LEUKAS
Lanthe had made our new home so much lighter and homier than the cold fortress ever was. She had told us then, that the new house on the island would be signify a new start for everyone. New memories, new traditions and a new sense of community within all the wolves of Abattohn. The day after we moved in was marked as the first fruit-picking festival of Abattohn, where Lanthe opened the island to every single pack mate for a day at the orchard of Eden; an orchard which mysteriously grew random and different fruits plentifully every year, and the whole pack spent the day enjoying the gifts from the gods, a tradition that still lived to this very day. While Jason had tackled building the kingdom into the technologically and academically advanced pack it was now, Lanthe had tackled rebuilding the pack bond which had disintegrated years ago and had over time become but a myth. By the time we turned ten, the bond had a healthy glow that tied all of Abattohn together, and it had felt like a golden silk thread of family and solidarity, every lycan from wolf to bird bound by a newer solid foundation. And no longer were we treated like powerful strangers, but also like part of the big family.
As soon as things with the pack had settled down a little, we had really set about decorating the house to our liking. Lanthe had always instilled in us the importance of pack, and she had always told us that despite the fact that the island was a little further from the rest of the pack, it partly belonged to everyone in Abattohn. A lot of events were held at the house; at least two every month excluding the monthly lycan run and the kids’ movie night that took place in our five-hundred seat home movie theater. To make us feel as like the home was more ours in a way, Lanthe had granted us all two of the fifty rooms to make our own havens as she called them. She had chosen two on the first floor and had torn down the wall to make herself a yoga and ballet studio, complete with all the best materials for both activities and a fully stocked minibar. Atlas had already been fascinated with boxing and had turned his two rooms into an impressive, black and red boxing gym which I would now value at about a million dollars, despite the fact that Lanthe hadn’t let him use some of the material until he turned thirteen. I, with Jason’s help, had made for myself a three-million-dollar laboratory, the laboratory where my current empire was born. I had also been chaperoned for the first three years after it was built, but I hadn’t minded that much because I wouldn’t change everything I’d learnt from my mentors for anything. Amethyste had also been extended the same courtesy when she turned had turned eleven and she had made herself a magnificent art studio.
Jason had turned his space into a mini hangout area with sleek couches, a huge screen television, a small wine cellar, a pool table, a PC system, and best of all, his sleek, in-home tattoo and piercing parlor. We called the place ‘the hangout’ because despite our different room choices, we could all agree that Jason’s was the best and we always begged him to let us hang in there. It was by far the coolest room. His ‘haven’ was the least used since he barely had anytime to hang out and all but one of his friend, his right hand man Jared, were scattered throughout Azzuire. I had always wondered about his tattoo parlor though. I had no idea why he needed it since he didn’t actually tattoo anyone but Lanthe and I hadn't thought that warranted a whole setup. I was fifteen and on the brink of death, my darkened soul bleeding out of me through my eyes and my ears and my mouth when Jadon first laid me down on the familiar but also unfamiliar leather chair. I had never seen such fear and panic in Jason's eyes. He had always been my indestructible dad, my hero, the Alpha of the Abattohn pack and the Prime. The fear in his eyes was as unfamiliar to me as the chair, as the feeling of my life seeping out of my body and as the coldness of death which I felt seep into my bones where my soul was bleeding out. I remember how his hands shook when the needle first pierced my skin. And I remember myself greedily clinging onto the life that he tattooed onto my skin.
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The ‘hangout' was just as I remembered and I had no idea whether to smile about the times Atlas and I spent trying to defeat Jason in ‘Ubber Racin' or to cry about the fact that the walls were once covered with my blood and had witnessed the death of my God-given soul. Jason's hand on my shoulder pulled me away from thoughts, and by the look on his face, he still struggled with the same things. We stared at each other silently for a while before he patted my back and went for his tools.
“Let’s renew your sigil.” He said as he gathered his tools and I nodded, pulling my shirt over my head and lying down on the long adjustable chair. Even though he couldn’t draw on paper, when it came to marking the skin Jason’s skills were rivaled by few.
Lanthe had made our new home so much lighter and homier than the cold fortress ever was. She had told us then, that the new house on the island would be signify a new start for everyone. New memories, new traditions and a new sense of community within all the wolves of Abattohn. The day after we moved in was marked as the first fruit-picking festival of Abattohn, where Lanthe opened the island to every single pack mate for a day at the orchard of Eden; an orchard which mysteriously grew random and different fruits plentifully every year, and the whole pack spent the day enjoying the gifts from the gods, a tradition that still lived to this very day. While Jason had tackled building the kingdom into the technologically and academically advanced pack it was now, Lanthe had tackled rebuilding the pack bond which had disintegrated years ago and had over time become but a myth. By the time we turned ten, the bond had a healthy glow that tied all of Abattohn together, and it had felt like a golden silk thread of family and solidarity, every lycan from wolf to bird bound by a newer solid foundation. And no longer were we treated like powerful strangers, but also like part of the big family.