A Biography of a Human.

Chapter Twelve.

“The Years Gone By."

After pushing that bothersome teenaged fox, Elyk, aside, I made my way down the hallway to the entrance of the manor, where I would surely meet the newly arrived Gernan, still dressed in his court attire. My judgment was correct for there he was, standing in the foyer, having just entered. Pantaleon had beaten me to him first and glanced at me with a snooty look that said to me, “Nah nah! Got to him first!"

The fresh scent of the early summer air sill lingered in the front hall despite the door being recently closed. It brought back melancholic memories of my island home, my family and my old life. Midsummers was coming up soon, it would soon be exactly six years since I was taken. I always observed it still, even after all these years by going out to the garden at night, the same hour the raid happened, and mourn for my old life and home. I may have adjusted to this new world but the scar is still there and it's a deep one that I fear will never fade completely, even now. But now was not the time for sadness and tears, Master had just returned and I had to give him my summery of today's letters.

Ever since Gernan gave me the duty of reading his correspondence, Pantaleon had gotten jealous of me, since that was his job before master Gernan taught me the Wolven script. To be honest, it was kind of ridiculous, him acting this way, but he never was mean to me because of it. It mostly showed when Gernan wanted something and we ended up both rushing to be the first to answer it. Pantaleon should have known that he had been with the old wolf longer than me!

Approaching my Wolven master, I made a deep bow to him even though it was not necessary as Gernan exempted his servants from this, but I thought it was good to keep up the habit lest some rumor comes about from it saying he is soft on his staff.

Elyk was soon behind me and did the same, albeit more clumsily, nearly bumping into me! I merely rolled my eyes at his antics, I found myself rolling them more and more nowadays.

“Ah, Iskander! And Elyk too! How were things while I was away?"

I quickly spoke out, cutting Elyk off from starting a charade of his.

“Very well, Master Gernan! I went through all your correspondence today and narrowed them down to the most important ones," I said proudly, looking up at the wolf's profile. Since getting older, I no longer had to crane by head back as much as I did when I first arrived. I swear, my neck must have be through countless cramps from those days, and also now I got to see more of his face than before.

“Oh, good! Iskander, please tell me what you have got for me," Gernan glowed with pride. It felt so good to be of help to him like this, so I recited the highlights of the letters I received.

“Well, master, I got one from the Governor of Siberia about the discovery of an iron deposit there and how it would really good to establish a mining expedition," Gernan's furry ears perked up at the mention of iron as it was quite scarce in the western regions.

“Iron, you say? I need to bring this up with Beta Sigma, he will jump at the thought for sure!"

“Beta Sigma? Which one was that? Hmmm… Ah yes, the minister of works! How could I forget!" By Canis, the council positions can get so confusing and it gets even more so when one factors in the fact that each one has a number of non-Beta titled subordinates!

Elyk, who was still standing behind me and who could not stand being the odd one out, blurted out.

“Uh, my birthday is coming up by the way!" I rolled my eyes again.

“Yes, Elyk, we all know that you will be sixteen in a few weeks," this reminded me that I should pick him up a gift, but I was at a loss on what it should be. I decided that I should just browse until I found something that he might like, I had been saving claws for some time now with the thought of buying him something. I mostly earned them from odd jobs in the human sector where the freed humans reside and set up shops. If I really wanted to I could save up over the years and buy my freedom, but I had no inclination of doing that.

I decided to go visit the human sector after I found a gift for Elyk and meet up with some of my friends there. Gernan always encouraged me to go there, often saying it would be good for me to have contact with my own kind once in a while.

“But I should go do that tomorrow!" I thought to myself as I handed Gernan a pile of letters I thought were a priority for him to read.

I followed my master to the study, trailing behind his ash colored, swooshing tail. Pantaleon had removed all of his court attire, so he was no longer burdened, both physically and mentally, by its somber ceremonial design.

I was relieved to find, as I followed Gernan into the study, that the teenage fox was not creeping behind me as well. He was most likely tasked with a chore by Pantaleon and I was grateful for that, it was hard to be serious when he was around.

“I shouldn't be too hard on him! He is a good fox with a caring heart, I just wish he did not get on my nerves like he so often does!" I reminded myself of all the times he showed his kind side to me, like the time he bit me when the two of us started playing too rough and his predatory instincts kicked in and how sad he was afterward, begging me to forgive him.

Elyk had sure grown up into a handsome strapping young fox, tall and slender with a constant smug, sly look on his face and was always boasting about how all the vixens chase after him! Every time he said that I got mad and I really didn't know why I would ever be upset at the thought of him being wanted by his fellow kind, but it irked me deep down. I just brushed it off as me being upset with his immature nature and nothing else.

“That's strange, my stomach feels weird! Probably just indigestion."

“A letter from Lazo!? Why did you not tell me first!?" my ponderings of Elyk were interrupted by Gernan.

“Master, forgive me! It completely skipped over my brain, Elyk was here and you know how he is…" the gruff wolf, who was now sitting at his polished oak-wood desk then peered up with an amused twinkle in his amber eyes.

“Ah, so that's why, can't really blame you the for this then," I gave out a low chuckle in response as he began reading the letter from his foxen friend and after a while, broached the question.

“Is it good news?" I asked curiously, since I did not open it as it was personal.

“Huh? Oh, yes!" Gernan replied, newly broken out of his in-depth reading of the letter before continuing on and leaving the rest as a complete mystery to me.

“Yes, very good!" afterward, he put the corner of the letter into the flame of the lamp sitting on his desk, gradually engulfing it in flames as he set it down on the metal tray to continue burning. This was not the first time he did this with a letter from Lazo, in fact, he did this with all of the letters from the fox. I never questioned him too much about this behavior, for he would always say something about the consort or getting into a wrong individual's possession.

My master's secrecy about his correspondence with Lazo even extended to his replies to him, insisting on writing them himself. Ever since his injury, his arm had been having issues with the nerves so I usually wrote for him as he dictated. But when it was to Lazo he refused to let me help.

Once I got very upset with Gernan over this and even talked back to him saying he did not trust me! I didn't know why I did this, it was so unlike me, but things were changing as I approached my teens and I found myself getting easily ruffled. My master was not angry with me and said he did trust me, but telling me or anyone for that matter was too risky since he is now Prime Beta and even said he should not have revealed they were from Lazo to begin with.

This worried me greatly and he could sense this with those great wolf senses of his. He got up and knelt before me, lifting my head to meet his own and went on to assure me the letters contained nothing bad, but if they were in the wrong possession, could be made to look like they did.

But I must admit that these letters from the fox always intrigued me and I had to really fight the urge to open them and read them myself. How does that dumb saying go again?

“The human's shameless curiosity brought him from king to slave."

“Master Gernan, may I have permission to leave the manor?"

The wolf looked up from his desk where he was writing his reply to Lazo, his ears perked up and his yellow eyes locked with mine. He tilted his head, a little habit of his when I would ask a question of him, Aran Spot would also sometimes do this. But Gernan, being the dignified wolf he was, did it in a very slight way and only to me alone.

I knew from this that he was going to ask why I wanted to go out so I beat him to it, answering his question before he even said it.

“Elyk's birthday is coming up and I wanted to get him something, and also maybe visit some of my friends in the human sector," Gernan rubbed the chin of his muzzle. It was early summer so his fur was much thinner, having lost his winter coat of fur. Oh, how the shedding was a nightmare! I would find fur everywhere when they would start losing their winter coat, it gets everywhere. But it could have been much worse if the members of the household did not brush their coat everyday which is a common habit of the upper-class households, some nobles even have humans do their cooking because they do not have fur that might get in the food. We did not do that here though, Gernan was a tough wolf, not some pampered canine of the type that was becoming more frequent in the upper-class.

“Damn those young, soft, elitist wolves reclining on their soft couches, tended by countless humans serving them and who groan at the thought of doing something on their own! They are more akin to the decadent dogs in the East, rather than the proud wolves of Crimea!" this is what master would say when he would spot a young noble wolf being carried around on a sedan chair with humans in attendance. Gernan, when he became Prime Beta, made it mandatory for all young Beta class nobles to attend military training for a summer as a way to harden them up and for the most part it was working, we saw less of the spoiled wolves when we happened to go out.

“Hmm, that's a good idea, pup. A gift for Elyk, hard to believe he will be sixteen," I nodded my head in agreement as Gernan continued on.

“I have been summoned to meet with the Alpha today, so it would be nice for you to go out and do something while I'm gone," this perked my interest.

“Oh? I hope its nothing bad!" I could not help but be a little frightened by news like this as anything could happen.

“Oh, no! Iskander, you worry too much! The Alpha said he has a special task for me to do!" Gernan glowed like a child waiting for a surprise and I spotted his tail behind him thrashing about.

“Oh, good! But I can't help it, I get worried with things in the court!" Gernan chucked.

“That's smart! It's good to be on one's toes with the court, but you don't want to worry about it too much! Now, let me write you your permission slip for your outing," the wolf opened a drawer, pulled out a slip of paper and jotted down who I was, who my master was, why I was going out and that I had permission to be out. This was needed for all lone humans on the street as guard wolves will stop lone collared humans and cheek them for such slips.

“Do you want Pantaleon to come with you?" this was master worrying about me. He had gotten worried since I started to got out alone a last year.

“Gernan, what did you just say about worrying?" I said, a smug grin planted on my face, feeling like I made a winning move in chess.

Gernan's eye's widened while his ears flattened in slight embarrassment and he raised his paw to his face.

“You got me, pup! Well done!" I grinned at the compliment. Most wolves would have been enraged by a human talking back like this, but Gernan found it amusing seeing a little human like me acting like this.

“Little Iskander, you know I worry about you in the capital! Please promise me you will be careful, okay?" I nodded my head as Gernan handed me the slip of paper, transferring a few strands of fur onto me in doing so.

“I promise, Master!" I shouted as I ran out and into the hallway, dodging the odd servant here and there, before racing up the stairs to the master bedroom and to my bed at the foot of master's.

Getting on my knees, I opened one of the drawers on the lower half of my bed's frame, this was where I kept my personal belongings. Opening one of the wood drawers, I found a pouch of claws that I had been saving up for the past years. I took the small bag and was about to leave, but before that I took a moment to pick up and gaze at the sketch of myself my father did a long time ago. Ever since I arrived, I kept it in here and would look at it once in a while to reminisce about my past.

Folding the paper up and putting it back, I closed the drawer and got up, leaving the room and went down the stairs before I left the manor itself.

Now in the front courtyard, I pulled open the front gates and found myself in the hustle and bustle of the street. It was was noon and the sky was a clear blue, not a cloud in sight!

I decided that the market square near the human and non-wolf sectors would be the best place to go since it would have more exotic things there and was right next to my other destination: the human sector.

But there was another reason I chose this market: it did not sell slaves. When ever I caught sight of a cart of slaves on the road or a pen of humans about to be sold I would look away, too many bad memories and I saw myself in every one of their faces and I could not bear it! I would also feel guilt as well, since I was so content with my lot in life and when seeing a sight like that, I could not help but feel like a traitor. But I quickly reminded myself that this was how the world works and how it could be worse, humans could have been put to hard labor instead of menial tasks like nearly all humans are used for.

I turned my mind away from these bad thoughts and continued down the road, passing by other large manors and such.

“HUMAN, STOP!" a loud commanding voice barked behind me.

“Oh, I wondered how long it would take before this happened…" turning around, I faced the patrol guard I knew would be there. He was a tall, brown wolf wearing armor in the form of a leather sleeveless tunic over his undershirt of red, the color of the gate keepers and patrol guards. On the leather tunic's chest was a large circular emblem which depicted a feral she-wolf standing guard in front of a den with pups, emblem of the city patrols who skulked in the day for crime and at night for curfew transgressors.

The whole of Lupercal was divided into walled and gated sectors in a square grid fashion. For example, my master's manor was in a large, walled square grid of a few dozen other manors and located in a sector made up of other closed, gated squares containing more noble manors. All together they made a large rectangle made up of separate and enclosed areas known as the noble district. But the whole city is divided like this, the wolves are obsessed with order and hierarchy and it reflected in their city planning.

Now facing the wolf, I guessed he was of of the Delta class as such jobs like this are given to them, I saw he lacked a helmet as such jobs lack much combat to need one. He was young, I could tell, Gernan taught me how to notice things like this. He had a youthful voice, his fur was glossy and his features on his triangular head were tight and having no slight sagging of the jowls of his muzzle like master had.

“YOU, SLAVE! DO YOU HAVE PERMISSION TO BE UNATTENDED!?" If his features did not say his age than his attitude did! Only a young wolf would yell like that despite me being clearly in range to hear him. Being a human slave, I had to kneel to him to show my deference to any wolf who approached me. It was just a rule, one of many, many rules both freed and slave humans have to follow: a human can't ride a horse, a human can't carry a weapon, a human must walk in the gutters when a wolf walks by you and so on. At least we humans are not alone in having to abide by these silly rules, the non-wolf Anthros had to as well, so that was some consolation.

On my knees before this wolf, I presented my permission slip to him.

“Yes, noble wolf, I have written permission from my master," the wolf gave a smug look, feeling a tad drunk with his superiority. I could imagine how pleased he felt, since he must be craving such a feeling of above-ness since being a lower class Delta, he had to show reverence to the Beta class, leaving the poor Omegas and humans like me to have to deal with their upstart arrogance.

The guard snatched my permission slip with a huff and began to look it over, perhaps hoping it was a forgery so that there might be some action in his boring job.

When he saw the seal of my master he let out disappointed sigh, confirming my previous thought.

“You can go on your way, human," the wolf said deadpan, tossing the paper on the ground before me and leaving.

“Thank Canis that is over with!" I thought to myself, relieved that this was over, but I knew I was probably going to get stopped again not even ten steps away!

“Oh, these wolves!" I uttered to myself.

Finally, after being stopped multiple times, I reached the southeastern market square.

It was a small square, much smaller than the main market squares, and was made up of permanent shops surrounding the rim of the square, where their shop owners would live above them on the second story; while the square proper was dotted with stalls and kiosks arranged in rows. Some were small and could be taken down in an hour, while others were structures that would be left until the next day.

All around me were Anthros, but it was mostly non-wolves and freed humans here, selling their goods. The whole place buzzed like a beehive of voices and the scent of cooking food and spices lingered about.

I decided to walk along the rim of the market, checking out some of the storefronts until something caught my eye as a good place for a gift.

I soon found a book and manuscript store that was owned by an older looking fox who was sitting at a counter near the front.

“A book! That would make a great gift!" I quickly entered and started searching the rows of books that were stored along the wall of the small space for anything that caught my eye.

“The Wonderful Tales of Reynard Leader of the Foxes" this was a title that jumped out at me. Pulling it out, I saw it was a very nice leather-bound book and not some cheap paper pamphlet pretending to be a book. Opening it up, I found it was illuminated and had hand-drawn illustrations of some of the scenes of the tales. I knew this would be the perfect gift for Elyk! But I worried that I would not be able to buy it, so I asked the owner.

“A hundred claws," I could afford it, but the price was nearly all of my savings.

I decided that I would get it, but I wanted to read it first to make sure it was worth it. So I took a seat on the floor near the back and began to read the first tale. From the introduction I could tell it was written by a fox and was a translation into wolven, but I skipped over most of the introduction which went on about how these tales are handed down accounts of the Successor Wars after the fall of man, stuff which I was well aware of. Finding the start of the first tale, I began to read.

I. How the World was Divided.

When the First Leaders led their assault on the last bastion of humanity, their capital, a truly massive structure, a mountain of metal and crystal of which it looked like it could scrape the very stars! Soldiers of claw and fur stormed the tunnels and platforms of this fortress that the gods gazed down upon and took back their own in an orb of light as bright as the sun. This was how the First Leaders took their place in the sky, a reward for their deeds and triumphs.

Then it came that the First Leaders' lieutenants and friends soon took over the seats of their ascended superiors and conflict then arose over who should lead them all.

“I should lead!" said the brutal wolf, Ysengrim.

“I should lead for I am a wolf and it is the wolves who are the leaders!"

“I object!" yelled, Noble, the lion, before he went on countering Ysengrim words.

“We all looked upon the First Wolf as first among all, not for being a wolf but for being the most able!"

“I, Reynard, am the most clever and should lead!" said the fox.

“Reynard, you are but a bawdy fox, full of tricks and in whose hide dwells demons worse than that of fallen man! I would never submit to the likes of you or your kind!"

“And what about you, Ysengrim? The Ysengrim in whose mind only resides the false image of his own stature and nothing else!"

“Seal your trap, you mangy thing! I was the right hand man of the First Wolf and Alpha!"

“Both of you are wrong! I, Bruin, strongest of all the bears should lead!" said Bruin, interjecting himself as the other leaders started to push their own claims. Soon everyone from Tybalt the cat to Pantecroet the otter were laying claim to leadership with varying success.

It was Noble who, being the most senior of all of them and of whom received more respect, intervened with a compromise. Each shall lead their own kinds in their own realms and when one of them proves themselves as both strong and wise it should be that one who leads all.

“Every year we all shall make a pilgrimage to this spot and celebrate our ascended leaders and then return to the lands of our own to rule until one of us is worthy to wear the mantle of leadership," all of the many parties then agreed and drew out their lands and realms before retiring each to their own tent, where Reynard mounted his human, Cointereau before going off to slumber.

Reynard soon began dreaming of tricks and plots to fool all around him.

“Mounting? What's that?" I thought after finishing the first tale, but I brushed it aside as I was now convinced that this was the perfect gift for Elyk, and so practically dumped out my entire pouch of claws and bought it!

Afterward, I placed the book in my sack, which I brought to carry stuff, before leaving the market towards the gates of the human district.

It was a mix of the poor humans and the more well off humans who had businesses in Lupercal. Walking down narrow roads lined with tall apartments of the poorer humans, each one cramped with countless humans and of whose laundry was now hanging out of the windows. Further down the way were the apartments of the more well-off humans, townhouses and larger apartments that housed single families.

Looking around, I spoted one human I knew, Robert. The teen human was sitting as on a low banister next to a cookery. I met him during one of my excursions to the human sector, I was working as a helper to a shop keeper and Robert was accused of being a thief. I was the only one that was willing to defend him and he did finally prove his innocence to the shop owner.

“Robert!" the redheaded human looked up and spotted me, his face lit up as I ran over to his side.

“Xander! I was not expecting you!" Robert grinned, happy to see me.

“Yeah, I had to go out and do some things," the fellow human patted me on the shoulder.

“Glad to see your master let you out!"

“Come on, my master is not that bad!" the two of us then began to engage in small talk, asking how things were and so on.

“So, how are things in the human sector, Robert?" I asked, eager to hear any news or gossip.

“Things have been strange here, Xander," intrigued, I looked up at Robert.

“Strange? How so?"

“Foxes!"

“Foxes!?" I asked, now really confused. Soon, Robert pointed to a fox who was surrounded by a bunch of humans. It was an odd sight, seeing a non-human in the human sector and one who had a crowd at that.

“Why is he here?" Robert shook his head.

“Don't know. They started coming a while ago and began harping about how good foxes are and about the tales of the trickster fox, Reynard. They say they are just storytellers but they look more like preachers leading a cult," now I was really confused!

“A cult!?"

“Shhh, keep it down! Yes, a cult, or at least they sure as hell look like one! Look how nearly all of the humans around that fox are the poorest of us," looking again, I saw he was right, most of the humans that were hanging on the foxes word were wearing mended clothes and had frazzled hair. More than a few even had mangled or missing limbs, workers who could no longer practice their trade and now begged on the streets for alms.

“What does this mean?"

Robert shrugged, “I dunno, probably just some silly trend that will die out soon."

Despite Robert's cynical words about this “cult," I was not so sure. Many poor humans in the sector were desperate and with desperation came all sorts of crazy things. But this was not the time to talk about this and so I changed the subject.

“Speaking of Reynard, look what I got for Elyk's upcoming birthday," I turned around and retrieved the book and handed it to Robert for him to look at.

“Elyk? He is the fox kid right?" I just nodded my head in confirmation as he opened the book up and began flipping through it.

“Oh, these are the lame version of the tales..." Robert said, rolling his brown eyes as I looked on, confused by what he said.

“What do you mean, lame versions of the tales!?" I countered back, quite insulted by what he said about this gift I spent all my savings on.

“The version of the tales I grew up with, the human versions, are much better! All the Anthros in that are all total jerks! This a fox version and they make Reynard look like some kind of saint!"

“What!?"

“Yep! One tale I remember, this Reynard pissed in the eyes of the pups of Ysengrim, making the blind! I bet this version removes that part or makes it seem like the wolves deserved it!" I never knew that the tales were different according to the race telling them. It made me wonder if the tales were all that true to begin with. As my grandfather would say: “When the history is but a threadbare cloth, others will fill it in with their own spin."

“Ha ha ha!" Robert began to laugh at something he read in the book.

“What!?"

“Soldiers of claw and fur stormed the tunnels and platforms of this fortress that the gods gazed down upon and took back their own in an orb of light as bright as the sun. This was how the First Leaders took their place in the sky, a reward for their deeds and triumphs," he recited a line from the text, chucking the whole time he did so.

“What's so funny about that!?" I said with great annoyance.

“Ascended to heaven! That's what! What a joke! Those dumb animals were blown to smithereens by God! What a load of..." tired of my gift being trashed, I ripped it out of his hands and shoved it into my sack.

“That's it, Robert! I'm leaving!" yelling at him, I turned around in a huff and walked away.

“Aw, come on! Don't be a baby!" I walked away as he laughed the whole time. Sometimes I wondered why I even liked him!

Once I arrived home, I made sure to be on the look out for that fox. I did not want my gift to be spoiled as he would sometimes pull anything new out of my sack as if it belonged to him.

Pulling open the door and seeing the hallway was clear with only the light of the late afternoon pouring through the odd window here and there, I ran up the stairs and reached the bedroom where I quickly deposited the book in my bed.

Then I changed my mind.

“Elyk will look here if he feels like I am hiding something," I thought as I pulled the book out again and started to look for another place to put it.

I finally found a place in the form of the small space under my bed. It barely fit but it worked. I got up just in time to see Elyk come in.

“Iskander! There you are! Where were you?"

“I, uh, just went to the human sector!" I was choking and the fox's senses were picking up on them as clear as day.

“I can smell that you're nervous!"

“Canis damn it! How will I get out of this!?"

“Nervous!? Are you sure your snout isn't broken!?" I knew this was a lame excuse but it was all I could think of.

“Iskander, are you hidi-" the sound of the door of the manor opening rang through the house.

“Master!" I thought. I was saved and ran out of the room as fast as I could.

Running down stairs to find safety away from the fox's questions, I found master having just entered.

“Oh, Iskander, you beat me home! Did you have a fun time?"

“Yes, Master! What happened?" I asked, now forgetting about the gift, and curious about what the Alpha wanted with master.

“I have great news!" the wolf said proudly and full of excitement.

“Tell me!" I asked, dying to know!

“The Alpha asked me to serve as the guardian of the Alpha's first son, Prince Ulric! Meaning he will be staying here with us to learn from me personally!" My face then dropped.

“WHAT!?" Gernan patted my head before speaking again.

“I knew you would be happy!" I was not happy, he misread me completely.

“Great, just great! An imperial six year-old pup! A pup who will probably boss me around! I have enough problems with Elyk!" I thought to myself as I pretended to show a happy face as Gernan looked around all proud.

“Well, I'd better prefect my bowing if he is going to be staying here!"