The Pack Reunites

Chapter 10

December 10th, 2087.

The journey back to the palace seemed to take forever as Princeps Gromeo, Princepess Azura, and I remained on our griffin's back for more than three days. Considering that the distance from Hyperion Heights to Painted Plains was nine hundred miles, the trip was actually much shorter than expected.

The three of us rejoiced when we saw the faint lights of the city which indicated that we were closing in on the territory's capital and the palace. Despite me referring to this entire place as the imperial city, Hyperion Heights was actually the fifth territory and located in the center of the empire.

In all my years of travelling to the different territories, never have I been happier at the thought of setting foot on solid ground even if it meant the three of us would have to sitt on a griffin's back and try not to fall off for three days.

This time though was admittedly worse. Princeps Gromeo and Princepess Azura tried their best to remain silent for the majority of the trip but somewhere during the last two hundred miles, they just couldn't handle their boredom anymore and began to find ways to entertain themselves. Given that those two were hyperactive werewolves with an abundance of stamina, I was impressed they lasted that long.

The two of them attempted to remain quiet as they played eye spy to entertain themselves. After around twenty minutes of flying though their game kept increasing in volume to the point that it was no longer as quiet as I would've liked. Honestly, that was probably one of the few things they had in common with their Pater.

I remember when we were young, and Pater would take us to spend weekends with our Avunculi. No matter which territory we were travelling to, Fratres Meus would always get bored around the ten-to-twenty-minute mark.

To keep him entertained, Padre and I would take turns playing eye spy with him, telling him to guess what objects we were looking at. Unfortunately for us though, while this did accomplish the goal of entertaining him it also made the ride rather noisy due to Fratre's Meus hyper activeness.

The same would also occur during our return trips especially if we were travelling to Painted Plains and back. While he'd already grown out of that phase by the time he took the imperial throne, he also never visited our relatives due to his busy schedule.

"I can't wait to see Mater and Pater again!" Princepess Azura exclaimed. "Yeah, it's been so long, and I want to tell them about all our adventures!" Princeps Gromeo replied. Given that by that point, they hadn't mentioned, or seemed to even think of their Parentibus, it was nice to see that they were excited to see them.

"Oh, and our Fratrems too of course," Princepess Azura remarked. Due to the fact I was so preoccupied with assisting Princeps Gromeo Junior and Princepess Azura, I hadn't really thought about my other neptis et nepotes that much. However, based on what I've heard from Meus Pater et Avunculi it appeared that all six of them were doing well on their journey though several of them were experiencing more difficulties than others.

It didn't take long for me to understand why. With all eight of them learning the elements in regard to the aether cycle four of them had to switch between learning their main element to learning its opposite. If I had to make that transition as quickly I most likely would've had a very difficult time myself.

Even if it was hard, they were Fratres Meus' pups through, and through which meant that they almost never gave up without a fight. Unless they'd already tried twenty different solutions and failed every time or were specifically told to do so by their Parentibus, the eight of them were never one to quit.

An example of this occurred several years prior, when the older imperials were around eight and their younger Fratrems just turned six. One day Fratres et Sorer Mea brought their puppies to an overlook for a picnic, and on their way back they encountered one of their nonbinary friends who lost their pet greyhound. And yes, despite me only having discussed sexual orientations, many of the empire's witches were also straight but had a different gender identity, some of which being nonbinary.

In fact, when my biological Fratres was ten, or I guess twenty in his case, I remember my late Matertera, Lillian revealing that my biological Pater was actually nonbinary and explained how our biological parent met and fell in love with our biological Mater in high school shortly after transitioning.

So based on that bit of information, the two of us came to realize that while we did have two Parentibus, we never actually had a Pater at least not until our Padre decided to raise us as his own after my younger Fratres was reborn.

Anyway, with their Parentibus' permission, the imperial puppies stayed to assist their nonbinary friend track down their lost pet. They attempted many different solutions, but after five solutions had failed Karter slowly began to lose hope.

The determined young imperials however encouraged their friend to keep searching then Princeps Gromeo Junior came up with the perfect solution. All that time they'd been attempting to search for the dog, but they hadn't tried making the dog search for them. Karter was rather confused by this, so the young imperials explained further.

The plan was simple. Karter would lead his female friends to his house to fetch his dog's favorite treats while his male friends stayed behind to construct a trap. If Princeps Gromeo's hunch was correct, the lost greyhound would come running at the smell of his favorite food. After about twenty minutes of waiting, the plan succeeded, and the little dog was safely back with his owner which was only made possible by the young imperials' perseverance.

Ten to thirty minutes later, we finally arrived in Hyperion Heights and not much had changed. Witches were going about their daily business and children were either playing around with their friends or inside their homes spending with their families as they made the most of their winter break. When we arrived at the palace, the guards welcomed us back and carried our luggage to our rooms. We made our way through the grand halls and into the imperial throne room where we were greeted by the Imperator.

"You two were for a long time," Fratres Meus remarked. "I see the weight of your travels have changed you. You've accomplished your training my puppies." As he stood up from his throne and walked closer, Princeps Gromeo and Princepess Azura looked up to lock eyes with their Padre as he said proudly. "Welcome home."

Imperatrix Amalia came home several hours later and naturally the ten of them spent the entire evening discussing everything that's happened in the last decade. After ten or so years of being separated, the imperial family was finally together again.