A Pine in the Wind

The fire was warm, but the cold eyes of the council pierced him like biting winds of winter. Jolayne did not want to be here. He hunched his shoulders and lowered his ears in respect and humility, anxious over the secret he had revealed. If anyone could help, the elders could, but their cold stares around the dancing flames shook his resolve.
The gray-coated Amaya addressed him. “All in the colony had high hopes for you, but the ways of our people are clear on how shifters will be treated. Jolayne, you will-” She choked on her words, and whined as she looked away.
Rahg raised his head and spoke. “Your potential in any clan is dismissed. You may stay with the colony, or you may leave. The choice is yours.”
Rahg was oversimplifying the issue. Leaving the colony would be abandoning their way of life for his own. That was the Coyote way. Staying would force him into the Omega clan, little more than a slave. In either case they would see him with contempt.
“So, I must choose between exile and shame, because of my ability to take wolf form.”
Rahg growled a warning.
Quure raised his nose in the air. “Taking human or wolf form does not matter, only that you can. You are unhinged in your existence, and therefore deficient in the Earthlife.”
“Yet he was born one of us, not bitten.” Shaman’s voice was low, resolute.
“Save us your need for argument, Shaman. As Amaya said, the way is clear.”
Amaya stood on all fours. “Need you be so cold, Quure? Jolayne has been a pillar in our colony, he does not deserve this fate. Do you feel nothing?”
Quure stood and faced her. “I feel betrayed! Shifters are treacherous – they become something they are not. Now our most promising student has revealed he is a shifter. You say he does not deserve this fate? He can deceive all whom he meets with his appearance! He is as untrustworthy as the rest.”
“Then why does he bring this before us, of his own accord?”
Quure turned to Shaman. “Fear.”
Shaman met Quure’s amber eyes. “Sometimes it is better to let the fish escape than lose your fangs in holding it.”
“Enough.” Gorra, who had been so quiet Jolayne forgot her presence, finally spoke. “You make your point with your usual eloquence, Shaman. Jolayne shows great integrity revealing this to us, but he must still choose.” She turned to Jolayne. “Will you be placed with the Omegas, or will you follow your own way?”
Jolayne could not meet her eyes. Banishment or subjugation – neither held any future compared to his potential moments ago. Apparently, Amaya realized his thoughts.
“Your brow weighs heavy, Jolayne. We understand. Consider your choice, but do not take long. You must make your choice in the light of this fire, before we return to the Colony.”
Most of the elders left the firelight, but Shaman stayed, eyes dark brown in a mask of faded gray fur. “You meet your demons with resilience.”
Jolayne hunched. “I face my doom. Does it matter how I face it?”
Shaman nodded. “If you were about to die, perhaps not. But you are going to live, and as you live, you make a difference for everyone around you.”
Jolane lowered his ears, and his head. “I do not understand.”
“You have met every clan’s skill with great aptitude. You face every trial successfully. No one denies your potential. You will be Alpha.”
Jolayne looked back at his mentor, shock running through him. “I know what it means to be our kind. We tend the Earthlife, we make the best of wolf and man our own, and we hold our pack above ourselves. I will not leave the colony merely to be Alpha of my own pack. That is the Coyote way, and I will not be Coyote.”
“Then do not be Coyote.” Shaman smiled, and narrowed his human-like eyes at Jolayne. “Be the leader you are.”
Something hid in those words.
Finally Jolayne caught the old one’s point. He yipped twice, followed by a short howl, calling the elders back to the firelight.
“You have made your choice?” Quure asked.
Jolayne took a deep breath. “I will not leave the Colony. I will follow our ways and join the Omega clan. I will progress with my abilities and become their Alpha.”
Many of the elders stood on all fours and growled.
“There is no Alpha for the Omegas!”
“But there is an Alpha for every other clan. Why not Omega?”
Quure bared his fangs. “You shifters cannot be trusted! You-”
All of a sudden Jolayne stood upright on his hind legs and roared at Quure, then snarled his presence at all of them. The elders instinctively froze as he dropped to all fours and spoke.
“Our way says an Alpha leads each clan. Nothing says the Omega clan is apart from that. You know my abilities. You know my potential. I will be Alpha – if not by title, then by heart; if not with your blessing, than solely with that of my fellow Omegas.” He scanned the lupine eyes of the elders.
Shaman smiled. “The teachers guide the student when appropriate, but the student will guide the teachers when necessary.”
Quure rolled his amber eyes and whined.
Amaya cocked her head, assessing Jolayne. “You sway but you do not falter… like a pine in the wind.”
Rahg yipped. “You are indeed a force to be reckoned with. But you will still be Omega, and you will still be treated as such.”
Jolayne bowed his head. “It is what I am.”
Rahg, Amaya, and Gorra crossed their paws in acceptance, and even Quure agreed. Jolayne then took his place in the Omega clan, but was soon leading them as they had never been led before.

                                       The End.