Dawn mists hung in thick shrouds over the grounds of the bailey; the vapor trapped within the bowl of the keep’s walls. My breath lingered in the crisp morning air.
The hounds greeted me with a sudden chorus of barking as I briskly approached the kennels. Beneath my great fur coat I must have appeared like the alpha: towering and broad, draped in thick fur, teeth bared in a smile.
“Didja miss me, lads?” I called from without the fence. Broad smiles all around. Of course they did.
My eyes fell on the feral youth in the back corner of the kennel. His scuffed knees still pressed to his lean chest. The thick mop of hair all but obscuring his face. Over the chatter of the hounds I heard his pining and scowled.