Splat. The birds watched the scene unfold. They watched with curiosity – albeit masked. Beady eyes did not speak of judgment, but only that the creature below them was mildly interesting. It was cold and wet in this place, and the beast was the only entertainment for miles. Squish. Politics of wolves was not concerning to the birds. They were dangerous, smelly things. Warring and violent. They were not worth the trouble from birds, and were just barely worth the carrion they offered. Barely. But this one wolf had nothing for the birds. But they still watched with entertainment veiled by disgust. Squish. Splat.
The boy let out another howl of laughter as another splatter of mud licked at his once-fiery limbs. Wet earth clung in cakes at his long fur. It streaked deep brown up and down his limbs, decorated him like camouflage. Antioch Galvanisé was a boy like any other. He wanted nothing from this world except the extraneous simplicities. It was something the birds that sat around him, hidden in the brambles, could never comprehend. The feeling of mud was quite extraordinary to the boy. The feeling of the mud that squished between his toes. The cool water that chilled his blazing skin. Frost swirled into the air around his parted jowls. Pearly white canines were a stark contrast to the earthy brown that coated his face and body.
Bright eyes watched the brambles that surrounded him. Fallen over themselves like lilted dancers, weighted down by ice and water. It was the solitude that gave him happiness. He had skirted the packs and other wolves in these strange lands. He had had no desire to join another pack. Bitter feelings still swirled a foul elixir deep in his belly, distilled there by memories and the actions of others. Antioch could stay in the silence of these fields of blackberries until he died. Freedom was a wondrous, splendid thing. Packs meant fighting and politics. They meant aging and adulthood and awful things.
The boy slammed himself once more into the sopping puddle of wet earth. His shoulder blade dug up ever more mud. It poured down across the top of his back, lines of water strung little brown rivulets down his sides. He marked himself as a loner in this way. Alone in the brambles, he declared himself his own. No other could stake a claim to his sovereignty, nor mark him as property. He would fight for no causes, fight for no packs. It was he, and he alone.