High Moon Ch. 36:

An Outcast’s Home

“Alpha, would you slow up?” Above High Moon valley, Luna and Nightmare’s moon was beginning to make its last few minutes of light known before the twilight of sunrise would slowly crawl above Everfree. However, Wolf, Blaze, and an unwilling Veil all walked around a covered path in the valley, and were preparing to set up Blaze’s test for the dragons.

Blaze had told Isis to tell all four dragons not to eat anything until after the test, and that she would come to get them when everything was ready. The sphinx hadn't wasted a single moment as before leaving to carry out her mistress' order.

Now, Wolf carried Blaze on his back, as she was still somewhat sleepy, while Veil crawled around behind them. However, the diamond hound was still able to keep her eyes open enough to at least assist in finding the type of field the Alpha-Mother was looking for. But she still wanted to sleep. Blaze had told the two canines that she needed an open field with virtually nothing else in it, somewhere that sound wasn’t made too often.

The first part of Blaze’s desired area was fairly easy to point out several times, however, it was the second condition that made the search difficult. Each time they came across a field, Wolf would close his eyes to listen to the early morning sounds of Everfree Forest.

Birds chirping in the far distance, a strong morning breeze moving leaves about, and the slight subtle movement from the grass gave the group a calming feeling. “Well,” Wolf started, glancing back to Blaze’s half-lidded eyes. “Of all the fields we’ve came across, this is the quietest one.” Groaning slightly, Blaze moved her head to rest on top of Wolf’s shoulder so she could inspect the field herself. “What do you think Blaze?”

Blaze carefully looked over the rather empty field, the only thing in it was a wooden tree stump, and a tree behind that. Aside from that, nothing else that could prove to be a distraction for the dragons during their test, or to Isis, who would be assisting with the tests. Really, if it came down to it, Blaze could always put a soundproof barrier around them, but she hoped that it wouldn’t be necessary.

“It’ll do,” Blaze sighed, resting the side of her head against Wolf’s back, and nuzzling into his growing fur. “Just set me down on that stump.” Wolf nodded his head and made his way towards the stump with a yawning Veil right behind.

Honestly, Veil hated mornings, like a lot, but she had a job to do. And if that job would help Cyclone in any way, then she was willing to do whatever it took to help. However, that still didn’t curb her dislike for the early morning hours.

As Wolf gently set Blaze down on the stump, Veil took a moment to look the two lovers over, and thought about the relationship they had. Of all the mates the alpha dog could have picked, he went and chose an unicorn mage as his mate, and was having his first born alpha cub by the mare.

Normally, an alpha dog as strong as Wolf would have picked another alpha hound to be his mate, but Wolf wasn’t like any other alpha Veil knew. Other alphas would have been looking for the fastest way to strengthen their pack and claimed as many mates as possible to give them powerful offspring.

However, Wolf wasn’t like that. Everything he did was in mind of his pack as a whole and his mare. ‘If only there were more males like him,’ Veil quickly thought to herself before walking over to the couple to see why she had been woken so early in the morning.

At the sound of Veil walking towards them, Wolf turned around to tell the hound what would be done in a short few minutes. “Alright hound,” he began, patting her on the shoulder, and leading her to a spot Blaze pointed out. “All we gotta do is clear out this little part, head to White Tail to see about that farm job, and then we’re done for the day.”

“Oh gee, that’s it?” Veil scoffed as she moved towards the spot Wolf pointed out and waited for further instructions. “So what are we doing anyways?” Wolf began going over what Blaze told him that she needed done before the dragons could start the test. Mainly, all they had to do was make large circles for each dragon, and to ensure that there was a fair amount of space between each circle.

Veil mumbled something about not liking to dig but did as she was told. At the same time, both diamond dogs tightened their fists, and suddenly snapped them back out to fully unsheathe their claws.

As Veil expected, Wolf’s claws were nearly a full three inches longer than hers, and from the slight reflection they had, were much denser in comparison. However, that didn’t mean that Veil’s claws were any laughing matter, as they were close to a full two inches, and had their own slight reflection.

Another difference between the two dog’s claws were the shape of them. Veil’s were more curved with a sharp point at the end of each one while Wolf’s were straighter with a jagged edge.

The two went to work moving as much dirt as they could to make a notable circle in the ground, and constantly referred back to Blaze to see what she thought. It turned out that each circle had to be much larger than they first thought, and took several attempts before they could move on to the last set.

While the two dogs dug out the last of the large circles into the soft morning dirt, Blaze rubbed her hands over her belly, and continued to smile at the thought of caring for the cub inside. The more she thought about it, the less it seemed scary to her about raising her child in Everfree. She not only had someone as strong as Wolf looking after her, but all of the others in High Moon.

Blaze had to suppress a small giggle at the thought of the pack turning into a village like the one she was raised in back in her native lands. The thought naturally appealed to her, wanting her cub to grow up as she had. She already knew how her mother felt standing by someone as important as her father from being with Wolf, but she still missed the feel of being in a village.

Though, first thing’s first. Blaze was sure that the others would continue to help them with the many tasks that needed done around High Moon, but first she wanted to make sure that they knew what they were dealing with when it came their their dragon bloodlines.

“Hey Blaze,” Wolf called out, breaking Blaze of her thoughts of the future, and back into the trials of the present. Blaze looked over to her lover and the hound as they both flexed the muscles in their hands to resheath their claws back to a more manageable length. “This good?”

Blaze stood from her seat on the stump and looked over the four circles in the ground. Each one was large enough to encircle a fully grown oak tree, easily large enough for each dragon to have their own small space for what she had planned.

“Yes that’ll do,” Blaze answered after a moment of thought, walking over to the row of four circles, and sparking her horn to life. Suddenly, each dirt circle started to shine in a bright crimson light, and Wolf could tell that she’d placed a soundproof barrier over each one.

‘So that’s her plan,’ Wolf thought to himself while Veil was still in the dark about what Cyclone would have to do for the test. Blaze let the individual barriers down and started to lean against Wolf again.

Wolf looked down the sleepy eyes of his mare with a slight chuckle. He should have known that she would be tired this morning after staying awake late into the night planning everything out for the dragons’ tests. “Everything set?” he asked, wrapping an arm around Blaze’s shoulders, and pulling her closer.

While the two lovers spoke with one another, Veil sat on the ground, and looked on with a sense of longing. Not for being with the two but for having what they had; a family. All her life, Veil was either alone, or wished to be. When she was a small cub, she ran from her former oppressive alphas, and vowed to never go back.

So, since then, she’d been living in that house in White Tail trying to make it out on her own. It was a really rough start as she had to learn a lot on her own, but soon, she found a nice routine that worked for her. At the most, she would only have to do business in town twice a month, and that was really only for small things like clothes. Which she hardly wore, only enough to cover what needed to be covered, but that changed the day she found Cyclone.

“Hey, hound.” Veil jumped from her memories at the sound of Wolf’s deep voice calling out to her while his hand shook her shoulder. She quickly snapped her grayish eyes towards the alpha’s dull-green eyes and blinked a few times. “You alright? You were just...staring.”

A small, yet visible, blush spread across Veil’s cheeks at her own inattentiveness, and she quickly turned away. “Y-yeah, I’m fine,” Veil mumbled, hoping that Wolf and Blaze would take her half hearted answer, but having a feeling that they wouldn’t.

“Veil, sweetie,” Blaze started in a soft voice, walking towards the hound, and placing a hand on her shoulder. “You know that you can tell us anything right?” Veil looked back to the couple’s concerned looks on their faces and knew that it wouldn’t be fair to leave them like that. “Veil, is everything alright?”

Sighing, Veil got off the ground while she nodded her head with an unreadable look on her face. “Yeah, yeah I’m fine. Mind if I tell you on the way back?” Blaze stepped to the hound’s side while Wolf took the lead so the two females could talk amongst themselves. The three soon started to make their way back towards the temple, where Wolf and Veil would leave from to go to White Tail to finish a few things.

Along with way, Veil was quite, looking as though she was afraid of what the two might think of her story, but she needed to tell someone. And no one was better than the two alphas of her new pack. “It’s nothing really,” Veil started as she absentmindedly followed the couple’s lead while she looked back into the past. “I was just thinking about the day I found Cyclone…”

Deep within the mostly tamed part of the great Everfree Forest, a small gray diamond hound searched the forest looking for her next quick meal before nightfall came down on her. For the most part, she’d been able to survive on her own for these last few months, but she had started to feel alone in this world.

That said, she couldn’t care less. She was healthy, had a roof over her head, able to find work for a few things for the house, and was starting to get into her own routine. Yeah...living the dream.

“Aw, who the hell am I kidding?” Veil, no older than fifteen at the time, openly asked the green forest around her. Three months. Three long and lonely months had already passed since she left her old den to get away from those two crazy alphas. Sure, Veil felt bitter about leaving her parents with those fools that called themselves alphas, but she had given them the chance to come with her.

Even knowing that, it still didn’t change the lonely feeling in her chest.

“Rah, fuck!” In pure, pent-up anger from the empty luck she had, Veil unsheathed her claws, clawing away at the tree she was leaning against. Each swipe was wider than the next as her claws started to break away the tree bark. With her at such a young age, her tiny one-inch claws weren’t suited for things such as this, each swing causing her a small pain in her hands, but she didn’t care.

Sap from the tree began to stain her gray hands, making them sticky with amber, but she ignored it. She had no reason to care; no one around to tell her right from wrong, no one around to tell her what she needed to do and when, no one around to give her some slight comfort of company. And she still didn’t care.

Soon, Veil wasted most of her energy, and the unoffending, thick oak tree had suffered mortal wounds. Both combatants fell over to their backs, the tree making more sound than Veil’s ragged gasps. Once she got her breathing under control, Veil flatly stared up to the bright blue sky above her head, and took it as a sign of Cerberus further mocking her existence.

Veil covered her face with her arm so she no longer had to stare at the ever-so-mocking brightness of the world around her. “Whatever,” she growled to herself while her hands subconsciously flexed to sheath her small one inched curved claws.

She soon got off the ground, having no further purpose with laying about the forest, and no longer wanting to think about the life she left behind. However, before she could start making her way back to the house, Veil heard something moving behind her.

Veil again clenched her fist to unsheathe her claws and whirled around towards the source of the sound. “Who's there?!” Veil demanded, trying to make herself sound as threatening as she could, but not sure how threatening her still-cracking voice came across as.

Even with her aggressive display, the forest refused to acknowledge her, and returned to the dead silence that Veil found comforting, yet dull. Sighing, Veil again got ready to leave the forest, but was again stopped by a sound coming from behind her.

This time though, it was followed by a voice.

“H-hello?” Taking in a deep breath, Veil looked up to the sky, and prayed that Cerberus wasn’t further toying with her before she turned her head towards the tree where the voice was coming from.

Veil’s cold eyes quickly found the white and blue dragoness hiding from behind a tree. From the look of the dragoness, she couldn’t have been any older than Veil was, yet she was much smaller in size.

As the newcomer started to move from the tree, Veil’s eyes widened, not from the dragoness’ lack of clothing, but from the obvious signs of injury on her body. “By Cadjo’s second soul, what the fuck happened to you?” Veil questioned, eying the deep blue bruises showing clearly on her white scales, and the faint sign of blood staining her upper chest.

Each step the dragoness took towards her, Veil could easily see the dragoness flinching from pain, and it was too much for her to bear. “Hey, hey,” Veil started, running over to the dragoness, and catching her before she fell to the ground. That’s when Veil was able to see the slash marks on the dragoness' white back, leaking out fresh blood.

“Oh shit,” Veil muttered to herself as she started to carefully pick the dragoness up. She needed to get the newcomer back to the house to tend to her wounds and hopefully able to save her life. As she raced out of the forest, the sound of the dragoness crying told her that she was in a lot of pain, and that she needed to be careful. “Hey, you hang on. Hey, you hear me?”

Three hours later

Veil sat next to the unconscious dragoness after three long hours of treating her wounds to the best of her abilities, most of which consisted of getting the bleeding to stop as fast as she could. Luckily, Veil had ‘borrowed’ first-aid supplies from the local clinic, and used most of the bandages she had.

Now, all she could do for the dragoness was be at her side for when she woke up, but the hound didn’t know what she was going to say to her when the tiny dragoness did. Would she remember who she was, would she be able to tell her who did this to her, or even what happened?

Veil sure as hell didn’t know, all she did know was that this dragoness was alone just like her, and she was in a lot more trouble than she was. “For Cadjo’s fucking sake,” Veil groaned, laying her head back against the chair, and staring up towards the brown wooden beams holding the roof over their heads.

Of all the things she could have thought would possibly ever happen to her, an injured dragoness falling at her feet was not one of them. “Okay, calm down Veil. Let’s get things situated,” Veil spoke to herself, which was a normal thing for her to do as it helped her gather her thoughts. “An unknown dragoness collapsed in front of you, injured by Cadjo knows what, and is now unconscious in your bed.”

Veil continued to think about everything while the dragoness rested. “Okay, okay, just...make it up as you go.” Sighing, Veil sat up in the chair to look over the sleeping dragoness, and frowned at her poor ability to fully get rid of blood. Not that there was more still flowing, that much she could stop, but the dragoness' pure white scales were stained in it.

As were her hands.

The feeling of the dragoness' blood soaking her hands made her think of it as an ill omen for abandoning her old life in the den. It was like Cerberus himself was trying to ensure that she couldn’t get anything done. Sure, she had moments of luck and some minor achievements, but it seemed at every corner that something was waiting to fall on top of her.

“Yeah...living the dream,” Veil grumbled to herself, in a sour mood at the way her life was turning out. The problem was, as much as she wanted to turn it around, she didn’t know how. “Wonder what’s going to-”

“Mmm…” Veil quickly snapped her attention to the dragoness as she started to groan from the dull and throbbing pain in her back and legs. “W-water…” Veil quickly jumped into action, grabbing the glass of water sitting on the nightstand next to the dragoness, and carefully bringing it to her lips.

Upon the first drop, the dragoness hurried to drink as much of the cold water as she could, but this caused her to start coughing. Veil quickly set the glass down and started to gently pat the dragoness on her back, careful not to reopen her wounds.

Soon, the coughing ended with the dragoness laying her head back down with a ragged sigh. “Th...thank yo-you,” the still weak dragon started, only able to open one eye to look towards Veil. At that every moment, Veil caught the dull shine of the dragoness’ soft pink eyes, and slowly recognized the look of betrayal in them.

Memories of the day she left, or rather ran away, from the den flashed through her head, and the thought of seeing her parents’ disappointed looks again was too much. Not disappointed that she ran, no, they were disappointed because she was abandoning the pack, while she was angry because they were abandoning her.

“C-Cyc…” The faint, struggling, sound of the dragoness trying to speak again broke Veil out of her thoughts, and forcing her to look down to the injured dragon. “Cyclone...m-my name,” she whispered with a ragged breath following after.

“Stop talking,” Veil said, kneeling down, and gently pushing Cyclone’s head back down to the blood stained bed. “Y-you’re going to be fine,” she continued to rub Cyclone’s soft round head-spines, which traveled down to her neck where she could see them being cracked by something. “Everything is going to be alright...I-I’ll keep you safe.”

Cyclone again opened an eye towards Veil, only to see the slightly forced smile on her face. “Th-thank you…” Slowly, Cyclone let her vision go dark again, but this time with a smile on her face. Moments passed as Veil continued to look at the sleeping dragoness. For the second time in her life, Veil had no idea what to do next, and the thought scared her.

“Don’t go thanking me just yet.”

Silence overtook Everfree Forest as Blaze looked at the hound thoughtfully while Wolf was eerily quiet. Both lovers were trapped in their own thoughts about the story Veil just got done telling them, however, both were of different thought.

Blaze felt sorry for both Cyclone and Veil. From the sounds of things, they both had a hard life, and had more than enough reasons to depend on each other. Though, the question did come up about Cyclone’s injuries, but Veil just said that Cyclone never told her about them. After they had a rather heated argument, Veil just dropped the subject altogether, but still wondered about it.

While Blaze worried over Veil’s past life, Wolf’s thoughts were less...sympathetic. He did his best not to show this, though. It was hard for them, that much was sure, however, he couldn’t but help think about how a beta hound left her pack.

Granted that he almost did the same thing, the main difference being he had his father’s blessing as well as the pack’s, but Veil did not. She was officially a runaway hound from a den somewhere in Everfree.

However, Wolf couldn’t hold anything about it against her. Veil was entitled to her dreams as much as any other and Wolf had no place in saying otherwise. Also, he could understand her want to getting away from her old den’s alphas, and knew just why.

Being one himself, Wolf knew how many alphas think, and knew that many could be abusive towards their other pack members. Some would even go so far as to drive some of their members out. Usually the hounds were the first ones to go, before others followed.

An alpha that only knew how to mate, hunt, gather, and eat wasn’t a real alpha, nor did they deserve the right to call themselves such. Blaze was the one that helped him see that, and he was forever grateful to the mare for showing him this. So, he couldn’t say anything against Veil doing the same.

Suddenly, Veil stopped walking down the path, and had her eyes transfixed on the ground. Both Blaze and Wolf turned to the hound, only to see the pained expression on her face while her fists clenched at her sides, quivering.

Blaze placed a hand on the hound’s shoulder for reassurance, only getting Veil to wrap her arms around her. “Alpha-Mother,” Veil started with a shaking tone in her voice as her grip around Blaze’s neck began tightening a little. “Please tell me Cyclone is going to make it,” she continued with a begging tone while tears started to swell up in her eyes. “S-she’s all I got left…”

“Shh, it’s okay,” Blaze started, placing her hands on Veil’s head, and softly stroking Veil’s black and white hair. “Cyclone will be fine, Veil, there isn’t anything for you to worry about.” Blaze continued to softly stroke the hound’s hair until she regained control of herself. “Now Veil,” Blaze said, forcing Veil to let her go, but still holding onto her hands. “I want you to know that you two aren’t alone any more. We’re all here for you, understand?”

Sniffling, Veil nodded her head. She knew that there wasn’t anything really to worry about so as long nothing else drastic happened to Cyclone, but she needed to hear it to be sure.

“O-okay, thank you Alpha-Mother,” Veil said, wiping the tears from her eyes, and putting on a small smile. Blaze returned the smile in full and patted Veil on the shoulder, getting another nod in return from the hound before turning to walk behind Wolf.

It wasn’t long before the three were standing outside of temple entrance. Wolf told Blaze that him and Veil would be heading to White Tail to finish everything that had been started a few days ago, and to see about that farmhand job that Frost and Quill were talking about.

Blaze waved the two off with a tight hug from Veil, again telling her that everything would be alright, and a quick kiss with Wolf that told him more was to come when he got back. Soon, the two canines were walking down the path towards White Tail, and would be back within an hour or so.

Once Blaze could no longer see the two down the dirt path, she took in a deep breath, and hardened herself for what needed to be done next. She opened the doors to the temple and moved onward to her work area, where she saw Isis had already gathered the dragons, and were all waiting for her next instructions.

“Okay everyone,” Blaze began, walking towards the table where the dragons, and one half-dragon, were at. “Everything is set up and ready for you all. I trust that none of you have eaten just yet?” Loud growling from the twins’ stomachs served to answer Blaze’s question without any of them wasting more energy by speaking. Even Frost was starting to get hungry, mainly because the only emotion Quill was giving off was hunger itself, which only served to make her even more hungry.

However, even though the dragons had a hungry look in their eyes, Blaze smiled at how disciplined each of them were, and noted this with great interest. “Good, I also wanted to tell you all that the only thing any of you will be doing today is this test.”

All four were taken by surprise at what Blaze had just said. At first, they all thought the test would take no longer than a few hours, and would leave them enough time to do some other things around the valley. However, the way Blaze said that they would only be able to do the test, worried each of them.

“Um...by that you mean?” Quill asked for the others as they were trying to decode what the unicorn just told them.

“By that I mean, none of you will be able to do anything,” Blaze again stated with the same motherly smile on her face. For a moment, there was worry coming from her, but before Frost could understand why, reassurance took over. “Don’t worry guys, it’s nothing too...hard. It’s just that I don’t want you all to do anything afterwards.”

Again, all four started to think about what Blaze was telling them. Whatever this test was, it was sure to really be something if it was only to pull on their greed just a little, yet have Blaze not wanting them to do anything afterwards.

Without another word, Blaze turned around, and started to walk to the temple doors with Isis following after. “You guys just wait here a little longer,” Blaze called out to them as she and the sphinx started to walk through the door leaving the others slightly confused. The two remained quiet until Isis closed the wooden door to her masters/lovers room.

Blaze didn’t move from her spot right in front of the bed, causing Isis to grow worried for the mare. Suddenly, Blaze’s sight of the floor was obscured by two massive black wings wrapping around her. Before she could respond to them, Isis hands trailed along her bare stomach while she nibbled slightly on Blaze’s ear.

Soft sighs told Isis that her sudden move did its job in calming her mistress down and pulled her out of the deep thought she was trap in. Isis released Blaze’s ear from her sharp teeth but still held her in her arms and wings.

“Mistress, please stay strong, I hate seeing you this way,” Isis said while her hands continued to softly rub Blaze’s growing stomach, being rewarded with soft sighs. “You’ve been uneasy ever since last night and it is not healthy for you.” Blaze stopped the sphinx’s gentle rubbing by interlocking her fingers in the space between Isis' fingers. “Either of you.”

“I know, I know,” Blaze murmured, leaning back into Isis' chest, and closing her eyes to take in the sphinx’s warmth. “It’s just that I’m slightly worried for them. This test could prove a lot about each of them.” Feeling her mistress’ hands tightening their grip on hers, Isis knew that Blaze was still feeling stressed about the whole situation, and began slowly rocking from side to side in a calm motion. “Thank you Isis.”

“Of course mistress,” Isis started, again sounding like Blaze, but continued before the mare could think about it much. “Now, don’t you think we’ve kept them waiting long enough?”

Blaze giggled at the sphinx, thinking she was copying her cheerful attitude to make her smile. “Okay, okay miss bossy cat-butt,” Blaze joked, getting Isis to blush, and laugh along with her. After the two’s fit of giggles ended, Blaze sparked her horn to open the wooden chest in the room, and pulled out the hunk of fire-stone.

As the rock slowly approached, Blaze breathed slowly to keep the dragon-blood from rushing forth. “Isis,” she started, in a tone that didn’t entirely fit her. Isis quickly recognized it as the same tone when she gave her body to her masters the other night. “Could you put a magic-proof barrier around the fire-shard?”

“Yes mistress,” Isis said with a heavy tone of her own. For a brief moment, the sphinx’s crimson and blue eyes flashed before an orb of reddish light surrounded the shard, and forced Blaze to let her grip of it go. “It has been done.”

Blaze nodded her head but still kept the harden look on her face. “Very good. Come, let us get the others. It’s time for their test.”

While Blaze was preparing to test the dragons, Veil and Wolf made their way to White Tail. Along the way, they talked about anything that came to mind, and took interest into the other’s motives for things.

Veil obviously had a good sense of duty, since the only thing keeping her in High Moon was Cyclone’s training and the debt she owed Wolf. Along with that, it was clear that she cared for Cyclone much more than just a friend.

However, Wolf couldn’t overlook the fact that she’d left her old den. Again, it wasn’t his place to judge the hound, but as an alpha the knowledge continued to make itself known to him. Alphas depended on betas to keep the pack and den running smoothly, while betas depended on alphas to keep them safe within the den.

If an alpha, or in some cases alphas, could not do this then betas would be inclined to question them before either leaving or finding some other dog that could kept them safe.

From the sound of Veil’s old life, that’s exactly what might have happened to her old den, but there was no telling. Not unless she wanted to venture back to the old den in the side of a distant hill near the edge of Everfree to see for herself, that is.

Soon, the two found themselves in White Tail, splitting up to get what they needed done as quickly as possible so they could head back to High Moon. Wolf left to check up on the winter coats for the others as he, Veil, and probably Isis, were capable of dealing with the winter months, thanks to their adaptations. However, as for the equines, dragons, and half-breed, they all needed something to keep the heat in their bodies.

While Wolf left to go see the local dressmaker, Veil pushed onwards to the center of the town to see about that farmhand job, but something was telling her that it wasn’t going to happen. Mostly because of Cyclone’s greed-growth five years ago.

Thankfully, it wasn’t to the same extent as the twins, but there was still damage to certain businesses and other public places. That and...over half of the town didn’t like the idea of a dragon being there.

“Just hope that it doesn’t cause any troubles,” Veil mumbled to herself as she reached the town square. That’s when Veil started to hear the quiet whispers from the town goers. All of them were surprised that she was even still alive after the fire at her house, which none of them came to.

Veil slowly came to a stop as her mind started to race for an answer. Spike said that he was only able to find her burning house from the tower of smoke that was sticking out clearly from the blue sky. So, why didn’t anyone else come besides Wolf’s pack? Why was it that the only ones that didn’t live in White Tail came to her and Cyclone’s rescue?

“They wanted us gone.” Veil could have slapped herself for not realizing this sooner. After Cyclone’s greed-growth, over half of the town feared not only Cyclone, but her as well. That was why few ponies would even approach her any more and even fewer would dare speak with her. “Awe-fucking-some…they’re scared of us. That’s just great.”

Veil leaned back on a nearby empty cart and stared blankly up towards the sky. Five years, for five long fucking years, the whole town wanted her and Cyclone gone, but was too scared to even say it to their faces.

She always had a feeling that the town wanted her gone, especially after Cyclone’s greed-growth, but she was too stubborn or just too content about where she was in life to see the truth being whispered all around her.

It was far more than painfully obvious that White Tail was no longer her home, since her’s was probably still encased in ice. Now, however, she had another home. One where there were others that actually care for her and Cyclone.

“Well...I never liked this town anyways.”

Suddenly, Veil kicked off of from the cart, the force of it enough to damage the wooden cart, but she didn’t care. Taking one last scornful look towards the ponies, unable to get a single one of them to look her way, Veil started to walk away from the town square with her head towards the ground.

Right as she was leaving the town square, Wolf spotted the hound walking with a sluggish slump, and ran over to see what was wrong. At first, he thought that it was something regarding the farmhand job or along those lines. And this thought only persisted when she refused to say a single word to him or even looked his way.

She just kept walking out of the small town, not paying attention to anything, just continuing to leave. Wolf kept questioning the hound’s sudden change in mood, then he started to hear the whispers from the ponies. All quietly cheering that the hound was again leaving and that they were finally rid of her and Cyclone.

Sighing, Wolf followed Veil out of the town, and back onto the path to High Moon. Again, he was given reason to feel bad for the two. The town they called home for six years silently wanted them gone and were too cowardly to even say something to them. Though, Wolf knew that Veil would be fine. She was a tough hound and she had all of High Moon supporting her.

However, once they were far out into the clearing, Veil fell to her knees and started to curse her life. Wolf knelt down the the hound and placed a hand on her shoulder, quickly getting her to wrap her arms around him.

“T-they wanted u-us dead,” Veil sobbed into Wolf’s chest as her grip around him tightened, who could only return the hold, and rocking slightly to comfort her. “F-five years, Alpha...five years! I-I’m such a stupid hound.”

Stroking the top of her head, Wolf allowed the hound to cry away her sadness the same way Frost did last night. It was his job. He was the alpha of High Moon, he had to be the immovable mountain for the others to walk upon, he needed to be there for them to make them feel like they weren’t alone in this world, and he did it because he wanted to.

Soon, Veil’s crying gave way to her soft snoring, and Wolf sighed at the sleeping hound. “Great, now I get to carry you back,” he chuckled, standing up from the tall stalks of grass, holding Veil in his arms.

More or less, the trip to White Tail had been productive, regardless of the sudden turn of events. While Veil may have been given a reason to never look the town’s way ever again, Wolf was at least able to finish the order for the winter coats, and now had a rough idea when they would be done.

So, now all he had to worry about was making sure everyone was taken care of.

“And I plan on it.”