Blacktalon, the Guild of Merry Mongrels (fanfiction!)

The prologue and chapter 1 are up, so glad I came up with this idea. Gave Feros Ferio credit for the prologue. The things said in the prologue can be found in the board What is the Guild of Merry Mongrels?
Enjoy! ^^


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What is the Guild of Merry Mongrels?
Well that’s a good question, let me answer that question right away.

Now, it's impossible to say what's true and what's not about the Blacktalons, seeing as most of 'em that know ain't talking about it. Some say the first batch of 'em came out of the ground like a whole new species, full grown warriors with more metal than blood flowing through them. Others say they're crooks, running from justice and trying to make up for what they done in the past.

But here's what I figure it was, and trust me, I got a reliable source: Long time ago, they were just a regular pack. Had a good alpha, who took a pretty she-wolf as an alphess. Good life, good territory, and growing numbers. Well, not long after the alphas took power, something awful happened in their pack lands. I don't know if there was a fire, or a war, or some other unspeakable horror, but a lot of them wolves died, including the young alpha. It was up to his young bride to lead the wolves, and she took them clean out of the territory. The lady alphess had them go through what was known as the tar lands, since it was the safest route, but when they got to the other side they all had feet black as pitch. That's how folks say they got their nickname, the Blacktalons.

Now, there were packs around them, good strong ones that could've helped them out, rather than watch 'em go, but they stayed home and let the pack suffer. The lady alphess thought about revenge, but bless her heart she was tired of the suffering. So, she made all her pack mates swear to do only good from now on, help wolves in need, and try to keep packs from suffering like theirs did. Of course, they all swore it.

Having no place to go, the pack began to wander the lands, helping out their brethren and having a merry time. However, the alphess was unhappy. Her love was dead, her pack in ruins, and her health deteriorating. She didn't eat, hardly slept, and seemed to be losing her mind. Finally, one night she called the wolves together, and made them take the Blacktalon Oath, which is still sworn by the wolves to this day. Having done so, she said she was going to bed, but instead she fled the pack and ain't been seen since.

Well, the wolves talked it over, and decided she was a good alphess who they couldn't replace. They decided to await her return, and said they wouldn't take no alpha until then. At that time they started calling themselves the Guild, and continued to follow their oath to defend and do good in the world.

Like I said, I don't know how much truth there is in all that, but it sure makes a pretty story to tell the younglings.

Also, Before joining the Guild of Merry Mongrels, all prospective members of all ages must swear the Blacktalon Oath. It is the same oath that the original members swore to their alphess before she disappeared.
‘’I am a light in dark times. I am justice in a world that is cruel. I come with honor at my side, and my brothers and sisters behind me. I am a Guild wolf, and my craft is chivalry. I live and die by my promise to my kin, those who have taken the oath before me, and those who shall take it after me. My paws may be white or brown or grey, but in my heart my talons shall always be black. My home is wherever my brothers and sisters go, and shall be so until my journey comes to an end. This I solemnly swear.’’

"Feros Ferio" is the motto, password, and greeting of the Guild, all mixed into one. When they were a pack rather than a guild, their young Alpha often used this as a motto, as his father before him. No one knows how or why this came to be, but it went back several generations. When he met the young female who became his alphess, she not only translated the phrase, but had a response to it as well. He immediately took this bright and beautiful female as his mate.

After fleeing their homeland and following the impassioned final speech of the alphess, she told them to take these words as their own. Since her mate's family line had ended with him (he died before having any pups) his fighting spirit would live through his pack.

Feros Ferio means literally, ‘’I am Fierce with the Fierce’’ and is a phrase used often amongst the Blacktalon wolves, particularly after discussions of duty, or as a rallying cry when faced with a particularly dangerous or arduous task. Typically, this benediction is answered Corpus, Mentem, Spiritus, which translates to "Body, Mind, Spirit," a response that reminds the wolves that ferocity is an all-over attribute.

‘’Feros Ferio’’ is used mostly amongst the older wolves, but its exotic sound appeals to the youth as well now, who may not know its origin but like the way it lifts the spirits.

The dark shape of a black body ran past the trees, running up hill, downhill, going around the corner and jumping over fallen trees. It was a young black male, a wolf, just yet an adult. He had been on his own ever since a pack had taken him in, from which he had thought it would have been family of his.
But they had lied and the wolf had to flee from them. Now he was on his own, already for several months. This male was known as Mikazaru, a son of Meesha and Kairo, two elite wolves who were known as the most arrogant and most frightening. Just like his parents, Mikazaru’s siblings acted like true elites. But Mikazaru not.
He was a shy lad, laid back and often very much on his own, though he liked some company now and then. This had been different in the past, but he had changed long ago. Still, Mikazaru always kept in the back of his mind that he was an elite, and he would never forget that.
He was a coward, but one day he would die, giving his life to protect someone he cared for, and then he would be a true elite. That was his goal, even though he was scared of pain and fighting.

The male was getting really tired of his journey, and wondered where he could crash to take some rest. He stopped for a moment and smelled the air, smelling a pack of wolves nearby.
He immediately felt nervous, as he hadn’t planned to cross a territory just now. but still, this might be his only chance to finally find a good home, a home he hopefully could stay with forever, until the day he had to die as an elite. It was now or (maybe) never.
The scent of wolves was close, so Mikazaru laid on his belly and crawled up to a few bushes. He heard conversations; just now he realized how close they were. It made him feel even more nervous. He swallowed; he knew he had to do this, there was no other choice.
He peeked his head through the bushes, looking straight in an area full of wolves, all talking and discussing. There was something said about going for a hunt, but Mikazaru couldn’t hear them well. He was scared and shook all over his body. This wasn’t going to work, he had to give up and turn around before they would see him.
‘’No!’’, Mikazaru thought to himself and he pushed himself forward, out of the bushes. ‘’I have to do this!’’
He took a deep breath and entered the clearing, trying to look as proud as possible; chest forward, head lifted, his eyes at the wolves. But the further he walked, the more his ‘steady’ look dropped, and he slowly became a scared shy wolf again.
He stopped and looked at the wolves for a moment. The pack didn’t feel like a real pack, more like a meeting place for loner wolves to chat. There didn’t even seem to be any leaders. He took another deep breath and spoke to all the wolves in general, hoping someone would respond to him.
‘’H-hello… I’m sorry for intruding…’’, he mumbled, his voice cracking and his body shivering.
A female looked at him, she seemed to be a timber wolf and around Mikazaru’s age. She had light rusty brown colored fur. A darker brown stripe ran down her back, to the tip of her tail. her ears were slightly darker brown than the brown stripe on her back and her underbelly and chest were a creamy-tan color. Also her muzzle, cheeks and underneath her tail there was this creamy-tan color, and her eyes were a limeish-green color. She had long limbs, which made her look sort of taller.
‘’Hello, what’s your name? do you have any business here?’’, she asked and Mikazaru swallowed again, not knowing what to say. He took another step forward, hoping she wasn’t going to snap at him or anything, but soon he took that same step back. he sat down, trying to calm himself down for a bit. He realized the female had some sort of slight accent he couldn’t recall, but he decided not to keep himself busy with that too much
‘’I’m… Mikazaru. But everybody calls me Mika, mostly.’’, he mumbled. After that he didn’t know what else to say, as the female seemed to stare at him, like she waited for him to keep on going this (to him) rather awkward conversation. ‘’Big pack… What's your name…?’’
‘’My name's Aderyn, but you can call me Addy if it's too hard to pronounce or anything. And this,’’, she looked at another wolf next to her, who Mikazaru only just had noticed. It almost made him jump up out of fear, but he managed to keep sitting down, taking a good look at the female as the female called Aderyn spoke about her. ‘’is Afanen. But I call her Affy.’’
Afanen looked pretty much like Aderyn, but had darker colors. Mikazaru guessed these two were family, probably sisters, as they looked so much alike. ‘’By the way, we’re not exactly a pack… It’s hard to explain.’’
‘’Oh.’’, Mikazaru mumbled, but for the rest of the minute he kept his mouth shut.
‘’So, why are you here? Are you just passing through?’’, Aderyn asked and Mikazaru felt like he could smash himself right into his face with his paw. He knew he was looking for a pack, but he didn’t know how to answer this question of hers. How would he say it without her chasing him off or anything? Well, not that he really thought she was going to chase him off.
But after all, Mikazaru was known in his birth pack as the Capricorn; he would feel lonely at times, but he could cope with it. He didn’t mind if this ‘pack’ didn’t call him their family right away. He would be able to cope with having no friends. It was the company of other wolves he cared for the most.
‘’I… I’m looking for a home, a family to join.’’, he said, and realized they would accept him quicker if he would tell them what he was capable of. So he added some more information to his introduction. ‘’I’m pretty good at sneaking up on prey, you could use me for that. I can also swim. Not that well, or for long, but I can swim.’’
‘’Well look no further, Mika! You'll have to talk to the Meisters first of course though! They're over in the hunting grounds.’’
‘’So I gotta speak to the Meisters first? Where can I find the hunting grounds?’’, Mikazaru asked and Aderyn smiled at him.
‘’We were just about to go there. The Guild were actually going to do some hunting until we met Chance, Chase and Blake here.’’, she said and Mikazaru followed her gaze at the three new wolves who had already came to this area before him. The three looked much alike. European wolves to be sure, and probably three brothers as well.
Light, rusty brown colored coats, but one’s fur color looked slightly lighter, and the other one’s looked the darkest. The one with the darkest fur even had blue eyes. This way Mikazaru could easily remember him. he tried to remember their names for if he was ever going to talk to them in the nearby future.
‘’We’re not all that different from a normal pack really.’’ Aderyn suddenly spoke, grabbing Mikazaru’s attention again. The male looked up at her, wondering what else she was going to say. ‘’We of course look after each other and hunt in very much normal pack ways. However, we don’t stay in one place; we travel around a bit and help out packs that need help, I think that’s pretty much it. I’m not very good at explaining this.’’
Mikazaru nodded at all of this. He kept his mouth shut, and only listened, as Aderyn seemed to have more to tell him about this so called Guild. ‘’ Our ranking system has the Lehrling who are the new members and are still getting to grips with how the Guild works. After this rank there are the Geselle, me and Affy are in that rank, we are one rank yet what we do depends on our abilities, for example, I’m pretty fast so I’m really suited for doing chasing prey while my little sister; Razzy, being the know-it-all she is, is suited for knowing herbs and healing. The Meisters who have the highest rank, they aren’t particularly leaders but we’re the closest thing we have to leaders.’’
Mikazaru blinked confusedly. He tried to process anything in his mind Aderyn had just told him, but that was pretty hard. It was a lot of information at once, after all. Aderyn seemed to notice his confusion and laughed slightly. ‘’I’ve all just confused you now, haven’t I?’’, she asked, answering the look on Mikazaru’s face. ‘’Claudius and Agro will probably explain how the Guild works better than I ever will be able to.’’
Aderyn then turned around, looking at Mikazaru as her sister Afanen stepped next to her. She smiled at him, wagging her tail, like she was inviting the black male. ‘’Well, let’s go! We don’t want to miss the hunt!’’
She then started to move and suddenly ran after that, her sister Afanen, who seemed to be a quiet wolf, followed her. Just when those two females moved, the three males called Chance, Chase and Chaim started to move as well. They all seemed to follow a white male. Mikazaru wasn’t sure if he had heard his name around, but he was too scared to ask. was this one of the Meisters Aderyn had told him about?
Mikazaru smiled, he wondered if a pack was a great thing for him after all. he had been quite scared of packs, especially to join them. But this one, called the Guild, seemed pretty fine to him. he couldn’t wait to help these wolves with their hunt, as they moved to the hunting grounds which were known as the Azalea Downs.