The Wolf Princess

Glass Princess

"The songs of the dead are the lamentations of the living", thought Silvana as she picked her way across the icy ground. The mountains were unforgiving this time of year, but the woman's body was resistant to the biting winds. She surveyed the landscape, the place seemed to be death itself, the skeleton of a once lively community of life.

Wind whistled through the mountaintops, echoing like the voices of gods long forgotten. The crisp air froze any moisture in Silvana's hair, turning her into a glass princess, seemingly able to be shattered into a thousand glittering pieces with one touch. The woman raised her blue eyes to the marble light of the moon, her frozen blonde hair shifting back from her face, and her hand came up to touch the tips of her pointed ears. She was suddenly stricken with confusion, she often forgot she had these. She could never remember why she had them, or how she came to be in the mountainous regions and forests, she just simply was.

Silvana leaned down to inspect pawprints in the crusted snow, leading away from her. She could recognize them easily enough, they belonged to a member of her pack. The Wolf Shifters had taken her in, or maybe she was born here, she had no memory of that either. She gave a small chuckle, loud in the night silence, as she carefully broke through the surface of the frozen stream that ran to her left, inspecting her appearance in the frigid water. She looked different now than when she was warm, her face held a blueish cast to it from her pale face, and her long feathery eyelashes and arched eyebrows were studded with small ice crystals, but she was still an exceptionally beautiful woman. Where most of the Wolf Shifters held green or yellow eyes, or even a ruddy brown, Silvana possessed unearthly blue eyes, striking in contrast against her skin. Long white blonde hair swept down past her chest, straight and silky, and her cheekbones were cast high, with a small straight nose. But yet, she was always angered at her humanoid appearance. The shifters looked more wolflike when they shifted into their human forms, not to mention she could not even shift into the form of a wolf, no matter how many years she had tried.

Sighing angrily, Silvana splashed the water's surface, getting rid of the offending image. The cold water bit at her fingertips, chilled in the air. She stood again, and leapt nimbly across the stream on strong legs, taking off in the direction of a steep path. The wind got colder the farther she travelled upwards, and a cave loomed darkly in contrast to the whiteness, a yawning mouth made toothy by the suspended icicles. Once the blonde stepped into the cave, the air immediately warmed considerably from the heat of many fires. Shifters were scattered throughout the cave, some in wolf form to keep the heat in their warm fur, some in human form, resting in furry blankets; though they were never made from wolf fur, only from the coarser but thicker fur of the white bears that similarly populated the mountains.

A brunette looked up from one of the fires furthest from the cave entrance; Gwynnia, one of the rare shifters that was born with blue eyes, they were a very uncommon oddity among the wolves, as Silvana and Gwynnia were the only ones with blue eyes. Gwynnia was a beautiful brunette, she was similarly featured like Silvana, so that the blonde woman could almost believe Gwynnia was her mother, after all, she was the one she had the earliest memories of. The older woman looked up sharply as she heard Silvana's footsteps. "Why were you out so late?" Gwynnia asked sharply. Silvana wasn't usually a woman to be cowed, but she bowed her head at the older shifter's words.

"I'm sorry, Gwynnia," she said softly. Gwynnia may not have led this pack, but she was a very powerful woman, not one to be trifled with. Gwynnia nodded, sighing a little. She had a ruff of ermine fur mantled around her neck, it was Gwynnia's favourite fur, and the softest.

The older woman was periodically harsh with Silvana, though Silvana often futilely protested that she was strong enough that she didn't need to be worried about.

Striding forward, the young woman came to rest beside Gwynnia, the older woman swept her blanket over her. She felt Gwynnia's hands briskly rub her face, the skin feeling hot in contrast to her face. Gwynnia chuckled as the ice started to melt in Silvana's hair, the residual water dripping off her face.

Silvana gave a small yelp of protest as Gwynnia began to squeeze her hair out as if she were a little girl again. "Gwynn!" She struggled against Gwynnia, embarrassed also by the fact she'd almost called her Mother.

"Oh, quit your complaining," Gwynnia scolded, and then pulled her close into her warm body. Gwynnia was very warm and very soft, and Silvana found herself softly drifting off. She jerked fully awake again as Gwynnia moved abnormally against her. One of the males in the pack Silvana knew only too well, but from negative experiences, was sitting beside Gwynnia, his hand resting on her shoulder. Amandus had long liked Gwynnia, and had wanted to have her as his wife for a long time, but she had repeatedly refused him, to the point where Amandus would be angry and full of temper, and would sometimes take it out on Silvana. Though, if Gwynnia ever found out that Amandus had laid a hand or a cruel word on Silvana, Gwynnia wouldn't hesitate to leave some marks of her own, and Silvana knew Amandus was scared of Gwynnia, since she'd carried out her threats a number of times.

Silvana lifted her lips in a sort of snarl towards the male, she didn't want Amandus around her adoptive mother at all. Amandus merely glared back at her, and it made the young woman suppress a surge of hatred. The young man leaned in to whisper something softly into Gwynnia's ear, and Gwynnia abruptly brought her hand up to slap him, but he caught the wrist of it nimbly. Gwynnia bared her teeth as if she was going to bite, and fear flashed through Amandus' eyes as he let go of her hand left swiftly back to his own corner.

Gwynnia seemed disinclined to say anything about what the male had said to her, so Silvana didn't ask. "Gwynn, why don't you have a husband..?" Silvana suddenly found the courage to ask.

Gwynnia's blue eyes sparked either with anger or another form of unhappiness at the question, and Silvana gave her a puzzled look.

Gwynnia refused to answer, and merely took her chin in hand, placing her lips against her forehead and then whispering, "Don't be out so late, my little Wolf Princess, things await you in the dark,"

Leaving Silvana with that thought, the brunette lay down and closed her eyes. Silvana struggled with the thought, then her eyes began to droop softly, and she pressed her face into Gwynnia's chest, which was gently raising and falling with her heartbeat.