A Wolf's Kiss

Chapter II - A Queen of Stars

The room was dark and cold. Ceres stood in the room that had only a candle lit over by the window, outside was a cloudy night sky. It felt he had been waiting for hours, though it was probably much less longer than that. He sat on the bed, waiting dutifully. He tried to keep himself calm as he heard a noise just outside the door to the room.

He exhaled, and sat up straight.

The door opened.

Ceres' heart rate increased as he saw the giant enter the room. The Chief was massive, bigger than twice the boy's size and certainly able to snap him two. Ceres feared if he made one wrong move, he may offend his new captor.

For a moment, Jagur stood right in the doorway, simply analyzing the small boy who sat on his bed. As if he was surprised to find him there. Ceres looked back at him with wide eyes. Chief Jagur was extremely handsome, no one could deny that. But he also put fear in the hearts of any that dared to look him in the eyes. He wore on his back a coat of lion hide, but did not bother to cover his chest sculpted like stone. His body was covered in scars, and a thin layer of brown hair.

His eyes were a green and golden in color, with the left baring a large scar. Ceres wondered how he got it. He sported a prominent line of freckles across the bridge of his nose. He had brown hair that was as wild and untamed as he, and wolf-like ears that stood up alert. His skin was light brown from his raids in Southern hills, of which Ceres had heard many stories.

Yes, Chief Jagur was the perfect combination of handsome and horrifying. Anyone else sitting in that bedroom would have been afraid, but not Ceres. He had seen true evil, and that was not Jagur.

Jagur's tail started to wag behind him as he took his first step forward. It was his own bedroom, yet he stepped as if he were the guest. Much to Ceres' surprise, the Chief was quite gentle as he sat down on the bed beside him.

Almost immediately, Jagur started playing with the boy's silver and gold hair, rubbing his hand through it. Ceres could tell it really interested him. The alpha leaned in, and started sniffing him. His tail started wagging again.

Ceres could only wonder what went through the head of the Chief, but he wouldn't move a muscle, he only let the Chief play with his hair and caress his skin. He wasn't afraid of the Chief, not exactly, but he still wouldn't make the mistake of offending him.

Jagur took Ceres' hands in his own, and looked at his wrists carefully. He saw bruises.

Ceres yanked away his hands quickly, not wanting him to look too closely.

"Your... master? Hurt you?" Jagur spoke very slowly, and with a thick accent from his native Vargs tongue. He wasn't very good at speaking the common language, but he was intelligible.

Ceres only nodded, not wanting to talk about it.

"Tomorrow... I kill him... I bring..." Jagur thought for a moment, searching for the word with his eyes. "Head."

Ceres looked away for a moment, he fixed his eyes on his wrists, and tears began to form in his eyes. Memories that he wouldn't care to relive began to flood his mind. Memories of men who stank of wine, and became bold in the late of night. He remembered it quite well...

"No..." Jagur said in a soft tone, wrapping his arm around Ceres' shoulder. "No..." He pressed a kiss against Ceres' cheek, and he felt calmed by it.

Stories of Chief Jagur were told far and wide, and Ceres was quite familiar with them. They he was a brilliant military commander, but he was cruel on the battle field. The wolf sitting next to him did not strike Ceres as cruel.

Jagur softly wiped the tears away from the corners of Ceres' eyes, and smiled at him. The first smile that Ceres had seen on his lips.

"You're not his... he can't hurt you..." Jagur said. "I won't hurt you..."

Ceres sniffled, he was embarrassed to have cried in front of Jagur. He hadn't wanted to be seen like that. "Now that I'm yours... what would you have me do?" Jagur had to want something. He wanted have just randomly taken him from one master for no purpose.

Jagur leaned back in the bed and laid his head on the pillow. He patted his chest for Ceres to join him, and the boy followed suit, laying his head on the wolf's bare chest.

The wolf cuddled the boy up next to him with his arm. "Tell me a story..." The wolf said, his voice softening.

Ceres thought for a moment. He had plenty of stories to tell, stories about his life, stories that he had grown up hearing... but he decided to tell his greatest story. "Long ago, there was a Queen. She lived with all her children in a great palace, far above the earth and away from all darkness and corruption."

"Her power was greater than any, for she was the daughter of a god. This Queen had no need for jewels, or crowns, or any other earthly charm... for she was clothed in pure star light. Aetheria was her name, and she was mother of all light." Ceres really had no idea if Jagur understood his words at all, but he seemed to enjoy them nonetheless. "One day Aetheria looked down from her home in the stars, where she dwelt with her father, and her siblings, and her children... and she saw a world of darkness..."

"So Queen Aetheria threw down one of her greatest stars from the sky, and it joined the earth. With this star, there fell many of her children... the Aetherites. They brought with them the power of their Queen, and built an empire unlike any ever before seen... but there came a time when the darkness came for them too. And now our great empire is gone... and there remain only a few of us left to remember."

Okay I know guys... you probably got to the last part and were like "what the hell did I just read"... I know. Kind of a big lore dump, and I'm sorry if it felt like I shoe-horned it in there. There is actually really complicated lore to this story, and if you have any questions at all, feel free to ask. Also, I know, there's not a lot of it... and I feel kinda bad because a lot of super awesome people were really excited about chapter 2, and I wish there was more of it. I hope you enjoyed, and if you did, please leave a comment!