Every so busy, dashing across the lands.

That was Morpheus’ life, all-consuming, and if he was glad for anything, it was that the migration of spirits had ended with the great bear’s death. Otherwise, he might well have run himself ragged – though in truth a godly body could never fully succumb to exhaustion. But the same could not be said of his mind, and mental weariness was a silent killer.

But he appreciated this new creature’s arrival. She came under the cover of darkness, a tapestry of stars painting the ground visible beneath his paws. They also gleamed and glimmered, their light snagging in his coat, rendering him almost a beacon in the quiet of night.

He liked it. There was something comforting about the night – and it extended beyond his dreamy domain.

And yet, for all that security cloaked him, it took only a single glance, a wide-eyed recognition, for it to be stripped from him.

No. His jaws clamped tight on the word, unwilling to release it unto the world. And yet as he drew closer, head down, he worked to summon some sense of joy to his face. For he knew that he was a grown wolf, a grown male, blazing bright horns and eyes a shining blue. And she was a pup and without her family and – he drew a deep breath, sorting the scents that flushed his body with growing desperation – she was alone. The oldest scent that clung to her was old, older than a day – and he could only thank the realm that she was obviously weaned.

And yet as he drew closer so too did another – one he had missed on first inspection, too focused on his newest charge. This secondary wolf was an adult, female, blonde – and he might have thought her a relative, a pack member, anything to prove the pup had not been alone, and yet…

And yet she spoke, and marked herself as stranger in a few words.

He broke into a trot, great head lifting, tail rising up as a sense of dominance instilled itself within him. He was not one to distrust newcomers – after all, strangers were all he knew. But that another wolf had approached his charge – a wolf that he had yet been able to vet, unable to discern her purpose and why she might approach a pup – and even as the thoughts came to him, he also had to admit she might be as Pepper was, kind and helpful and therefore the exact wolf a young pup like this needed.

He certainly couldn’t take the small creature into the god realm with him, but neither could he expect her to keep up as he moved between his charges.

So, as he drew close enough that he did not have to shout, he said softly, “Greetings,” politeness dampening whatever edge might have clung to his voice. He acknowledged the older female first, blue eyes sizing her up yet again, before he turned toward the child, head dipping down so that he was at a closer level to her.

He regarded her, crystalline blue eyes boring into her murky green – trying to discern from her depths how best he might go about this introduction, this meeting. There was always something of a snag, he thought, when he was forced to confront multiple wolves.

And, he thought, it was made all the worse when one of those two was not his.

“You are both newcomers to this land?” he asked. He knew the pup was; the blonde was another matter. She might belong to one of the other Guides. But he had to know what she knew, before he began to impart his knowledge.