Frostpaw

Chapter 9 - Priorities

It was dark in the Box and Zèon was waiting, patiently, and lying face up in his bed. The ceiling was barely visible in that half-light, but the arctic fox kept his eyes fixed on it, trying to allow time to pass... the quicker the better.

He couldn't stop thinking about what he had done and guilt filled his heart. Believing that his plan would be infallible, he had used Ike to make him stand by his side in the flight plans he shared with Luca. He had thought he understood how the lion would react when he told him what he knew... but there was a factor he had absolutely forgotten, something he hadn't thought about.

Love. The fascination that Ike felt towards him had prevented him from understanding what he had told him.

Maybe for someone more experienced that him in those matters, that detail wouldn't have been ignored when planning something as mean and risky as what Zèon had carried out. However, the arctic fox had never been able to fall in love with someone... or know that someone was in love with him. All he knew about love was based in what he had heard the cooks of his palace whisper about, and in the few mentions of it he had listened in the refugee camp, where people was too busy with other issues in order to fall in love.

Zèon whispered, closing his eyes. Love was something weird. It couldn't be rationalized, or understood. Sometimes, it made people do things that didn't follow any logic pattern, things that no one would have ever done. Like that time he had decided to intervene between Koi and Camus, the day he had been punished. That was a different kind of love, different from what Ike felt for him, but Zèon believed that they were born from the same source. And still, it was a complete mystery for him.

Love could make some people do crazy things. It could make that the most rational people lost their minds. It could start wars... and it could also stop them. Silently, the arctic fox wondered if he would ever experience the touch of that double-edged sword. He couldn't derive a conclusive answer.

Then, he perceived a little movement at the other side of the room. He immediately understood that Luca had decided that it was time to take action and sat up on his bed.

In the middle of that half-light, the wolf's reddish gaze made contact with his ice-like blue eyes.

Both nodded almost imperceptibly.

After cleaning himself in a lake of fresh and crystalline water in order to get rid of the dirt and the odor of manure, Zèon had taken some clothes that Luca had searched for him and had dressed, under the wolf's vigilant gaze. He had noticed that he had seen the mark in his waist, but none of them said anything about it. When the sun started to set, the arctic fox didn't hesitate to follow the wolf across the forest, towards the place that would be his home for the next years.

In the refugee camp of Hawthorn Woods everyone had a task to perform. The strong ones patrolled the zone, protecting the refugees from any possible fehlar attack. The weak ones, or those who had been injured in the war and weren't in their best physical condition, performed maintenance tasks, such as preparing the meals or reinforcing the precarious tents everyone slept in.

Those who didn't belong to any of those groups, like Luca and Zèon, were collectors. They went out every morning in search of water, food and sometimes also wood. They didn't use it as firewood, however. After all, everyone was still too afraid of being found by the fehlar.

Later, Luca introduced him to his family. The wolf had escaped with them from the eastern region of Silverback, where the fehlar invasion had took them by surprise. It was practically a miracle that they were alive and, still, Luca had lost his father and two of his brothers during the flight. Now he lived with his mother, his two sisters and his little brother, trying to rebuild in that little camp the life that the war had taken away from them.