I played around with this idea a little over a year ago when AI Chat bots were all the rage on the forum. It was silly, but a good place to gather ideas and concepts and create characters. With some help from Vaeri during character creation, this is the Wolfrider tribe that existed during the hidden years.
Choices
Cutter stood on the edge of a cliff overlooking the waters of the vast deep. Rolling waves came crashing into the rocks at the cliff’s edge, slowly shaping them day by day into something new, something smaller. Cutter felt like those rocks. The pain of losing his family crashing into him, repeatedly. One would have thought that so many hundreds of years would have made him numb.
“Father.”
A voice spoke behind him, calling through the waves of his thoughts. As much as he tried not to, in this moment all he could imagine was his twin cubs calling for him. The weight of his years apart from them resting on his shoulders.
“My chief, you called for me?”
This pulled Cutter from his thoughts, and he turned to see his youngest daughter, now far older than both Suntop and Ember as he remembered them. She looked so much like her mother Foxfur in facial features and her hair was a darker version of Cutter’s own, but her eyes for which she was named were her own. Two bright fire filled eye’s that sparkled in any light they caught. In truth there was very little about her, outside of her cubhood, that would have reminded Cutter of his lost family.
“Fire-eye, I have made a decision that goes against the way. I want you to lead the Wolfriders in my stead.”
***
What in another set of circumstances would have been an easy decision for the blended tribe, was now a difficult one. Cutter Kinseeker, Blood of ten Chiefs had decided that he was better suited to wait for his lost kin, his family, by sleeping in wrap-stuff. “Howl for me and forget!” He told them. In his place Fire-eye, Blood of Eleven Chiefs would be chief of the Wolfriders.
A tribe that would have followed Cutter anywhere, was confronted with the way. A new chief that would live as they had always lived and eventually die as they had always died.
Venka spoke, “Forget? No! You shan’t sleep alone. I must honor a promise… to my mother.”
Along with Venka, what remained of Cutter’s heart circle; Redlance, Nightfall, and Foxfur surrounded him. Their desire was clear. To see the circle once again made whole.
***
Perch, the son of Treestump and Clearbrook rested as high as he could on the tallest branches of their tree home. The canopy of trees stretched out around him and the stars above him, but his eyes looked farther and wider, seeking to catch a glimpse of the wide world below.
“I’m not climbing any higher.” Goldsap said, from his more comfortable spot below. Few would have dared to meet Perch at this height. He seemed to have a sixth sense for finding the safest branches at this height. Goldsap, Tyleet's younger brother, was far more comfortable on the ground, tracking animals with Lirah, the Sunfolk hunter or with Tala the Go-Back. Young as he was, he had somehow charmed them both.
*You’re missing the view,* silver haired Perch sent, pictures passing between the two male elves. This was their home, both of them conceived and born in this new land. They did not, could not, understand the internal conflict that came with the decision their tribe, their family, had to make.
***
Tyleet walked with Venka in the dark night. Their choice of walking on the ground dictating that their conversation be sent. *Mother and Father… I don’t wish to be parted from them, but you as well my friend. You are my age mate.* Though other children had been born to the tribe, they were all at least 200 years younger than Tyleet and Venka.
Venka’s took Tyleet's hand in her own, *Then don’t be parted from us. From me.*
Tyleet smiled at Venka and embraced her.
***
“You would choose your sister over us.”
Skot was not trying to be mean, but his words came out harsh and filled with hurt all the same. Krim looked like she wanted to smack him, but she too had the expression of a go-back who had swallowed deer piss.
“I feel like I’ve been waiting for her all this time. Like this is just temporary for me, I don’t really fit with you. Thank you for taking me into your family, but… even after Sweetroot.” Shenshen still chose to call her son by the name he had used during his childhood.
Pike looked saddest out of all of them, “It was a good fit while it lasted, but I understand. Maybe I’ll follow someday,” he looked up to see Krim and Skot’s frowning faces, “Maybe we will follow, but first I’ll need to pass on the howl. I can’t yet these young ones forget who they come from.”
***
The little palace carried the thoughts of Dewshine and Scouter far across the vast deep to their parents. *If we sleep too, then we will someday be reunited!* Dewshine sent excitedly. *The Jackwolf riders are still here, but it’s nothing quite like being with actual wolfriders*
Clearbrook and Treestump could feel the affectionate smile through Scouters thoughts, *After all we’ve been through, she still desires thrill of the hunt, the short sharp life of a wolfrider.*
*We want to be with you cubs* Treestump replied, *but Perch…*
*He does not want to sleep,* Clearbrook finished for him. *We would be giving up a life with the cub that we share together to be with you someday. It is not an easy decision for either of us*
Dewshine thought of her own cub, many turns older than the little brother she had never met and she understood.
***
Strongbow sat on a large tree branch and sharpened one of his arrows. Standing above him on a nearby branch was Moonshade and her sister Winterstone.
*It’s the way.* Strongbow sent openly.
“But it feels wrong somehow to abandon Cutter.” Moonshade said, voicing the thought he left unsent.
Strongbow nodded, a soft sadness in his eyes.
“To abandon hope of seeing Dart again,” She added.
Of the few lifemated couples, Strongbow and Moonshade were the only ones to have not been blessed by recognition in the new land. It did not bother them that they did not have a cub here, it bothered them that their only living cub had spent most of his life without them and that they might never see him again.
*Treestump and Clearbrook have already made their decision. She will need elders. Wolfrider elders. Not these still soft Sunfolk and warlike Go-backs.*
Moonshade and Strongbow went back and forth over the decision, both them torn between the way as well as their duty to their new chief and their desire to follow Cutter and see Dart again.
“I will stay with fire-eye,” Winterstone intervened in their conversation. “I will stay awake and be elder to this still living tribe.”
“Sister,” Moonshade said both sad and hopeful at once.
*Follow your heart for once Strongbow.* Winterstone lock sent between them, while she embraced Moonshade. *If you learn to change as our chief has, I think it will save you much heart hurt in the future.*
***
When the blended tribe gathered at the troll’s mountain home the number of elves that followed Cutter surprised him, but none more then when Strongbow and Moonshade. As Strongbow crossed the threshold into the caves entrance Cutter whispered, “But it goes against the way.” A sending passed between them and then Strongbow continued into the darkness.
Aroree approached the entrance of the cave, but Cutter put a hand up to stop her. “Aroree, wait. I want you to stay with them. Stay awake and remind our children to be wary of that Black Snake.”
Aroree went back to remain with those that had chosen to live in this time. With Fire-Eye Chief of the Wolfriders and her tribe which, counting all, consisted of eight and four. Tala, Skot and Krim the Go-back; Lirah of the Sunfolk and her father Farik; Winterstone and Pike the wolfrider elders and their youths Sweetroot, Perch and Goldsap.
And thus, the tribe split that day into two parts. One that would sleep in hopes that the palace would someday return to them. One that would hunt and howl in the new land, a land that for many of them was the only home they had ever known. These are the stories of that tribe. The Tribe of the Hidden Years.
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thanks to Embala for the banner! 
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