It was with paws of lead that Alder trudged onward. His limbs felt impossibly heavy, yet they were numb to him at the same time; at only three years of age, Alder had already suffered two great losses in his life.
His grandmother Viscaria, slain by the fangs of his own grandfather Cypress, and now his -
- friend -
- Sølvi had... vanished.
For a long time Alder raged against the unfairness of the comical tragedy that was his life. He had been born into it wrong from the start, his crimson coat a testament to that fact - despised by his own mother who found him repulsive for it, watching him with baleful eyes while he paraded ignorantly around as the hideous memory of a devil that was etched into his very DNA.
The devil had taken his grandmother.
The devil had wounded the sun - dared to strike Solvi.
At last Alder himself had killed the devil, and the gods smiled for only a moment as they let him savor the victory, coaxed gently by Solvi into something resembling hope of a better life until one day the world spirited her away, too, and he was once again alone.
Perhaps that was how it was meant to be.
Alder wasn't sure where his paws were taking him, but an oddly familiar scent saw him lift his head for the first time in hours to survey his surroundings - the smell reminded him of...
... Dimitri ?
![[Image: UWkba3H.png]](https://i.imgur.com/UWkba3H.png)
- Alder is not actually Inuyasha, despite the evidence