The Wolf and the Eldritch
@whumptober @whumptober-archive Day 10: Secrets
@linktober Day 25: Twilight
Linktober (Shadow Edition) Day 26: Cave
---
There is something wrong with Wild. He knows they think this; he sees it in the way their stares linger as he walks, the conversations stalling until he leaves the room. He knows there’s something broken within him, matter stuffed into his body where a soul is missing.
He knew this the day he woke from the tomb that held the Hero’s body, a voice saying he was the kingdom’s last hope. Walking out of the cave that holds the Resurrection Shrine, endless land stretching before him, new and unfamiliar, beautiful as it was frightening, he knew it would be kinder if he stayed dead.
His body produces no heat, his eyes glow in the dark, and his canines are a bit sharper than normal. He belongs in the wilderness, inhuman and feral as he is. The Goddess assures him that he is Her hero, Her champion. The Old Gods may have proclaimed him as their own, but Her’s is a claim that will never fade.
He is a hero, even if the others may treat him differently. He is wrong; he is light; he is darkness. He is the in-between, clinging between death and life; savage and civility are the tightrope he struggles to balance on.
The only one who seems to understand is Twilight. Blessed by the light but embraced by darkness, he runs between the lines with a fluidity that Wild envies at times. Like two peas in a pod, they stick by each other. The wolf and the eldritch, beast and ghost. Monsters in one perspective, protectors in the other.
