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"What do you know about my father?"

Kage spoke softly, with clenched fists, and Saccularius didn't hear him at first.

"Although, I suppose he might have taught someone else to fight like that... nah, dude was antisocial, no way he'd trust anyone that wasn't his own life and blood."

Kage spoke again. He didn't raise his voice any louder but he sounded different. There was true malevolence in his voice, of the kind that's rare to find, and Saccularius felt small spike fear knife through him as he realized that such violence was directed towards him.

"What. Do you know. About my father."

"Easy Kage... Don't do something you might Regret."

"Like what?"

"Like this."

His perception spun, and he was back in the real world. something smelled like it was burning, and there were wisps of smoke rising from the braided leather that tied him down.

"Wha'...?"

Every Belluosian has a spark of Bel's soul, yes? It's just a glimmer, a tiny fragment, and it can't do much alone. You have two fragments, mine and yours. Not only that, both of us had rather large sparks to begin with. I don't think you'll ever be able to consciously control it, but powerful emotions have a way of lending the mind absolute clarity. Anger, in this instance, almost caught you and your bindings on fire.

Another odd perception twist, and they were standing in the arena again. Kage was considerably less angry, but the anger had been replaced with confusion.

"Rumors hold that the Prime Belluosians could control the chaos inside them to work magic, but nobody has been able to do it since. The fact that you essentially have two souls now, mine and yours, changes that. If you lose it like that, there's a good chance that you'll use your chaos to cause something potentially catastrophic."

"I... wow. Okay, I'll try to... try to keep a better handle on it then. Back to the important part though. Do you know my sire? Where is he? What did he look like?"

"Easy kiddo, one question at a time. I'm not even sure the wolf I met was your father. How about this. I'll tell you the story about the only wolf I've ever seen fight like that, and you tell me I that matches whatever you remember."

"Deal."

His eyes still blazed, not with anger, but with hunger. Saccularius had been looking forwards to questioning the boy to see what he knew, but if the yearning in his eyes meant anything, Saccularius guessed that Kage didn't know anything either. No wonder he had reacted violently.

"Alright then. It happened back in the early days, when Mordecai was still hell-bent on world domination..."

Kage was falling, again, but this time he landed in Saccularius's memories. He looked through the wolf's eyes and watched the scene play out, as Saccularius narrated his own life.

---

Things were going great for us. We had a massive following, little competition, and we were fighting with a unity and co-operation not seen before or since. We press ganged every wolf we saw into our army, and we controlled half the southern plains. We could easily have spread farther west, but Mordecai had a different plan. We would march north east, into the mountains. It was rumored that many wild and fantastic sentients lived there, hidden away from the death that blanketed the rest of the world. As far as Mordecai was concerned, anything not a wolf was competition, to be weeded out. He wanted to drive into extinction as many factions as he could, before their numbers could swell and pose a threat. Anything that wasn't a wolf was to be killed. No questions. No mercy.

They moved at an easy gait, one they could sustain all day without rest. Time spun past at a dizzying pace, wolves speeding through the air many times faster than real time. After some seconds, the group broke to hunt and make camp. The memory continued to flash past at a rapid pace until time ground to a halt just before Solus set in the west. The mountains rose high in the east, Belluosus would not rise for some time yet, and the camp was shrouded in almost complete darkness. Saccularius woke early, and stepped outside, only to find an unknown wolf standing stock still before Mordecai's tipi.

I had no idea who he was, or where he'd come from. The Sol watch hadn't raised an alarm, so either they'd let him through, or he'd snuck past them. Back then, I thought that he'd won through with permission, but looking back now? I think that he snuck past.

Kage felt his lips... no, Saccularius's lips moving, calling out a challenge.

"You there. Who are you, and what business do you have with the chief."

"I wish to convey a message."

His voice was flat, emotionless. He'd stated a fact, nothing more and nothing less, and his tone reflected that simplicity.

"No one enters the Chief's tipi without his permission."

"Which is why I wait."

The simple, matter of fact answer was irritating, to say the least, but Saccularius walked past him and started stoking the dark, yet still warm coals from the previous night's fire. Even as the black wolf looked directly at Saccularius, his face remained obscured. Come to think of it, half of the scene was fuzzy and obscured, with clarity sparsely distributed to almost random objects. Time slid forwards rapidly again.

The memory is bit fuzzy because it happened long ago. I didn't remember everything, I only remembered what was important. The black wolf stood like that for hours, didn't move, didn't shift, for all I know, he didn't even blink. He gave the same treatment to anyone who tried to talk to him. Short answers, flat voice. By the time Mordecai left his tent, half the camp was gathered, trying and failing to make it look like they weren't staring.

Mordecai stepped from his tent, and frowned to see this person in his camp. He growled softly, hackles rising, and he spoke with more than a bit of derision.

"You shouldn't be here."

"I come only to deliver a message. You trespass on my territory, and I will not allow such transgression. You are to turn and leave the mountains."

Nothing moved but his mouth, and he delivered this command in an even and measured tone, as if he wasn't surrounded by a hundred suddenly angry wolves.

"I will do nothing that you command! You are alone, and I have an ARMY!"

With that, his wolves howled in support of their leader, but the black wolf moved not at all.

"Come now, Mordecai, have you abandoned all pretense of honor? We will solve this by the old ways, a duel of honor. Unless, you would have your warriors know you as a coward."

It was a flagrant insult that stung all the worse because of who said it. Mordekai growled his words as much as he spoke them, and Kage/Saccularius's tail fluffed a bit in fear at the hatred inherent in that voice.

"We will fight to first blood. Right here, right now."

"Without even Belluosus at high noon to bless the duel?"

"And after I'm done, I will rip you to shreds and scatter the scraps of your flesh beneath the earth, so that you never know peace."

He gave no warning, no sign of his actions, Mordecai simply dove forwards to try and catch his opponent by surprise. The stranger's hand came up in a lightning fast strike, a palm strike just like the one Kage had just used on Saccularius. Mordecai howled in pain and ducked back a step before falling to his knees.

"With the witnesses gathered before me, I declare myself the winner."

"YOU HAVE WON NOTHING YOU INSOLENT WRETCH!"

Even as he spoke the words, a thin trickle of blood leaked from one nostril to stain his dark fur blood red.

"I have scored first blood. Leave my mountains. You will get no other warning. Tonight, I kill three men. Tomorrow, I kill you. The day after that, I will begin killing any who remain until you leave my turf."

Mordecai stood for a moment simply seething with undiluted fury. He almost, almost attacked the strange wolf in bloodlust then and there, but he finally reigned in his emotions. Finally, he stepped to the side, and pointed behind him, towards the mountains' majestic peaks.

"No terms were agreed upon for your duel. Get out of my camp. SHADOW PELTS! If ever you see this wolf again, you are to kill him, without question and without mercy."

The ranks of wolves parted into a corridor, and the black stranger left without a word. Saccularius caught Mordecai's eye, and slipped out of the camp, tracking the stranger diligently.

As he walked out, I had the weirdest feeling. I let Mordecai think I was going to go take care of him, quietly, but I had no intention of killing this strange black wolf, at least, not before I got a chance to talk to him. Mordecai was one of the best warriors in our army, brought to his knees with a single strike. Even then, I was obsessed with fighting, with strength, and I wanted to fight against this stranger, even if only to watch him actually fight. A blunt strike... I wouldn't have thought a blunt impact could cause nearly as much damage as claws, but he'd drawn first blood with it. I wanted, no, I needed to know if that was just one well placed, premeditated strike... or if he'd managed to create a new fighting style, one that relied on the impact of palms and heels instead of slashing claws and fangs.

Belluosus's burning gaze began heating the land as Saccularius dodged through the pine trees, until quite suddenly, the trail stopped. Saccularius knelt onto the ground staring at the tracks that seemed to vanish into thin air, until a heavy weight slammed into his back. Lean arms wrapped around his throat, choking off his air. The voice in his ear was as it had always been: calm, even, and measured.

"I expected something of the sort, but for a tail, you're not very good at staying hidden."

"Not... a tail... just wanted... to talk."

The pressure lessened a bit, and Saccularius drew a few gasping breaths.

"Just a talk... away from prying eyes, I imagine? I would oblige you, but I cannot. You are the enemy. Until you no longer follow the blasphemer, you will continue to be my enemy. I will choke you until you faint, and then I will leave."

His voice twisted for just a moment on the word "blasphemer," but he regained immediate control. Saccularius struggled, and managed to get an arm free. He pulled a single finger up, and made a shallow slice across the unprotected side of his attacker's arm. He then yanked hard against the suffocating pressure, and won just enough slack for a single breath. He inhaled the scent of the blood as deeply as he could, marking the scent within his mind. So clearly did he remember it that Kage could smell it too, and its familiarity shocked him to his core. It was the scent of his own blood... it was the scent of his father.

The stranger let go suddenly, and his face contorted with surprise as if he could not believe his blood had been drawn. Saccularius licked his claw clean, savoring the invigorating tang of fresh blood, and stood slowly.

"First blood goes to me."

Saccularius turned and walked away, and he didn't look back.

---

The memory faded then, and he and Saccularius stood inside the arena.

"Not much happened after that. We lost three good men due to Mordecai's blindness, we just found them dead in the morning. I fear that Mordecai was next to be lost, but he was struck with a vision from Belluosus, and whatever he saw changed him. He was different... broken. It was almost as if someone had taken his very soul from him, and he was quiet and reserved for a long time. Eventually, he became more lively, but he was never the brave war leader he used to be, and he became obsessed with peace. Now tell me, was that your father who ambushed us, alone?"

"My father... Saccularius, when did this happen?"

"When? It was awhile ago, I don't really know."

"Then hazard a guess, I need to know."

"Alright, alright... I think it was somewhere around fifteen years ago, give or take a few? It was a long time."

As Paenitentia revolved between the two gods to give the passing of day and night, Solus and Belluosus slowly orbited each other with the planet as the center point. Belluosus was by far the brighter of the pair, and the light of other stars could only be seen in Solus's cold rays. As he made a graceful circuit, the stars seen behind him changed in a circuit too. The Belluosians at the time were not advanced enough to understand the workings of the celestial bodies, but the did watch the stars change, and they used each cycle to mark long periods of time.

"Yea... that sounds about right. I'm fifteen years, and my father died when before I was born. Mother wouldn't tell me anything about him, only that I came from good warrior blood and that he died to protect me."

"I don't believe it. That wolf was sharper than a shattered stone and twice as lethal, no way he died in a fight."

A flicker of rage passed through Kage's eyes, and he stood up slowly.

"If he isn't dead, as you say, then he abandoned me and my mother lied to me my entire life. I would not stand such slander against either of them."

"Whoa there, easy pup. I spoke without thinking. I just... he seemed invincible. He beat Mordecai with a single strike, and he killed three good warriors in the middle of our camp without raising an alarm. I just can't think of anything that could have beaten him in a fair fight. I had been planning on going on a personal journey, to visit the mountains and talk to him again. After Mordecai was dead and things were stable, I wanted to go find him, wanted to fight him for real. If he really is dead, then it's a damn shame though... he'd have been just the person to teach you to fight."

"Yea... I would have loved to meet him."

The anger left with surprising swiftness, replaced again by the sadness. Saccularius noticed the pup's mercurial temper, and carefully filed it away in his memory even as he kept the conversation going.

"So... guessing this is what happened. One of the females from the Shadows tracked him down and got pregnant. Some of the other wolves found her and him, near after the act, and he fought them so she could escape. The StripeHides split from us and merged with another clan... an eighth a year after the mountain? She concealed her pregnancy that long, then went with the renegades to the new clan. There was enough confusion that nobody looked at her too closely. That sound about right?"

"Yea... sounds plausible."

He looked visibly drained though, and his voice wasn't much more than a mumble.

"Hey... your mind is exhausted, and Sol has to be halfway to his peak by now. You should get some rest."

"Is he? It didn't feel like it was that long..."

"Yea, well, you got a late start on the day. Tomorrow's the second day, and we need to try and plan some way to escape."

"Yea... G'night Saccularius. Thanks... thanks for showing me that. Its good to at least know something about my sire."

"He was a hell of a fighter. Some day, you will be too. Sleep well, Khaejiran."

Kage's eyelids drooped, and his tongue felt thick as he slipped towards sleep, but he tried at one last sentence before he slipped off.

"Hey... you called me by... my... name..."

"Was a slip of the tongue, pup, nothing more."

It mattered not, Kage was already asleep. Left with nothing but his thoughts, Saccularius compared Kage to his memories of the Black Wolf. Kage was shorter, leaner... but he wasn't done growing yet. His fur was striped in black and gray, but the black he had was dark as coal, dark as The Underground. It wasn't a huge similarity, but depending on who the boy's mother was, it was close enough that the idea was possible. He could play up that similarity though... with the right stance... and the right cadence... Saccularius grinned wickedly as the beginnings of a plan formed in the depths of his mind.