A Lone Howl

Part one: Howl in the Night

Chapter six

BETA AND ALPHA’S NEW pups grew quickly, and every day they became more adventurous and rambunctious. Every day they would discover a new sort of game to play, and then argue over the rules. Every day they would wander around the meadow, sticking their noses in places that they shouldn’t be in. And every day, they were scolded for trampling a piece of prey or squashing a perfectly good bed of moss.

Journey grew fond of one of them in particular very quickly; Sniff, the runt of the litter. Always the pin cushion for his sister and brother, Yap and Nibble. Always the last one to make it to greet the pack when they returned from hunting, and always trampled beneath his bigger siblings’ wild paws. Journey always made sure to stand up for the little pup, snapping at the others when they played too roughly and nudging him out of the way of being trampled.

It felt as though the days had flown by in a blur ever since the pups had been born, and before Journey knew it, they were already a full moon old.

Journey woke on a warm late summer morning from the cold, wet nose of Poplar nudging her awake. She opened her eyes and sat up, opening her jaws in a wide yawn. “Hunting,” Poplar said. Daybreak, Barley, and Ash stood behind her, and the pups wrestled between her paws. “Alpha wants you to lead a hunting party, with the pups.”

She sat up, shaking herself, sending her thick white fur rippling. With a commanding woof, she summoned the wolves around her. The pups scampered over, Sniff in the back, as always.

Journey bounded into the trees, keeping her stride slower so the pups would be able to keep up. The cool breeze of late summer whistled cheerily through the trees, sending the grass swaying and rippling the wolves’ fur. She relished in the feel of total freedom as she ran, pads skimming over the familiar ground of her home.

She slowed to a brisk trot as they neared Lightning Ledge, a low cliff where they could look over the forest and a few meadows to search for prey. She stepped onto the rough gray stone, sighing contentedly as the chill from the rock swept through her legs all the way to the back of her ears. The strange black zigzag that extended from the edge of the ledge, from which this particular cliff got its name, was beginning to warm as it absorbed sunlight.

“There’s our target,” Journey said, nodding towards a herd of white-tail deer. They were grazing lazily in a wide open meadow, made drowsy by the sun. One of the deer, a large buck with dangerous-looking antlers, was standing watch, with his dark brown back to them. Multiple deer pups were chasing each other through the meadow around their parents, flecked backs making them all the more easy to spot.