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The Blood War

Chapter one

Sunlight laced itself through the wisps of white cloud in the sky, the broad blue expanse high above the treetops looming wide and welcoming. A cloud of dust whirled upward from Bone’s feet as he walked, sockets grinding together as he pressed weight onto his unprotected bones that he walked upon.

“Hungry again,” he rumbled to himself in a deep voice, no more worn than it had been six years ago. Or fifty. Or four hundred. “Nothing I can do about it. Unrepentant rats…” he spoke the last part in a menacing tone, swinging his head around to stare piercingly back the way he had come. Behind him, over the broad stretch of dusty, rocky desert which reminded him of his time with Journey, lay a low inward dip, trees and earth cascading into itself to form a protected valley, where a wolf pack had settled. Apparently ungrateful to have a connection with their ancestors, they had forced him to leave their territory.

He paused his walk as he reached the shade of a twisted, scraggly tree, inhaling sharply, causing air to whip into the hollow cavern of his skull and tasting the scents that danced upon his tongue. “Time to find a new forest,” he said in fake elatedness, jaw clicking and sending a tremor through his rib cage. “Or maybe…” As he turned to look back the way he came, he let out a gentle huff. “Flesh of my flesh, ripped from my bones,” he breathed to himself. An image of the small coyote he had found a long while ago wavered into his mind. “That was a… nice place. And not… too far from here.”

Bone spun in a slow circle, thinking. “There was a wolf pack nearby. Hm, hm, yes, a wolf pack nearby. And that coyote pack…” The involuntary motion of drawing his tongue across his upper lip escaped him at the thought. “Flesh and torn body. Hmm.”

With a swish of his battered tail, he turned and set off at a quick lope in the direction of the forest his mind had dare remind him of. In the direction of wolves who appreciated him; or, at least, pretended to. In the direction of a coyote pack he had stalked nearly two years prior.

In the direction of blood and flesh.

- President Loki

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