prophesied wanderings

[her_imperial_radiance]

Time passes. Well before Zeus's thirteenth birthday, he looks human-25, and then he stops, and Harley catches up; Zeus is still taller, but not by much, and burlier, but not by much.

Wolves have a lot of casual sex amongst themselves; the girl wolves can't get pregnant, and with pack telepathy it would be pretty hard to hide a secret crush. Everyone avoids getting serious - well, the lesbians don't, but any couple involving a male wolf has to avoid deep emotional entanglements that would shatter if he imprinted; the Imperial Seer helps, but she is not perfect and they will live for long enough that even a slim chance adds up. But casual sex absolutely happens. Zeus has a friend with benefits by the time he's fifteen (her name is Kitty, but she thinks this is ridiculous, and prefers "Xanthe" after her yellow fur).

He helpfully passes on to the pack that Harley thinks they are all hot; several people take advantage of this information, and Harley has more than one friend with benefits at the age of fifteen.

(Meanwhile, the masquerade is in tatters; wolves are just more convenient than looking for human partners, at least until Zeus decides he's interested in the Seer finding him a suitable imprint.)

This newfound interest does not mean Zeus and Harley don't hang out, even now that they're both sixteen. Presently, Harley is getting his ass handed to him by his wolf-reflexed sparring partner at a mo-cap fighting video game entitled Bloodsport V.

Comments

[pythbox]

Time passes some more.

Harley reads a book. This is not unusual; Harley frequently reads books. He likes this one. It's old sci-fi, and one of the main characters calls herself Aenea, which sounds amusingly similar to his second name. She has a trick where she can move from one place to another without passing through the space in between; it's very evocatively described, in terms of poetry he hasn't read but now kind of wants to. This trick is called freecasting.

One night, he is falling asleep thinking about the book. He imagines the way it might feel, to cut loose from your surroundings and recenter yourself somewhere different. It must be just—like—

He vanishes right out of Zeus's arms.

[alicornucopia]

"Harley."



"Harley?"



[HARLEY!]






By the time Zeus thinks to try contacting the Princess he's a gibbering wreck, arms wrapped around and face buried in Harley's pillow, because something has to have happened, Harley was just - they were cuddling, Harley does not abandon cuddles without so much as a word -

[her_imperial_radiance]

The Princess, much to her dismay, knows what happened.

"Did he ever tell you about what Glass said, when he was a baby?" she asks softly. "That he would one day wander off somewhere and there was nothing I could do."

[alicornucopia]

"You should've done something anyway!" cries Zeus.

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Done what? I couldn't predict where he was going to go, or how, let alone stop him. But," she says, "I think he will be back, eventually." She sighs. "When I was gone and no one knew how long I'd be gone -"

[alicornucopia]

"Yeah," breathes Zeus, "yeah, I remember hearing about that, please - just - I'll sleep. Can - it doesn't matter but -"

[her_imperial_radiance]

"You can stay here," agrees Elspeth quietly.

[alicornucopia]

Zeus hugs Harley's pillow.

He tucks himself under Harley's blankets.

He closes his eyes and he shivers and he lets the Princess send him unconscious for goodness only knows how long.

[her_imperial_radiance]

Elspeth watches him for a moment, then goes next door to tell Bartholomew and Demeter, and then to Jaipur to tell the Golden Coven.