Fray

Name

Synonym for a battle or fight. Fray's birth pack only names pups once they reach adulthood, and names are based on the pup's personality. Fray gained his name thanks to his penchant for getting into fights with his fellow pups. 

Personality

Distrustful; proud; usually scowling; decisive; terrible sense of direction 

Lore

0 months old: Born into a Prairie-based pack alongside two sisters and two brothers. Their mother, Flight, is the mate of the lead wolf, Blaze. 

0 ½ months old: The pack is undergoing a tough time, and decide to prioritise the three largest pups in Fray's litter - one male, one female, and Fray himself - in order to ensure their survival. 

1 ½ months old: The two unprotected pups are left unsupervised and taken by coyotes. The pack grieves, but focus their efforts on caring for the remaining youngsters. 

2 months old: As the pups get older, they outgrow the standard grey-brown newborn pelt, their colours and markings becoming more distinct. One day, Blaze realises something: while two of the pups share his ginger coat and brown markings, the third - Fray - bears almost no resemblance to him. In fact, the pup's grey coat and symmetrical black muzzle markings are identical to those on one of the pack's young males. 

Blaze confronts Flight; she says nothing, but looks incredibly guilty. Her mate is furious, not least because when the pair made the decision to only protect their biggest pups, they ended up ensuring the survival of a pup that wasn't even his. In a fit of rage, the lead wolf attempts to kill Fray. 

The rest of the pack had been drawn by the commotion, and one of them leaps out of the crowd: Stalwart, a quiet hunter adopted into the pack by Blaze's predecessor. This is the male who bears the same grey pelt and muzzle markings as Fray, and with uncharacteristic anger, he bowls over the leader and sinks his teeth into the red wolf's shoulder. 

Unfortunately, Stalwart's determination to save his son is no match for Blaze's raw strength. Within a minute, the fight is over, and the lead wolf stands triumphantly over the hunter's body. 

From that point, Blaze makes a point of doting on the two red pups in the litter, making time to teach, feed and play with them several times a day. Their brother, on the other hand, is ignored at best and treated with open hostility at worst. Fray's littermates follow their father's lead, excluding him from play and exploration; his mother usually alternates between pretending he isn't there and just staring at him in a melancholy, far away sort of way; and the rest of the pack treat him with a kind of apologetic kindness - many of them will groom or play with him while his parents and littermates aren't around, or save a tasty piece of prey for him and urge him to eat it quickly, before Blaze sees. The pack all seem frightened of his father, and their collective fear keeps Fray from acting out for much of his puphood. 

5 months old: Encouraged by their father, Fray's littermates grow more overt with their bullying. By this point, he has gleaned from the adults' whispers that Blaze is somehow his littermate's father, but not his - he doesn't understand how this works, but he is angry that he is treated badly for something he has no control over. He fights back against his half-siblings - literally, by pinning his brother down and sinking his teeth into the other pup's ear. 

As punishment for the incident, Fray is made to sleep outside for the night and go without food for a few days. The fact that his littermates now shy away from him, and his older packmates offer him nods, smiles and a few stoat carcasses makes the punishment well worth it. 

1 year old: Fray is bestowed his name by a reluctant Blaze. He is named for the fact that he is supposedly a troublemaker who starts fights with his littermates (Ember, the female, and Sharp, the male). The leader is met with a grumble of disapproval from the pack, as this untruth breaks their naming traditions; but Fray is unbothered, as he is still proud of the incident. The name serves as a more permanent reminder of the fight than the nick in Sharp's ear - that still hasn't healed, much to the red male's chagrin. 

3 years old: Fray spends many months after his naming ceremony learning survival skills such as hunting and fighting. He is excluded from the lessons his littermates undergo, supervised by Blaze; but the other adults persist in their subtle kindness by teaching him a little each day. By three years old, he finally knows enough to survive without the pack. He leaves. 

3 years, 1 month old: The Prairie seems to go on forever, and Fray becomes lost several times. Often he stumbles into the territory of rival packs and needs to turn around, or he is chased by predators or defensive musk ox. 

4 years old: Fray, exhausted from spending months on the move, finally reaches the Coniferous Forest, far north of the Prairie. But he is soon tracked down by Blaze. The lead wolf claims that since Fray's departure, an outbreak of sickness wiped out most of the pack, and with winter on the way they badly need more hunters. Fray refuses, but Blaze won't take no for an answer, and attempts to drag him along by the scruff. The younger wolf desparately yowls for help, and his pleas are answered by the arrival of several Ashen Pack wolves, led by Brontide. 

With the imminent arrival of winter, the Ashen Pack had decided to move down from the Mountains and spend the season in the Coniferous Forest. Having found a suitable territory to temporarily house their pack, Brontide had spent the day leading a party around to run off any wolves with similar notions. When they scented Fray, they were prepared to intimidate him into leaving, not to rescue him from his aggressive pack leader. Nonetheless, that's exactly what happened; when Fray told the newcomers that his former leader was attempting to force him into rejoining his pack, Brontide tore into Blaze - figuratively, and then literally when the older male wouldn't back off - and wounded him badly enough that the red male limped away with his tail between his legs. 

Despite his protests that he would be fine and just wanted to move on, Fray was clearly shaken and exhausted. He was brought back to the Ashen Pack's temporary den and, after some convincing, agreed to stay with them until they moved back into the mountains. At that point, he would be free to do as he pleased.

4 years, 4 months old: When spring arrives and the time comes for the Ashen Pack to return to the Mountains, he accompanies them. 

7 years, 10 months: Fray has spent years diligently working as a hunter to provide for the pack who kindly took him in. As he ages, he struggles to run as fast and far as he used to, but does his best not to let the others know, lest they stop him from fulfilling his role as a hunter. 

While hunting, he receives a nasty gash to the inside of one of his hind legs. Worrying that they'll take it as a sign he's too old to hunt, Fray hides the wound from his packmates.