Alistair

'The world is not kind to free thinkers.'

'What do you mean, mum?'

'I mean...that you should follow the rule of Alpha without question. He is our leader for a reason, my son, and we are part of his pack.'

'Well, can I be Alpha one day? Then I can make the rules.'

'No, my son, I'm afraid you were not born for that.'

Alistair grew up as part of an old, well-established pack that lived in the mountains. It's leader, Echo, was a hard wolf - stoic and cold that cared only about preserving the packs impressive boundaries and keeping order. Alistair was a part of his mother's fifth litter.. By the time he was born, Echo had already picked his successor and even if he hadn't, Alistair was nothing special, neither the largest puppy of a litter, nor the runt. The best he could hope for was to gain a reputation as a good hunter or scout - to earn a place by Echo's side as a trusted advisor as he grew older or to fall in behind Nyx, Echo's chosen.

Alistair was a bright young wolf, an innovative thinker that got him into a lot of trouble as a pup. Needless to say, as he grew, he was vastly unsatisfied by Echo's archaic and impersonal way of leading the pack. He was convinced that he would be able to incite change - make things friendlier, allow the younger pups to have their say. Echo was intimidating but not horrible. Alistair just had to wait for the right time.

One day, emboldened by a particularly impressive kill, Alistair finally decided to approach Echo. Not usually permitted to talk to the Alpha beyond the occassional greeting, Alistair was excited, yipping and tail wagging and looking more like a puppy than an adult wolf. Echo saw only a youngling trying to make a name for himself and, already stressed by the pressures put on him from the Western packs and a dwindling food supply in the face of the coming winter, he snapped.

'You will be silent!'

Alistair stilled, taken aback by the sudden rage but Echo was not done with him. An upstart youngling barely more than a pup needed to learn his place in this world or be done with it.

'I will not listen to the elk-dung of a young wolf who cannot comprehend the day to day burdens that I, as Alpha, must carry. We cannot expand our borders at this time. We cannot explore when our scouts barely have enough energy from the meagre food we can source to make it to the edges of our lands as it is! Know your place and leave the planning to those who know how to consider in all the factors!'

Alistair stared at his leader, at the impressive muscles bulging over Echo's back, at the scar running over his left flank from the hunting incident the supposedly happened in his youth. He stuck his tongue out and teasted the bitter metal of real rage.

'B-but, sir, if we only-

'ENOUGH!' Echo barked and with that, he shot forward, snarling and mean and a powerhouse of old Alpha confidence. His teeth sunk into Alistair's leg before Alistair could gather his wits enough to move. He yelped, pulling back.

The bite was not hard, barely drawing the tiniest nick of blood. A warning.

But it might as well have been fatal for Alistair. For as he bowed his head to lick at his damaged paw, he could think only of Echo's loss of control, of the repercussions that might fall onto his beloved mother and siblings for causing their stoic leader to lose control of himself.

Alistair knew then what he had to do.

He left that night without a word to his mother and siblings. He knew they would continue to be well cared for under Echo providing that he was no longer there to cause trouble for them.

It was time for him to forge his own path.

***

He traveled for many days. In that time, he fed himself off of the land, learnt the new smells of a world previously closed off by the frigid and familiar air of his mountain home. He saw sunlight through the thick conifers, heard the scurry of squirrels and shivered in the cold air as he lay alone beneath the roots of a tree. It was exciting and invigorating and...lonely.

One night, as the fireflies bobbed over the budding flowers at the edge of the forest, Alistair caught a scent that he had never smelt before.

It was glorious.

Like something out a dream...

Entranced, he followed it and the bright moon illuminated his path until he heard the running shoals of a river.

That was where he met her. The first wolf he had seen outside of his own pack and she was...

Beautiful.

He fur was sleek and sandy blonde. Her paws were dusky and her eyes were the same colour as the grasses he liked to run in over the mountains. She leaned down to take a drink of water and then turned, regarded him. The air crackled with her judgement.

'You're new,' she said by the way of a greeting. Alistair swallowed. He had no idea how to interact with someone outside of his own pack.

By the time he opened his mouth, she was already sneering at him, teeth bared and head held erect.

'Not too bright are you,' she decided and that made Alistair's fur bristle.

'I'm plenty bright," he snarled, stepping away from the bush he'd been half hiding behind. He could feel flames igniting beneath his paws as her eyes raked over his frame. There was absolutely no attempt made to conceal the appraisal and her brashness both insulted and intrigued Alistair who had been brought up under Echo's stiff regime.

He cleared his throat.

'What's your name?'

She stared at him and the green of her eyes ate into his soul.

'Eris,' she said at length.

'Eris,' he repeated, tasting the name the way he'd tasted her scent. 'I'm Alistair.'

Eris cocked her head to the side and her eyes slid to his right and left.

'Where is your pack?' she asked him. 'You don't look old or scarred. So you must be scouting for one of the the forest packs right?'

Alistair winced but shook it off fast.

'Actually,' he said, calling on every ounce of enthusiasm he could muster for his own ideas about a friendlier pack mentality. 'I have a proposition for you, if you're interested.'