The War

She thinks I'm prey? I thought these wolves only ate meat. Joshua was both scared and confused at the same time.

"Marrow's food." Silver retorted playfully.

Florence tried to pull Silver off. "Can you please not eat my friend? He's only a child."

Dark knew she was only joking.

Joshua didn't.

Silver licked his face. "Shame, picked clean."

Florence could only imagine the horror that Joshua was feeling.

Bronze had had enough and tackled Silver off of Joshua. "Can't you see he doesn't like it? That's not how humans play!" Dark helped him up.

Joshua was grateful to Bronze. He thought for sure he was going to die back there.

"She was only teasing. That's how wolves play and make friends." Dark explained.

"That's horrible." Joshua said. He wasn't sure why anyone would want to be friends with someone who acted like that.

"It's a ritual thing, for newcomers." Dark looked at him sympathetically. "I hated it too."

Joshua was glad that he wasn't the only one.

Dark patted his back. "Not that bad."

Joshua suddenly realized that Florence had called him a child.

The wolves ran away.

Florence wondered where they were going.

Home.

Florence didn't know that wolves had homes.

They did. Dark listened to the sounds of the forest.

Joshua took this moment to confront Florence.

Dark turned around.

Joshua tried to keep his voice down. He wasn't exactly mad, though he was rather upset.

Dark could still hear them.

After a short rant Florence finally apologized, though he still didn't get what the big deal was. Joshua tried to explain that as the top Reaper he couldn't have people thinking of him as a little kid.