Dark Angle

Hey! Welcome to my newest story! I don't exactly know how long this story will end up being, but it will probably be around 8 to 10 chapters, or whenever I feel that it needs to end.

So, before we get started, I must add that I recently borrowed this amazing collection of Japanese poems from my local library. The book is called Little Pictures of Japan. The simple sounds and words of the poems caught my eye, and inspired me to write a story including some of them! I DO NOT CLAIM RIGHTS TO ANY OF THE POEMS USED IN THIS STORY. All of them simply inspired me, and I will list all of the authors respectively.

So, without further ado, here is my new story, "Dark Angle"!

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Dark Angle
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Prelude -- A Broken Kinship

A great, muscled beast sat below a dogwood in bloom; his head titled upward to view the white, waxy flowers that weighed down the branches. His brow furrowed above the pair of light yellow eyes as he gazed at the tree -- a look of near annoyance on his face. The wolf titled his ear backwards as a branch crunched from somewhere behind him, his gaze wavering slightly from the blossoms.

"Months and days I've wasted
Doing some useless thing, -
How few the hours that have been well spent
Viewing the flowers in spring."

The brute rolled his eyes as the old rhyme was sung from behind him, the light voice growing a bit louder as the singer drew closer.
"Is it not true for you, brother?" Said the other canine as she strode up to stand beside him, smiling fondly as she followed his gaze. The shade of her eyes were a bit darker than his -a honey color- and her pelt had more timber and rusty tints than his mostly-grey and black toned coat.

The first beast swiftly rose to his paws, his stone glare locked onto his sister.
"I told you earlier that I do not wish for company," he grumbled harshly, looking away and lifting his lip to show his fangs: But the female only sighed, her smile losing it's warmth.

"Brother," she began, the look in her eyes sad and stern, "I do not wish to bother you, but-"

"Willow! I said I do not wish to be in company! Now, I would like it if you did not pretend to be deaf!" He snapped, interuppting her. His hackles rose as his head whipped toward her, ears high and fire in his eyes.

The female lowered her ears, hurt by his tone. He had not ever spoken to her in that manner, and it gave her a falling feeling, as if an invisible boundary of kinship had been broken.

He turned silently and strode away, not looking back. Not wanting to watch him leave, the female instead focused on lovely flowers hanging off the scrawny branches above her head.
Once his footsteps had faded into the forest beyond, the sister muttered sadly;

"A sword!-
Why should one bring such a thing,
Who comes to view the flowers in spring?"

Her head tilted upwards, the female watched as the blossoms waved and fell, and remembered a time when her brother would have loathed a wolf like the one that he had become.

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1'st poem: "Hours Well Spent" by Fuijiwara no Okikaze (about 910 A.D.)
2'ed poem: "No Place for the Sword" by Kyorai (1,651 - 1,704)
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