to his own company than others, he continued to live alone. Hunting, walking, fishing, waiting for a winter or some ailment to take him away. But a wolf found him instead, one stronger than seasonal trouble and physical ailments. And Tala was mortified by what she saw.

Taking him under her wing she connected him to the herbalist and the snake. From there she taught him how packs work and the basics of greeting stranger wolves. Hemlock never quite grasped the necessity of it but was happy to have another wolf to talk to who was so bright and cheerful.

"A firefly. A singular firefly in an empty grassland." He thought.

One firefly turned to two as Tala introduced him to Moss Agate. She was brazen, bold, crass, and never spoke quieter than bark. While neither fell in love, they did find comfort with each other. Enough to call each other 'mate'. Hemlocke let Agate rant and rave and speak for them both and Agate let Hemlocke wander the ranges of their territory alone. For no training could strip Hemlocke of the comfort and safety he felt in solitude.

In his wanderings he found the first wolves that'd make his pack: the siblings Soot and Pitch, Birch, and Frosted Sycamore, their herbalist and the eldest among them. Hemlocke and Agate even had to pups of their own, two accidents really. Though neither were born and bred parents they raised the pups as best as they knew how, playing and watching over them and telling them stories. Then the lights started. Whisps that trailed through trees and flickered into caves.

He met Maeve and together he aided her and her pack in attempting to protect themselves. Meeting wolves who were either seeking lost family or who seemed to have lost themselves completely. After discovering the Bronagh, a malevolent mortal spirit trapped between worlds and seeking her pups, he came the same conclusion as Sirona, Maeve's herbalist: That Puppies must be sacrificed to let the Bronagh rest once and for all before anymore wolves disappeared or went mad.

The sacrifice was asked of him and since Maeve had lost so many wolves already, he knew it would only be fair to take it. He said as much to Agate who adamantly refused and ran him around the camp with threats for emphasis. So in the night he lead his pups away to meet the others by a cave they believed was the Bronagh's home and there he said his goodbyes as the Bronagh lead them away under the guise of Moss Agate.

Agate was irate. An anger so beyond any rage she ever had that she did not speak or threaten or snap. She was ice. She was stone. Silent and cold.

It wasn't the end of the story of course, the Faelcu, mischievous or malevolent spirits slipped through the cracks the Bronagh left. Once again Hemlock aided Maeve and Sirona in following the Faelcu's demands. By the end when the cracks of this spirit world were finally sealed, things had changed. Maeve had lost another beloved wolf. Hemlock himself lost his children, his mate's trust, and perhaps the trust of his pack who viewed him as an outsider to begin with.

But these marks stained him physically as well. His eyes changed to an unnatural green-red, and his fur developed greenish gold marks. Agate perhaps couldn't look at him out of hatred but the others struggled to look at him out of sheer discomfort.

Hemlocke returned to his wanderings, finding adolescents and pups and other strays. He was particularly fond of Rainbow, the first pup who he adopted after the loss of his children and whom he felt immediately connected with. Agate was inconsolable and pushed even further by Hemlocke's warmth to a pup that he never showed his own. So one night Agate left. The pack sought her, Hemlocke sought her. But she was gone.

These days Hemlocke spends the majority of his time alone and "scouting". The pack of misfits seem almost to run themselves as they are all lost souls having found company and the desire to keep it. All would call their silent shadow of a wolf their Lead. But only the scouts, Scout and Radiance would call him friend. Besides the strangers that Hemlocke manages to help along the way.

When he isn't lost in thought, or walking, he fishes. Finding peace by the bubbling waters. Sometimes when staring out across the river, he might imagine that he glimpsed the fur or heard the bark of the she-wolf that fuels his wanderings.