{"id":632,"date":"2012-10-25T10:21:11","date_gmt":"2012-10-25T15:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=632"},"modified":"2012-10-25T10:21:11","modified_gmt":"2012-10-25T15:21:11","slug":"the-wolven-kindred","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=632","title":{"rendered":"The Wolven Kindred"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wolven Kindred<\/em> is a setting that’s been nagging at me for a while, sitting in the back of my head and poking away, always cropping up at odd moments of the day. And last month, I was able to get enough of it down on paper to create a 22,000 word short story, which was a nice way to get back into writing after spending the summer editing Chloddio<\/em> and Ancient New<\/em>. It’s a story I went into without a plot, just with the intention of getting my mind back into the writing groove. Below is a little excerpt of what resulted.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Nietan glanced up at the banner fluttering overhead. Death before Dishonour. His company’s motto, supposedly. One they had long ago ignored. Dishonour had come in many forms, but mostly taking bribes and violating contracts. Honesty was a paltry thing to cast aside for money.<\/p>\n

The Wolven Kindred had once been better than that. They had made kings, affrighted armies and shattered empires. But that was long ago, when the Kindred numbered five thousand or more. Now, they were down to a paltry two hundred, at best. A number that was only lightly bolstered by the sixty wolven still with the Kindred. Once, there had been one of those great predatory beasts for each brother-in-arms, but like the Kindred themselves, the wolven had diminished.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt least I have mine.\u201d Nietan ran his hand along the thick fur coat of \u00c6r, the wolven who had fought by his side for more than sixteen years.<\/p>\n

\u00c6r glared up at him. You don’t<\/em> have anything. I chose you just as much as you chose me.<\/em><\/p>\n

Nietan chuckled as \u00c6r’s thoughts rippled across his mind. Despite the outwardly bestial qualities, wolven were almost as bright as the humans they partnered, and often larger. Certainly, when both human and wolven were covered in the banded scale armour that had long been their hallmark, most opponents would say they feared the wolven more.<\/p>\n

Would have. These days the Kindred had such a poor reputation that they were only paid to fight bandits. Or by the desperate.<\/p>\n

The skirmisher wandered through the Kindred’s camp, \u00c6r at his side. Around him was a desultory mess of tents, camp-fires, and refuse heaps, the layout haphazard and crowded. What little discipline there was in the camp could be seen on the edges, where the wolven were left to rest. There, the Beastmaster had organized the company’s stores, and the little pens that housed the wolven.<\/p>\n

The men that sat in front of the tents stank, of drink, of filth, of encrusted blood. They had fought that morning, driving raiders away from a village at the behest of the local noble. For once, they had won with no casualties, although that had been more to do with the poor quality of the bandits than any skill on the part of the Kindred.<\/p>\n

Yet victory had not brought peace, but was instead a reminder of the legendary history of the company, and how it had fallen. And so the brothers drank, and gambled, and played idle games doing whatever they could to dull their minds. Many of the soldiers simply flopped about, trying to sleep.<\/p>\n

Despite his status as one of the older heads in the camp, Nietan did not remember the beginning of the fall. That had happened long before he had joined the Kindred, although in the years since he had seen further degradation and despair. The Packmaster of that time had harboured grand thoughts of revitalizing the Kindred, of growing the ranks and making of them once more a force, but he had bet poorly on the victor in a war, and the Kindred had been broken on a battlefield, remade, and broken again. When the remnants had fled, and reformed afterwards, they had numbered perhaps four hundred. In the decade since, they had shrunk to their present number, through death, desertion, and all manner of leave-taking.<\/p>\n

Nietan yelped as teeth closed around his palm. If you keep this up, I’m going to wet your bed in terror.<\/em> \u00c6r’s eyes held a twinkle, but one with too much depth to be called happy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do we do, then?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00c6r shrugged. Your race plans ahead. Ours does not.<\/em><\/p>\n

Nietan knew that to be an out and out lie, at least as far as \u00c6r was concerned, but he let it slide, as he had ever since they had been pair-bonded almost two decades ago. Although at the moment it appeared that neither race planned ahead, for now that the bandits were defeated, and pay received from a grateful earl, the Kindred had no plans, no road ahead.<\/p>\n

Eventually, one of the packs of wolven would decide to strike out in a direction. Their companions would follow closely. Other humans would then bestir themselves to march after friends, and thus would the camp slowly disintegrate and stream in a certain direction. But it would be uncertain, loose, and poorly organized, and one or two would wander off along the way, or decide not to bother.<\/p>\n

But that was all some days in the future. Until then, the Wolven Kindred, kingmakers, would sleep in their own filth and vomit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wolven Kindred is a setting that’s been nagging at me for a while, sitting in the back of my head and poking away, always cropping up at odd moments of the day. And last month, I was able to get enough of it down on paper to create a 22,000 word short story, which was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[57,4],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pRIK4-ac","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":641,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=641","url_meta":{"origin":632,"position":0},"title":"Why Do You Do This?","date":"February 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This is an excerpt from the upcoming short story Wolven Kindred. The Wolven Kindred are a mercenary unit made up of men and wolven bound mind to mind, as well as some of each that are unbonded. Nietan is the human leader of the Wolven Kindred, and\u00a0\u00c6r is his bonded\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Novellas"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":642,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=642","url_meta":{"origin":632,"position":1},"title":"Rumours of My Demise…","date":"February 11, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Yes, we all know how that particular saying ends. And like almost every time it is employed, it's true. I am not dead, and I have certainly not given up on writing. I just appear to have given up on blog posting for some time, although I can say the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Chloddio"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":461,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=461","url_meta":{"origin":632,"position":2},"title":"I’ve been interviewed","date":"March 28, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"So, a kindly soul called Rebecca took it upon herself to offer me the chance for an interview on my process of writing. The header to her post is below, and wander on over to her website and give the rest a read. An Interview with James Tallett Greetings, folks!\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tips"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":426,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=426","url_meta":{"origin":632,"position":3},"title":"How I Got Here","date":"February 2, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"How did I get here? Well, if you've read the interview with LMStull, you'll know that I didn't come to writing in the traditional way. I never wanted to be a writer. The thought hadn't ever occurred to me, until that one summer's morning when my Mum said I should\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tips"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":538,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=538","url_meta":{"origin":632,"position":4},"title":"Pantser vs Plotter – Distraction","date":"August 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the second post in a series about the process of writing. Each week, I will discuss one aspect with a Pantser, while I\u2019ll provide my (a Plotter\u2019s) point of view. For those who don\u2019t know the terms, a Pantser is an author who writes more or less without\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tips"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":381,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=381","url_meta":{"origin":632,"position":5},"title":"100 Posts of Solitude","date":"November 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"And I'm still here and still writing away happily. It's been over a year since the blog was started, and in that time I've managed 100 posts (this is actually the 101st). The time in between has been quite a journey for me as a writer, doing multiple edits on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Flash Fiction"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}