Kennel, Kingdom and Crown

  Chapter 13 – Sunlight Return...

  The war dogs led their handlers out of that darkness.

  Gareth smiled as he stepped out of the barrow to find sunlight burning at the last wisps of fog lingering in the wilderness. Asguard's tongue dangled from the war dog's maw. Gareth felt a new warmth in the air. Day returned to the kingdom of the gray-eyed Stonebrooks, to the gray walls of their keep, to the gray-eyed dogs, to the village that would again prosper beneath the sun.

  Even Wren smiled as she strode through the wilderness beside her king and brother.

  “You've already guaranteed your place as legend in the stories of huntsmen and crones,” Wren's eyes sparkled. “I can already imagine the tale of the mighty three-fingered Stonebrook king whose ax shattered fog and cold.”

  “Those stories better not forget the dogs,” Eldrich shouted.

  Gareth grinned. Eldrich proved to be a trainer of men as well as a trainer of dogs. He showed courage. He showed the mettle Gareth always suspected in Eldrich's spine since the day that muddy boy arrived at his field to run with the dogs. Eldrich's face still blushed in Wren's presence, yet he was no longer so frightened to speak in the presence of the vermillion robes, which Gareth also recognized as a symbol of courage.

  Gareth put his sore, throbbing left arm around Eldrich's shoulder.

  “Have no doubt that Thorn will turn our dogs into giants before he finishes telling his daughters of our adventures tonight. I think our dogs will grow fat bellies for all the table scraps sure to be thrown their way in the next weeks.”

  “We will need to work the pack to keep the dogs fast,” Eldrich answered.

  “And you will lead the training now,” Gareth winked at his student who graduated to master. “I am now king. Though I will be no stranger to the training field, I will not be able to devote the time to those dogs that they deserve.”

  Wren raised an eyebrow. “And what will be your next challenge, Gareth?”

  Gareth had quickly decided his next goal when he exited the barrow to find the fog and cold dissipating.

  “We will plant a new grove upon the keep's grounds. We will bring the green back so that the fog will not return with such terrible cold. I think a little wood can supplement our stone.”

  Wren reached down as stroked Loki's ear. “And what if monsters should return to our new trees? We shouldn't forget that the old grove sheltered the basilisk. Such trees hid the venom that killed our father. Such trees shaded the eyes that perverted our brother.”

  “True,” Gareth grunted, “but I wonder how much that basilisk, truly, twisted our brother.”

  Wren frowned. “But the basilisk was still a monster.”

  “And for them,” Gareth and Asguard trotted ahead of the pack, “we have our great dogs. We'll let the dogs run free through that new grove, and with the pack, will deal with whatever monsters might slither in the shade.”