Crunch. Crunch. Snap. Icarus had celebrated his newfound freedom by satisfying his cravings for hunger on the bones of the dead. He was lying on his stomach with a fractured shin bone between his forepaws among a pile of shattered skulls and broken bones that littered the ground around him. His jaws clamped around the bone, sharp teeth grinding it idly. He had been gnawing on it so long that his teeth had caused grooves deep inside. His stomach hadn’t quite desired the sweet taste of hare or deer but only a morsel of wholesome goodness. Or he was bored. Restless as usual. The oldest son of the litter had been blessed with energy that was limitless in its depths. Even as he was lying on the ground his ears twitched, his tail waved through the air frenetically. Stillness was not something he practiced or had learned to cultivate. Too many thoughts ran rampant through his mind without the mental shackles to hold them down and gather them together into peace and serenity. As such, he was in a constant state of activity. Of needing to move even when he was supposed to be still. He was the type to explore and move, to find something that would excite him and just explore and be outgoing. The black wolf was the product of two wolves with two very different personalities but his traits were more inclined towards his mother than his father. But his ambitions couldn’t be anymore closer to his father. He wanted to be a warrior. A big, tough fearless warrior like his father who could protect his family and pack. Which was why he was out here by himself. He didn’t need anyone. He could take care of himself. And he’d prove it.

His ears perked as he heard a voice in the near distance. It sounded like his brother. Abandoning the bone, he stood up. Dust threaded his pelt which was sadly, a cloak of midnight velvet finery and silk instead of rough, gritty maleness. He growled, rolling around in the earth to make it more ragged and wild. Satisfied, he made his way towards the noise. It had to be his brother but it could be anybody else. Maybe it was one of the other kids. The ones who was his parents’ friends’ kids. It’d be nice to meet them. Maybe they wanted to fight like him and they could train together. But nope. It was his brother Striker. Icarus grinned. He’d escaped the watchful eyes of their parents. But he’d managed to get a skull stuck on his head and was stumbling around. Icarus stared for a moment. He wanted to help but this was too funny. An impish look passed his features. Icarus lowered his head watching his brother with glowing golden eyes. They were volatile, ever-shifting in deep fierce gold. Passion filled the apprentice, seeping from every pore. One step, two step, then three and he was torpedoing across the ground towards Striker. His paws slammed the ground, strong legs sending him forwards. Bones flew everywhere, clattering noisily. Getting closer, his upper body close to the ground he tensed his muscles and leaped through the air, ploughing into Striker from the side with a wild howl that was a war-cry,“Fatality!”He wrapped his forelegs around Striker’s neck and shoulders in an attempt to push him down while keeping his balance with his hind legs, clasping his ear playfully and laughed, voice muffled,“Want me to get you a staff to go with your head-gear?”

As his brother fell, Icarus allowed himself to fall with him laughing. His upper torso, already on Striker’s back, sprawled out over him as he near well crushed him. He pressed a paw against the joint that connected the right horn to the skull, teeth migrating to the other horn to test them against the surface. As he bellowed at him, Icarus tried harder to snap the horn apart gnawing at it relentlessly. When Striker pushed him off he rolled away, standing with a wide grin on his face as he glared at him.“You look cute,” Icarus said, barely able to keep from snorting in laughter. He knew what his brother was trying to do. But the skull looked ridiculous which ruined the effect. Icarus snorted when he imitated their Alpha. The young warrior-to-be cared nothing for ranks or things like that. He didn’t even care enough to contemplate or think that such things could indeed be important. If only for the superficial, political reasons. He enjoyed fighting and playing but he devoted no time to drawing relationships between ranks or any kind of ruminations over the social intricacies of the pack hierarchy. All he knew was that warriors were powerful and strong and anything else, save for hunters, were weak because they were too soft-hearted to fight. In his mind, there was no reason to be anything but a warrior because warriors had all the fun. So he thought little of those who pursued the path of healing or caretaking. Except for his mother. Because she was the exception. His view was perhaps a little too simple in that regard. If he had thought it through properly, he would’ve realized that if he thought that his mother was the exception then all healers should’ve been granted respect as there was no real difference between his mother and the other healers. His initial thought of healers or caretakers being worth little to him would have been contradictory. But alas, the eldest son was not the philosopher in the family, not the intrepid thinker or wanderer so those thoughts remained buried, never to see the light of day. Icarus picked up a nearby yellowed, brittle shin bone which was almost as long as his body and tossed it towards Striker. He bowed towards his younger brother, speaking sarcastically, “Your staff my lord. Fit for a king.”

He was playing of course, making a mockery of the whole thing along with his brother. He knew Striker was exaggerating and he was as entertained as him. Icarus didn’t care for the Alpha in any way. There was no reason to because he was sure he didn’t care for him. Or for anyone else for that matter. But he cared for his little brother enough to see that he didn’t hurt himself. Not that he’d ever show it. He was also bored enough to goof around. Icarus swatted a rib cage, watching it fly across the ground with dark gold eyes and answered to his brother’s question,“Yeah but I got bored. After you ran away, they turned all their attention to me. Mum finished with her talk and she with Renier to talk about the stars or something pathetic like that. Dad wanted me to meditate. Something about being patient and seeing the bigger picture.”He snorted again, flicking his tail and growled,“It was so boring. I ran away when father wasn’t looking.”He paused. He didn’t quite believe that his father hadn’t seen him but he hadn’t ran after him which meant he didn’t care. That kind of hurt slightly. He bent his head down, sniffing the earth. He had never smelt the place of the dead before.“Did you find anything worthwhile in here?”

Icarus knocked the bones aside with his paw, annoyed and growled in warning to his younger brother.“Watch it almighty king.”He was not above sitting on Striker if he went too far, just to assert his dominance. He was bigger than him and heavier. He knew Striker was rebellious, perhaps even more than him at times so he let him play. But Icarus was a proud wolf so even when they were playing make-believe he stood straight, his form strong and unyielding. If death came for him, he would look it straight in the eye and laugh. Sure it was going to take him but he wasn’t going to make it easy. And he hoped that death suffocated on him. Their little baby brother was in his own world most of the time. Though Icarus had done a lot of things to him during their time together. Like pretended to be a bear and pounced on him when he was sleeping which was only last month. Another time he’d ambushed him when he’d been at the kill-pile and stolen his food making Renier chase him and tackle him down. Icarus was going to give him the food anyway in the end but he needed to make him fight. He remembered kicking him when he was younger but that was only because he’d been bored. And he had tricked him with fairy-tales and stories about the rival pack which Renier had believed at first. Until his father caught him waiting at the borders all by himself to fend off invisible enemies during one of his patrols and when Renier had told him that Icarus had told him to do it, his father had punished Icarus by making him run around the lake at night several times. It was all because he cared about his brother, as he did with Striker. He knew the others in the pack would be cruel so if Icarus was as callous and violent with him as he could be then he would be able to take anything that the others threw at him. But he didn’t let Renier know that. Or Striker Icarus had grumbled but deep down he’d been proud of his little brother. Though he’d been gullible at the time, naïve to believe him. These days it seemed as if their parents favoured him more and more giving all their attention to him. Even though he didn’t even want to be a warrior or a healer. So he resented his father spending more time with him.

“Yeah a mutant cow wolf,” Icarus snorted as he talked about the extra appendage. He still thought his little brother looked stupid but the bone wasn’t hurting him. Icarus clamped his jaws around another bone as Striker spoke about their mother. He only grunted in response, placing both his paws against the sides of the bone and tugged. The bone snapped into two. The apprentice threw it a disgusted look then lashed out at it with his tail, sending the pieces spiralling away. Sometimes he thought his mother spoke a lot but he just tuned it out. He really didn’t care. He knew that Striker was bluffing but he also knew that he wanted to be stronger. For power, he guessed. Icarus just wanted to be able to defeat anyone that came his way. He wanted to surpass his father and be bigger and stronger than him. Power? It’d come to him at times. The power to rule the world. To destroy armies with a single paw. To erase the very existence of those that he wished nothing more than to see dead with a command. To be the thing that struck terror into the hearts of others. But those were impossible things. How could a mortal be an immortal? But Icarus dreamed of it. Shaking his head, Icarus started to growl,“Hey you want to play a ga…” He stopped as he heard what his brother said. Icarus stared at him for a long moment, taking the image in his mind and then burst out laughing, unable to stand and dropping on the floor and rolling on the ground among broken bones in guffaws. “Hahaha! You’re going to look like a mutant cow wolf forever!”