The next thing we hear is a knock on the wall; the knocker appears to be Kane Redclaw, one of Grandfather's least trusted, once-was allies. Only the two of them - and possibly my parents and uncles - know why that is.

'Gildren, there are entire troops, possibly 4 or 5 of them out there, waiting to chop off our heads! We have to do something-'

'I will guide my people into war when I see it fit, Redclaw...' Grandfather leers at him before Grandmother pulls on the sleeve of his tunic and whispers something im his ear, causing him to back off. 'For the sake of my wife's opinion, I won't kill you, as I had originally planned. It also doesn't seem very fitting at the moment.'

All of a sudden, we hear a carriage pull up in front of the nook 'Just drop me off here' a voice says. Another knock is heard on the wall and it opens willingly, revealing... my father? I wonder what he could be doing here... and why he's just now deciding to care about me....

My father, Alexander Jamie Longclaw (known as Alex Longfellow to every human who breathes the air within diameter of him) and my mother, Alyssa Longclaw (nee Samson, and again known by humans as 'Longfellow') abandoned me when I was 3 months old; maybe it was because I was too small, or some other confounded reason.

When he tries to embrace me, I back away and sneer 'You care? You left me soon after birth; I was just a pup, and you cast me out! Now see that I, your son, have become an Alpha!' Suddenly, a flashback bombards the crevices of my mind:

Gildren Longclaw, a tiny wolf pup, slowly pushes his way through the cold December snow. He knows his parents aren't looking for him; what do they care? His father, the Alpha male of the Juneau Pack, and his mother, the Alpha female, just left him to die.

After walking for many a mile, he finds a house with lights in the windows. As soon as he is on the porch, the strides up to the door and scratches a few times. A minute or so later, a kind man, presumably in his thirties, opens it and picks the young wolf up, wrapping him up in a fleece blanket, soft and warm against the cub's cold fur.

Gildren lifts his weary little head with all the strength he has left and licks the man's face thoroughly. The man brings him in from the cold and, placing him by a warm fire, says 'Rest well, young pup. I'll tell my wife to bring you food.'

The cub hears the man whisper 'Eleanor, I've brought in a young wolf pup from the cold; he did not try to hurt me, but he did seem rather hungry; would you mind bringing him food?'

'Where is he, Mark?'

'By the fire, love. He needs to warm up.'

After my meal of elk meat and cream, which the woman of the house placed in front of me, I fell asleep beside the fire.

I pull out of the flashback when Grandfather says 'Gildren, I asked you a question! Damn well answer me when I speak to you!'

'What was your question, Grandfather?'

'My question was, why did you express such disrespect for my son?'

'Oh, let's see; he abandoned me and left me to fend for myself, never called, never wrote... he doesn't even visit me now!' Grandfather gasps at the news. 'Alexander, you know that abandonment of kin is illegal in this world; you know it goes against rule 314! Had we known you were going to abandon Gildren, your mother and I would have adopted him ourselves!'

'Father-' he begins, before being cut off by my grandfather.'To bed, Alexander; sans dinner...'

'I can't even get a word in with you!' Then my father does something none of us expect - he whips out a bottle of red liquid and, removing the cork that stops it, drinks half of the contents, afterwards falling to the ground in a shaking fit.

Grandmother swoops down and flips him onto his back, then strokes his face muttering 'Don't worry, baby; Mummy's here... Mummy loves you so...' Once the shaking stops, he opens his eyes, that lovely, yet menacing shade of - brown?

I could swear his eyes were green before... Perhaps whatever he drank altered his DNA somehow...