Silvershore

Chapter Two

The next cloudy morning was shafts of light amide the blue-grey and the soft promise of sweet rain. It brought a gentle diffuse light that soothes the eyes and gives space for soulful musings. Yet, this peaceful morning did not brighten anyone's mood.

The wolves who had stayed behind while a large portion of the pack went out to find Nyla were very confused, the ones who had witnessed the truth about Daruk were depressed, and the ones who found Nyla were just as confused as the ones who stayed behind.

A pack meeting was now being held in the usual spot - the center of the Main Territory, by Wood's den.

"First order of business...for those of you unaware, I will explain what took place last night, and why Daruk is no longer a member of this pack." Wood flicked his tail. "Aries was not who we thought he was. I understand this may be extremely hard to believe, but this is our reality, as of now. Daruk...has been mentally torturing Aries for a young age. He would kill whoever got too close to him, eventually causing Aries to rely heavily on Daruk during hardships. His mental state eventually deteriorated so much that he turned into a completely passive and controllable state, only able to respond and react to Daruk's commands. Daruk kept destroying Aries' mind until he just...broke. As of now, Aries is unconscious one-hundred percent of the time. There is nothing we can do to bring him back. As Daruk said...on all levels other than physical, Aries is dead. He has merely been Daruk's tool this entire time." Stormjay could have sworn he heard Wood's voice shaking during the last few sentences. He couldn't blame him.

Nearly the entirety of Wood's life had been based on a lie, and yet he was so...calm about everything. Stormjay wished he had half of Wood's stability.

The entire pack was silent for almost a minute, it seemed.

"I'd like to add something..." Roscoe spoke up. "Killing Daruk is kind of a lost cause already. You tried to kill him, but he had Aries restrain you, and I'm surprised he didn't make him kill you..."

"So...we're just hopeless, now?" Keaton scoffed.

"No...we can't lose hope." Sakura shook her head.

"Then...what do we even do, now...?" Sky whimpered.

"The worst thing to do in this situation is to give up." Loki nodded, agreeing with Sakura. "Daruk doesn't care about war...he stated he was happy with the way things were when he left. He might not even order any attacks on us. I'm not saying we shouldn't be careful. We just can't let what happened affect our lives more than it should."

"She's right," Roscoe agreed. "What would we gain from giving up? It's gonna be hard to simply move on from this, but I believe in us."

"Hey...didn't Daruk say he might come back someday and, um...pick up more...slaves...!?" Jupiter flattened his ears.

"As Loki said, he's happy with the way things are. I don't think he'd risk it all just for a few more fuckin' servants..." Calvin growled.

"Wait," Alpine spoke up for the first time since he joined The Pack of the Earth. "So...Aries' sudden change in personality was because of our old beta...?"

"Yes. That's what I just said." Wood told him in a forceful tone.

"Wow...that's kinda funny. He's been here this whole time..."

"Shut the hell up. It's not funny." Roscoe snapped. "Weren't you gonna leave after this was all figured out? It would benefit all of us." Right now, Stormjay was extremely glad he was on Roscoe's good side...he was way more short-tempered than he seemed.

"We'll discuss that after the pack meeting." Wood sighed. "But, you all are right. It would be pointless for us to give up. Everything will be fine eventually. But, what we have to remember is that this isn't something to be taken lightly, either. Daruk is extremely dangerous. We will be following standard procedure for when an event like this happens - everyone stay in the Main Territory unless you're patrolling or hunting, and if you need to leave, only do so in groups or four or five, until further notice. We will remain like this for about two weeks. If we don't find any trace of The Pack of the Fire after this time, we can continue to live normally."