A Biography of a Human

Chapter Five:

“The Proud General."

           In the early morning, after we all arrived at Lupercal, we all were awoken by the ringing of a small bell backed by the orders to wake up. The person ringing the bell and yelling out the orders was none other than Gyles and trailing behind were fellow human attendants that proceeded to race about opening curtains and pulling off the sheets that covered us, exposing us the cold morning air.

Startled, I got up, while reaching into my pocket, taking the sketch of me that my father did and shoved it into a hole I found in my pillow as to not lose it. I would never forgive myself if I did.

"All of you, wake up! It's morning! And to you, the new arrivals, line up at the door immediately!" Gyles spoke out over and over again till all of us heard it and understood.

I and the others lined up at the door while the others, who were already here when we arrived, just sat about, waking up.

While waiting, I took the chance to look around at the dormitory hall we were staying in as I did not get the time to do so before as I, like the rest of us, were exhausted from our long journey. The hall was quite large, maybe fifty feet or more-so, long from end to end. It was also two stories high, both floors had raised wooden daises upon which a rows of thick white cotton mats that served as both beds and siting places as tables of food were placed between the mats when food was served. Behind the mats were large latticed windows from which the morning light shun through giving the hall a warm vibe. Overall, the place was not as bad as I thought it would be, looking back on it now. Considering that we were slaves, I was expecting much worse treatment.

After a while, I felt brave at the moment and ventured to ask a question to Gyles while the rest of us were lining up.

"Uh, w-w-why are we...." before I could finish my sentence Gyles cut me off like he already knew what I was going to say.

"You all are going to be processed."

"What is th...." Gyles gave a sharp frustrated sigh as though should already know what that was.

"All new arrivals are listed in our slave registers, after which they will be bathed and given a set of new clothes." Gyles said in an almost mechanical and deadpan way. He tended to do that a lot.

Once we all were lined up, Gyles then began to lead us out of the hall and while walking down the corridor, we passed by another group of attendants carrying low tables filled with food that were heading towards the hall we just left.

Glancing at the tray, the food upon it this time was simple: many colored vegetables arrayed on a platter along with loaves of bread and small bowls containing nuts and a pitcher of water.

“They must be bringing breakfast to Deven and the others" I thought to myself. Then I saw an identical line of the women from Safehaven being lead by an older human woman. We joined them, marching together, our line beside theirs to be processed together amongst them. I saw Maria! I was so elated to see her that I started jumping up and yelling out.

“Maria! Maria!" She turned towards me and smiled when she saw me. I was about dart towards her, when I was stopped in my tracks by a very dirty and wrathful look from Gyles who barked out.

“YOU! BOY! STOP IT NOW! BE IN ORDER!" I quickly stopped and obeyed not wanting to cause a conflict.

“Good, at least you know how to listen to orders" Gyles said, before we continued on our way.

Finally after a moments walk down the winding corridors of this facility, we arrived at a medium-sized room that had two desks at the end of it being manned by wolves seated upon backless chairs. We males were told to line up at one and the females at the other.

After a while, my turn came and I found myself in front of the desk. The wolf sitting at it held a reed quill dipped in jet ink with a rather large book in front of him. He looked quite older than any other wolf I had had seen up to that time and wore on his eyes two pieces of glass attached to metal frame that jetted up to the top of his head and over his ears. I was so completely mystified by this object that I failed to realize that the wolf was asking me a question.

“State your name." Snapping out of my thought, I quickly responded back.

“Alexander Kartanou."

“Mother and Fathers name?"

“Uh, my Mommy is Sofia and um, Daddy was Vernier."

“Age?"

“Six years old." After all this, he jotted down my answers plus some notes into the large book he had and gestured me towards a door with a blue frame at the side of the room that was opposite a pink framed door that the females were going into.

Upon entering, I was hit with a wall of humid heat and the sounds of rushing water. Before I had time to even collect my thoughts, I was seized upon by two old bald headed human men that looked like decrepit mummies rather than living men, that proceed to drag me further into the misty, tiled room, much to my great distress that would soon get worse when I was brought to a large, steaming pool and to my absolute horror and embarrassment the two men began take my clothes off.

I tried to struggle and fight, but their grips only tightened, hurting me greatly.

“Hey, stop!" They did not speak a word and continued on.

Then, one of the men pulled my shirt off and I quickly rushed to cover myself with my hands as the other was beginning to undo my pants.

“Please, stop! I beg you!" I pleaded out while beginning to cry but it was to no avail.

And after all my clothes had been removed, the men forcefully dipped me into the warm water so much that my head went under and I thought I was being drowned, before being pulled back out only to be assaulted by course sponges that felt more like sandpaper than anything, before again being dropped back into the water.

After this, I was dragged out of this room into another where the same two men dressed me in the same clothes that Deven and the other humans were wearing, a simple white tunic and pants that were clearly left baggy as to fit any sized person. To keep everything in place, a black cotton sash tied around the waist.

When all this was done, I was pushed out another door and was back into the main dormitory where Deven was waiting.

“I know, rough isn't it" he said, dryly.

Feeling so upset, violated and embarrassed, I just buried my face in Deven's leg.

“I want to go home. I want Mommy and Daddy."

“There, there, Xander be strong now" Deven said and I could not help but be reminded of my Grandfather by such words.

“Alexander, remember my strength runs through your veins."

The next few weeks at this place were spent learning the basics of the Wolven language. Every morning when we woke up and had our breakfast, all of us new arrivals were escorted to a classroom. The room was simple looking, the walls were wood paneled, the floor wood with carpets and neatly arranged pillows on the floor for us to sit on. At the other end of the room was a board to which pictures and diagrams could be pinned to for visuals of the words we would learn.

After all of us had taken our seats, a human man emerged from one of the side rooms adjoining the class room. He looked ancient and had a cane in hand that he lugged across the room like some fossil from another epoch.

Once he came to the front of us, he began a speech in surprisingly strong voice for his age.

“Welcome, welcome, I am Garas and I will be helping you all with becoming the perfect servant for your new masters and mistresses, as well as teaching you the basics of wolf language so that you will be able to understand your master's orders"

“I know what you're all thinking. I have seen many like you all come and go over the decades like the of blooming and withering of flowers. You're all thinking “why are we slaves?" I know it must be hard to understand, but I will explain."

“We are inferior, humanity's fall is proof of that. We tried usurp the creator gods: Canis, Felidae and Ursin and their powers and they punished us by forsaking us, unleashing their mortal children upon the earth to replace humanity, but luckily for us, the Anthros are noble beings, full of compassion that let us inferior, deceitful creatures live to serve them as a reprieve whether we all deserved it not." This all sounded like propaganda to me, just lies and the fact that this old human believed it was sickening. How could a human think we deserved this life? He probably was spoon feed these lies since he was a baby.

He then went on about how long ago there were the three creator gods: Canis, god of the moon; Felidae, goddess of the sun and Ursin, god of the earth; that came together when there was just darkness and Ursin cut a chunk off and formed the earth, Felidae inseminated herself and gave birth to the sun and Canis gouged out his own silver eye to make the moon, the blood from his eye forming the stars and planets.

Canis then ejaculated into existence, the oceans and rivers; Felidae breathed the air and clouds and Ursin plucked his fur to be the vegetation and fauna. After this, they then wondered what would be the caretakers of their creation. They each wanted the caretakers to be in their own image and they augured so greatly that earthquakes formed mountains and volcanos burst forth and when they stopped, came to an agreement: they decided that the caretaker would be neither of their image and they made humanity.

After all this droning, Garas finally started to talk about the wolf language and the first word we were to learned was, in the old human instructor's view the most important word for us to know, that of master and the picture accompanying it was a crude, well-used drawing of a wolf with a human groveling at his paws.

We were also read excerpts from the “Rules for Humans" a very small book which we were told to memorize the sayings from it as we were read it, as learning to read wolven was not apart of the curriculum. The book was supposedly written by a loyal human slave in honor of his deceased master and to help other humans be better slaves, a claim I have a hard time believing as it feels so constructed and fake. For example, here's a list of virtues we should strive for as to be good little humans for our masters.

The Seven Human Virtues

1. Obedience. Always do as one's master says, look upon your master's words as law.

2. Loyalty. Always support one's master and defend them and cheer them up if they're down.

3. Humbleness. Never think yourself better than one's master. Always express ones inferiority.

4. Devotion. Never leave one's master to do other things, be there for them always.

5. Selflessness. Don't think of yourself, only of one's master and die for them if need be.

6. Respect. Never talk back or give a mean look to one's masters, always look up at them.

7. Deference. Your master is your lord and one should worship them as such.

Other parts of the book talked about how a human should never leave his master's home unless you have express permission and an escort, how a human's sole purpose and goal in life is the pleasing of your master in any way whatsoever and raising his pups while laying content at his paws, waiting for his orders. I remember one excerpt quite well, that talked about a human's inferiority. I have a copy of Rules for Humans in my personal library, which I will reference below along with a few of my comments on it.

'A human's station is naturally inferior in the physical senses: we are small, our skin is thin and easy wounded, and our lack of claws and sharp teeth make us weak. We humans are also inferior in the mental stage as well, not in that we our not smart but in our emotions, we are so easily overcome by our passionate emotions ranging from overflowing love to extreme hate. How we humans survived on our own is a small wonder and I thank the gods for creating our Anthro masters everyday, for without them we surely would have destroyed ourselves. We are just too passionate for our own good and thus need the Anthros to keep us in check from it.'

While I must admit the fact we humans are physically inferior is right in all senses, but the part about us being inferior mentally because of our emotions is completely ridiculous. Because as we all know, the Anthros themselves are never quick the anger, especially over trivial matters and for that I will give an example of their “levelheadedness" about two hundred years ago:

Great Chief Abjorn of the Ursine Tribes boasted he had bigger muscles than the Alpha Adolph, which sent him so much into a rage that he declared war on them and even though the war was a resounding success for the Alphate, giving us vast new lands and the real reason for the war has been forgotten, it was still a silly reason for a war. Bottom line: the Anthros are more like us then they would like to admit to themselves. History itself is made from passion and is written by passionate beings and I'm pretty sure the first Alpha would not have declared his crusade against humanity all those millennia ago if he himself was not a being of passion.

That was how the weeks for us were spent, ten hours a day learning basic Wolf Tongue, after each word we were made to repeat it again and again until we perfected the growl-like vocalizations. It was extremely difficult at first, with all the strange sounds that made up the language and the fact that we did not possess a muzzle like them, but since humans have more muscles in our mouths, we can mimic it easier than a wolf with any human language. The hardest part is coordinating the muscles and tongue in the right way to make the sounds of Wolven.

After two months we reached a competency in speaking it well enough and we were banned from speaking our native tongue so that we would not forget and revert back. The punishments were harsh for those who did not obey including not eating for three day or not sleeping. Only a few got that though, as most of us were so scared that we did not even think in our native language, let alone speak it.

With our lessons over, we would in few day from then, be sold. Another day of reckoning for me was fast approaching.

The day of the selling came so fast, but the day itself seemed to never end and every minute felt like a hundred years. The day itself started like all the others before, but instead of being woken to eat or bathe we were told to to get ready to be sold. The very word fell upon me with an eerie calm. I thought I would be more frightened but I was not, as I took my fathers drawing from its hiding spot, putting it on my person while getting up to face my future.

Gyles, like always, was there but instead of just him alone he was joined by his master that fat wolf, Abrarron and they both lead us all out where we were joined by our females counterparts and as we marched out of the facility it all felt more like a march for our own execution than anything else, the execution of our freewill and the beginning of a life of servitude that god knows how long it would last for some of us.

I was quite disgusted by Gyles's calm professional attitude towards the situation, how could someone stand by and be perfectly okay with his fellow humans being sold like this and not even make a slight protest or disagreement?

The newly arisen sun rose over the building that was our home for the last three months, giving forth its warm rays upon this strange new place called Lupercal. Exiting the building, we saw there were multiple carts waiting to take us all to the market according to our gender. While being lifted into one of the carts I saw Gyles and his master boarding their own enclosed carriage.

After being secured in place to ensure we did not escape, the carts got to going. I happened to be in the same cart Deven was in but I did not feel in the mood to talk to him, I just wanted to be alone among my thoughts, but I did hear him talking about how he was going to get a new, weak master to wrap around his finger.

Without anybody to distract me from myself, I was able to get a closer look at the city. We were driving down onto the biggest road I'd ever seen. From side to side it made the paths and roads on Safehaven look like nothing and unlike some of the roads there, these ones were all paved with stone.

“My god, there's probably more stone in this road than in the church back home."

And all along this road were countless people, carts, carriages and horses, it was simply stunning, how many people there were here and all along the road were many tall buildings, a few as high as five stories. Some buildings looked like temples or shrines while others looked like apartments or houses, there were also some parks among them filled with trees and ponds.

And looking towards the end of the great avenue, I saw a massive and magnificent gate which led to the cluster of structures that were Alpha's palace. We also passed by a large, circular structure surrounded by large ornate stone columns built upon a stone base with steps leading up to it's imposing bronze doors. Populated all around this structure, some on the steps while others below them, were wolves, but these wolves were different in dress, as they wore these magnificent robes of varying colors and toga like sashes and some had elaborate hats upon their heads that looked like high caps with fin-like wings jutting out of the side at the back of them while others wore tall turban like hats. I was so overcome with curiosity by this place that I shouted out.

“What's that place!?"

It was Deven spoke up in response, “Oh that, that's the forum of the moon."

“The forum of the moon? What's that?"

“It's where the Beta and the other bureaucrats do their business, it also serves as a ceremonial council hall for them too."

“So this were wolves govern their empire or Alphate as they call it."

After a while, we arrived in at small-sized market square, one of many, but this one was specifically for the selling of slaves. It was a square of paved stone, it was filled with other slavers selling humans and stalls selling human accessories like collars, leashes, clothing and books on how to tame one's human. Also filling the spaces between the slave pens and shops were tons of possible buyers as well as customers who came back to complain about the bad attitude of their slaves2 being too willful and such.

The carts came to an abrupt stop and we were all pulled off them rather roughly and put into a pen regardless of the gender segregation this time, so thus, I was finally able to reunite with Maria again and find comfort in her presence.

“Maria! Maria, I'm so happy to see you again, I was so worried and scared without you." She then hugged me tightly and we started to catch up on what happened to us since we were separated from each other, she apparently went through the same process we did, in fact, the dormitory she and the others stayed in was an exact copy of the one we were in.

While we were talking, potential customers came and surrounded the pen, eyeballing us up and talking amongst themselves. When a potential buyer showed interest in one of us, two attendants came into the pen and brought him to them to get better look. This happened many times and sometimes the humans would be thrown back with us, while other times not. It was sometimes nerve wracking when the attendants came in, especially if one does not know if one is going to be next.

Unbeknownst to me, outside the pen there were two female wolves who were showing great interest in me, pointing at me and murmuring to one another. Maria saw this and she then looked at me with a disparaged look, like she knew what would happen next.

“Alexander, I hate to say this, but we will most likely separated when you are sold."

“What are you talking about?"

“Look over there, Alexander, you see those two wolves? They are looking right at you." Looking at the place Maria was gesturing to, I saw them and clearly heard an audible aww from them as I made eye contact with them. It sent a chill up my back as they were acting like I was some kind of cute animal, which I probably was to them. They then went to Gyle's master, Abrarron and pointed to me while he gestured some orders to an attendant who was by him. Turning to Maria again, I panicked.

“No! No! No! I won't! I cant! Maria, save me!"

“Shh! Shh! Alexander, calm down, everything will be fine, be brave!"

“How can I be brave without you!? I need you!" I then heard the gate of the pen opening, furthering my desperation and fear.

“Here take this." Maria said as she removed her pendent that was in the shape of an amber-colored eye, a charm from Safehaven which was meant to watch over the wearer; and put it around and fastening it around my neck.

“Wha…why?!"

“Xander, think of it as a part of me and draw strength from it and be brave."

“B-b-but," I found myself barely able to form words, I was so terrified and was shaking so much it felt like it was from an earthquake.

“No buts Alexander, the time has most likely come."

“Will I ever see you again?" her face immediately fell and she looked downwards as she her eyes darted from me to something behind me.

“I don't know, I honestly don't know, but maybe our paths might cross once again, who knows what god plans for us here, but I honestly hope and pray we do meet again Xander. Now will you promise me you will be brave now?"

“Y-y-y-yes I will be b-b-brave."

“Good." That was the last word I heard from her then, for immediately after that I was grabbed and dragged out. I did not even fight, I just went limp as I watched Maria disappear in the crowd of humans, the gate of the pen shunting behind me.

I was then brought to the two wolves seated upon two ebony stools under a scarlet fabric covered canopy that gave the area below a red glow and looking at them, I saw that they were females, judging by their slender figures and slimmer muzzles, but strangely, unlike human women, they lacked protruding breasts and the chest area was only slightly raised. The both of them had very dark grey fur color and wore some very splendid looking gowns. They clearly looked wealthy.

I was lowered onto the floor by the attendant and the two she-wolves stood up and began circling me like predators taunting their prey by showing there was no escape from them and good god, they were massive compared to my tiny six year old frame. My inner peril was broken by the voice of one of these she-wolves, who spoke in and almost sing-song baby voice like one would do with something cute.

“Aww, he's quite adorable, just look at him, Rena, I just want to squeeze him and look at those cute eyes dear, aren't human are just so expressive and cute. We just have to get him, oh please! Please, please!"

“I know, the young ones always are and you sure picked out a good one, Neith." Then the one called Rena approached me, lifting up my face by my chin, her finger pads felt tough, but soft against my skin, while I looked up into her green eyes.

“How old are you, pup?" Rena said in a soft very motherly voice.

“I-I-I I'm six." Abruptly both of them awed in unison while Neith came up and ran her fingers through my hair, stroking me like a dog.

“What a preciously cute voice he has, Rena, I just love him and his head fur, it's so soft!" Neith said.

“Me too, but the question is, do you think father will like him?" Rena replied.

“Of course he will! He will absolutely love him, I know he will! He loves pups you know that, Rena sister, and he has been so lonely lately since we both got mated and after mother died, he needs a pet human to take care of." I was completely stunned listening to these two wolves talk about me in this way and discussing my future in such a nonchalant way. These two sisters saw me as just a cute little pet for their father, I know it's not the worst fate one could have as a slave, but still, it felt so degrading to be given away like a present.

“We'll take him! How much is he?" Rena said, she seemed to me to be the older of the two and more mature, while the one named Neith seemed younger, as she was more occupied with fawning over my “cuteness" and repeatedly petting my head while awing at every movement I made, her yellow eyes filling with delight every time I made contact with them and her tail wagged like a dog's would.

“He's 500 gold claws." The wolf attendant spoke.

“That much!?" Rena spoke back.

“Well, my lady he's quite young and they always sell for more."

“I better hope you're not trying to cheating me, as my father is General Gernan Kof and he will surely have your head if you are!" Rena said, her voice and hackles raising as a low growl came forth from her muzzle. Abrarron, overhearing this, came over as fast as his round figure could go without tripping on his robe and rolling across the plaza like a ball, which I must admit I would have loved to have seen.

“Forgive me, my ladies, I had no idea the daughters of the great General Gernan would be coming to lowly Abrarron's humble shop and please forgive this insolent fool of an attendant for being so rude to your high and noble presence." Abrarron pleaded pathetically after roughly pushing out of the way, said attendant nearly stumbling on the rug placed under the canopy.

“Well, we had to come unannounced, we wanted to get a human for my father as a gift. Now Abrarron, is it true this human puppy is 500 gold claws?"

“Well, yes, but since you're the noble born offspring of that great General Gernan and the fact it is meant as a gift to your great father, I will be willing to give him to you for 300 gold claws instead."

“Well, that's more like it, you have yourself a deal." Rena spoke as her hackles lowered, she then gestured to older female human figure that I did not notice before, that seemed to be to be her lady servant and carried over a medium box that, when opened, contained gold in the shape of claws and Abrarron's normally beady eyes widened to an extent that he looked like he was swooning.

“Oh, my ladies, this is more then enough now, give me time to count it and take what I need."

“We don't want to be here all day while you count, but I will leave behind my lady servant to do the final transaction while we leave, would that be fine with you?"

“Why yes, you may do that, I would not mind at all." Abrarron said bowing repeatedly.

“Come, Neith, he's ours now." Rena said as she departed the canopy towards a waiting carriage.

“Yes Rena, I can't wait for father to see him." Then Neith just picked me up and held me in her arm, cradling me like an infant as she also walked to the carriage, her furry arms brushing against my neck, tickling me slightly while I looked up at the cream underside of her dainty muzzle, from which two ashen, canine teeth peeked through the soot-lined folds of her jaw.

My head was held close to her, clutching me to her flat bosom like a mother to her child, it brought to mind a legend my grandfather once told me about two brothers born from a woman, a daughter of a king. This king saw these two infants as a threat to his rule and tossed the crib that contained them into the river, where they floated down until they landed at the base of a fig tree. The two babies cried and cried, these cries alerted a nearby she-wolf who came upon to them and seeing these helpless infants, she filled with maternal love, lowered her teats upon the hungry babes giving forth her milk. The two not only suckled from her sustenance, but also the essence of empire, for these two would go on to be the founders of a great nation.

I was carried by Neith to a medium-sized carriage drawn by two horses, the carriage was and enclosed structure with a door sided by two screen windows from which I could see that Rena was already sitting waiting for us. Neith boarded the carriage while she balanced me in her arms and took her place next to her sister. Neith then sat me on her lap while Rena shouted out to the driver to go to her father's manor and with a slight jolt, we were off, the sound of the wheels rumbling against the ground lulled me into a slight calm.

Neith then started holding me in a way that her clawed fingers were rubbing against my side, tickling me so greatly, I started giggling profusely, unable to control myself.

“Rena! Rena! Look at the cute little noises he makes when I scratch his sides, isn't it adorable sounding!? You try." Then both of them began tickling causing me to giggle even harder much to their great joy amusement and joy.

“Oh please, stop, I beg you!" I cried out in between laughs which cause both of them to abruptly stop and give a worried look.

“Oh no! Are we hurting you pup!? Oh Canis, forgive me!? We did not mean to hurt you!" Neith spoke frantically while squeezing me so tightly I felt as though I couldn't breath, while she lapped the side of my face with her tongue, coating my face in warm saliva.

“N-n-n-n no you're not hurting me. You're just tickling me and it gets uncomfortable." I spoke as Neith still held me tightly, so much I caused Rena to take notice.

“Uh Neith, you might want to loosen up a bit, our humans face is turning blue." Immediately I was released and could breath again.

“Oh, sorry!"

“Now, pup, do you have a name?" Rena asked me.

“M-m-my name is Alexander."

“Ah-ks-an-dar?" Rena said back, cocking her head to the side, having great difficulty pronouncing the human name at first.

“No it's Ah-le-ks-an-dur Alex-and-er." I repeated back again.

“Alex-and-er. Alexander. What strange sounds! Hopefully father will give you a better new name."

“I don't want a new name! No, I will not accept a new name at all!" I thought to myself, angry at the though of being given a new name on a personal whim.

My train of thought was then broken by an abrupt stop in the movement of the carriage followed by Rena's exclamation “Oh we're here!" While she got out of the carriage follow by Neith holding me.

Outside, I saw a great house, it was a large, two-story structure enclosed by a walls with a gate at the front and after being lead through this gate, I saw that the house had two wings on either sides surrounding the courtyard we were now in. Then Neith stopped and called out to her sister.

“Rena, the human needs to be a surprise, we can't just bring him in without him being unseen."

“Well, what do you want me to do?" Neith then gazed around and she caught sight of a table with a white cloth on it.

“Over there, we can cover him with that until we reveal him to father." Rena shrugged and took the tablecloth and threw it over me, before they both started moving again with me unable to see anything.

I heard the sound of a door opening and closing, followed by footsteps of a third person and Rena's voice.

“Pantaleon, where is father?"

“Oh, he is in his study. Uh, whats that moving in your arms, Lady Neith?" A clearly male voice said. But this voice was strangely different much more higher pitched with a yappy accent to it when compared to the deep growl of the wolves.

“Keep your snout in your own business! Canis, you foxes are so nosy." Rena snapped back at this Panataleon. I felt we were moving again and after some seconds of walking, we stopped again.

“Oh father? Are you there?" Rena's voice uttered out in an endearing tone followed by Neith saying much the same thing.

“Rena? Neith? Oh, please come in." The voice that replied back sounded very deep, but it had a homely undertone to it. This was the voice of Gernan, the General and my soon to be master. I then heard a door slide open again followed by movement, the area we were in was much brighter as the cloth over me glowed from the light outside it.

“Ah, my dear pups, it's so good to see you again, I have missed..." he stopped for a moment before speaking again. “What is under that cloth your holding Neith?"

It was Rena who piped in again while Neith set me on the floor cloth still upon me.

“Well, we know how lonely you have been since we got mated and we decided to get you a surprise to make you feel better and less lonely." And with those words, the cloth was lifted and I could see the surprised face of my new master and like Rena and Neith, he was dark grey in fur color and had yellow irises that were wide with bewilderment as he sat on a couch with a book he had been reading at his side.

It was Rena who then picked me up and brought me closer to him, setting me on his large lap. He wore a black kaftan-like robe that was buttoned with silver buttons up to below his neck, with pants underneath where the robe parted and my god, he was huge, I felt so puny sitting his lap.

When he looked down at me, his big, yellow, moon-like eyes framed by a noble set brow, locking with mine, I saw clear signs of middle age on his face, as he had a slightly tired look to his face with subtle lines here and there under his eyes, but what I noticed most about him were his cream, fur-less scars arrayed across his muzzle and face, which lowered down on on me, his wet black nose pressing against my neck as he took a sniff of me.

“You got me a human!?" Gernan said, looking up.

“Yes, we figured since you have been saying you're lonely all the time we thought you could you would like something to take care of." Rena said.

“Well, I was not expecting you to do this, I must say."

“What is it, you don't like him?" Neith worriedly spoke.

“No! No! I'm just very surprised. I must admit, girls, I'm very impressed you managed to surprise an old General like me this way. I thought I had seen everything already." Gernan then looked down at me again, giving me a soft look while stroking the back of my head with his rough padded hands before speaking again.

“And with a human puppy no less."

“Yes, we both wanted to get you a young one to raise." Rena replied back.

“He's very cute and thank you, for I have been thinking of getting a human companion."

“Well, we both have to be going to our mates now father, it is already late afternoon and we should let you and your new human get to know each other." Rena said, looking almost sad to leave us.

Both sisters said their goodbyes to Gernan before leaving the two of us alone. I just sat there, frozen solid while he just looked down at me, his head occasionally cocking side to side in confusion as to why I was not moving at all before he spoke again in a soft gentle voice

“There is no need to be afraid of me, my pup. Now, what your name?"

“A-a-a-a-a Alexander."

“Ah-le-ks-an-dur" He, like his daughters, also had a hard time with pronouncing the name, mostly with the 'lex' part of my name.

“Well, pup, I might need to change you name, for it is quite hard to say without much practice." I was at my wits end and lost my calm.

“But why!? I like my name! I don't want a new name!" Gernan was taken back a little by my outburst, but chuckled after finding my pathetic anger cute and funny.

“Why, pup you have spirit in you, I like that. Listen here, how about I give you the Wolven equivalent to your name, huh?"

“And what would that be!?" I snapped back nasty, not caring that this wolf could rip me to ribbons if he so wanted to.

“Iskander." He said back to me and instead of being outright angry and rejecting it, I found the name close enough to Alexander to not be much different and I also realized that maybe I should stop being stubborn and do what the big bad wolf wants me to do and not fight with him.

“Iskander?" I replied back.

“Yes. Iskander"

“Fine I'll take it! But only because I want too!"

Later that night, Gernan left and brought me back some food, simple bread with a cup of warm milk and told me that because he had no bed for me I would have to sleep with him in his bed until he could get his servants to fetch a spare bed from the attic to be put in his bedroom the next day and when I showed my first hints of sleepiness he picked me up and carried me to his room on the upper floor. I tried, but I did not get a chance to see much of the rest of the house.

He laid me on his bed before he also got into bed and to prevent me from going cold from my lack of fur, he wrapped his fur covered arm around me and drew me in to his chest while his warm breath encircled my neck and the sound of his heart beat brought me into the first deep sleep since the day before I was taken.

“Is this home?" I thought to myself in my last waking moments.

It was. Like it or not this was my new home and it was during that night Alexander died and joined his father and grandfather in the heavens, while Iskander was born and took his place, the first of many names and personas I would become in my lifetime for beings with sapience are like the phoenix and they too arise from the ashes of their own death becoming a different person at each stage in life. This why I took the phoenix as my personal symbol for I feel as though I have been burned and reborn countless times and have lived a hundred lives in one.