The Winter Continues
Chapter Two: The Winter Continues.
The younger wolf snarled, his jaws spread wide and hackles raised, fear striking into his fathers heart. The elder, to avoid getting bitten, turned his whole body, leaving his shoulder open to being bitten, trying to regain control of this fight. Finally, he turned around, and the two wolves began to growl and snap at each other, occasional whimpers and yelps when one finds a hold. The fight was evenly matched, for though the elder had experience in fighting, the younger had strength and vigour that the elder no longer possessed.
The noises filling the air woke the pack, who raised, almost as one, to watch the battle. Every time one of the wolves was knocked down, it got back up again and fought on again. The pack ranged around, not daring to get involved as father and son tore and ripped at each other, the younger finally forcing his father against a tree. The elder growled, and then hesitantly cringed downwards, and flattening his ears, blood dripping from the various small wounds, wounds which dripped blood onto the snow, staining it pink.
The younger turned his back on his back on his beaten father, and walked towards the pack, his own wounds sprinkling blood on the floor. The she-wolves all growled at him, before reluctantly parting, the beta male, and the younger males brother both showing submissive postures towards him, so as not to incite another fight.
The younger male walked past them without a sideward glance, and walked leisurely towards the pack borders. There he stopped, and howled out, his tail arched up and ears erect. This was a howl of farewell as well as of warning. His pack walked back to the beaten alpha male, leaving their number one down.
The male began to trot away, the pains from his wounds beginning to ebb away already, leaving him with only the slight loneliness already filling his body, and the instinct deep within him to begin afresh, to start a pack of his own. He began to truly lope, trying to get away from the influences of his birth pack, and to find somewhere new.
Through that winter, he travelled constantly, all the other lone wolves too afraid to join the large black male, whose muzzle and shoulders were scarred slightly with scar tissue. No matter how often he instigated friendly contact, they would cringe, and he would turn from them to carry on, seeking the place he could truly call his own. Nightly, he would howl, and then listen with his keen ears, hoping that a she-wolf would respond with the same manner as him. His heart sank, as night by night the howl went unanswered. Eventually he only began to howl every other night, and then every quarter of a moon cycle.
Soon, Winter began to end, and he knew because packs began appearing, and watching him through their territories, though never attacking him. This reaction was due to pups having been born, and the whole pack prepared to defend them. He began to get thinner, as spring came in. He was too young and inexperienced to attack anything larger than a deer calf, and most of those were now too large for him to take down.
He no longer howled, just kept on trotting and walking, managing to stay alive, and just barely fit enough to carry on. His fur was no longer glossy, though it remained just as thick as when he had eaten properly. He was, if possible, even more muscled than before, due to the fact that he was barely resting, and always pushing onwards. Soon he encountered less packs, and those he met with were friendlier, sharing their large kills with passing lone wolves. He began to gain weight again, and to look for where his heart was pulling him, some days he would run straight through open meadows, and others he would hunt around for days.
Soon he began to feel that as Spring grew closer, he was nearing the place where everything would fall into place. He suddenly began to ran with greater energy, his golden eyes again sparkling. Once again, his pelt was thick, and shiny, and dark. His tail was curved above his back, and every paw step hit the snowy ground with unerring accuracy.
His pace slowed as he entered a valley, its bottom untouched by snow. Small bushes and young trees littered the floor, which he began to wind around. His nose alternated between the ground and the air, as he scented for traces of other wolves. The only traces he found were so old, they were dry and dusty. His keen eyes and instinctual feelings caught the sight of hoof prints, and other signs that other prey was plentiful here. His wanderlust was now satisfied, and he felt like he was truly home.
After a night of dreamless sleep, he began to search through the valley, starting at the narrower end, and working his way downwards. Along the banks on either side of the valley, small caves were noted, and to be examined at a later date. He found a small waterfall, caused by water spurting from a hole in the valley side. He tasted the water cautiously, and found that it was both sweet tasting and free from any pollution. He began to swish his tail, as he sniffed around the small pool of water, he could smell all the different creatures that came here to feed, and even an odd scent, one that put him in mind of a deer, but much larger. This was a place to raise a pack, and to defend against others, a place to settle in.
That night he let out a low howl, the valley sides bouncing his howl back hollowly, and magnifying the sound, until it sounded like he had a great pack of blood thirsty wolves behind him. He began to once again search out somewhere different to sleep, marking his territory as he went. His hackles rose up as he heard the clicking of paw claws upon the rocky sides. He leapt up, and began to trot towards the sound, where plumes of dust rose up, showing where something had lost balance, and slid, gaining momentum if the frightened yips were anything to go by. Just by sound alone, the young, weary and wary male knew he would shortly be facing a possibly in pain, and therefore dangerous wolf.
His astonishment when the wolf that had slipped was revealed to him was clear to see, his tail drooped, his muzzle lifted up and to the side and his ears lifted into their upright position. The wolf was no wolf, but rather a she-wolf.
This she-wolf was brown mixed with black, white and tan. Her fur was darker along her neck and shoulders, but he knew, from the betas in his birth pack, that this color would lighten in the summer. Most oddly, she had pure blue eyes, which she could clearly see from, as she was currently running them over his large body. Her paws were smaller than his, but she was long of leg, and when she stood, and limped to him, a gash in her shoulder, she still managed to reach his shoulder. Her muzzle, straight and long, gave her a regal look, which she managed to pull off with the delicate way she sniffed him, learning his scent. He sniffed back, curious, and almost instantly her scent reminded him in a way of his favourite sister.
Their introductions done, the black began to tenderly groom her gash, and lick the surrounding fur clean of blood. The she-wolf uttered a low growl, just the pain, and the soothing motions reacting in her in different ways. She was warning him not to hurt her, but underneath the growl was a hint of growing affection. Once he had thoroughly cleaned her up, the male nudged her gently with his nose, then walked off a little, before returning and whining softly.
The female got the message, and got to her paws with a long suffering sigh, and followed him, letting him lead her by half a body length. He took her by a gently climbing route to the waterfall, and lay watching as she drank her fill, whilst he moved off quietly into the surrounding forestry, and flushed out two young, fattened rabbits, which he caught by pouncing, and using his large paws to pin them so his muzzle could grab them, and shake them to death. Almost bashfully, he took one back to the female, who lay beside the pool of water, her paw dipped in it, and her eyes closed, her blue eyes hidden from view.
The male went back for his rabbit, his ears alert and perked to every sound. He carried his own back to the female, who had began to feed, and they both ate, just the usual grunts and small growls as they fed filled the air.
That night, the two lay near each other, their eyes half closed as they watched the moon and stars emerge slowly into the sky. Both felt at piece with the other, their tails swished slightly all the time, as their eyelids dropped lower and lower, until, the moon high in the sky, they both slept, hind paws touching slightly, his tail slumped over hers, though hers still slightly swayed, even though she slept.
The large male awoke first, and stretched, dislodging himself from the female. They both stretched, and yawned, the male having woken the female, and looked around, blinking blearily. More snow had fallen in the night, and had obliterated their previous markings. The female yawned widely, making an odd, almost whining sound as she did so. Her white teeth flashed as white as the snow before her stomach rumbled. The rabbit before she had slept had only taken the edge off of her keen hunger, and now she was again ravenous.
She whimpered and nudged at the male, who had sat down, and was watching the way the weak sun picked up on the brightness of the snow. His thick black coat did little to hide him from view, though when, urged by the female, he moved into the shadows, and became almost invisible. Together the two dropped their noses to the snow, and began to cast around for some sort of scent, something to show that prey had been there. It was the male who picked up the scent, the adults in his birth pack had taught him well.
The female followed the male, their movements now stealthy, each paw step carefully planned and analyzed. They flowed across the snow nearly silently, plumes of their breath showing briefly as white mist, before streaming behind them. The trees grew thicker, and the smaller, more agile female took the lead now, deer being heard clearly in the background. The wolves now moved a lot stealthier, their ears perked a little as their tails were lifted above their backs. The trees thinned a little, and the wolves slowed their movements more, each knew that the success of this hunt would either guarantee their survival this winter, or doom them to starvation.
They skirted the outside of the clearing, not yet making their presence felt to the deer in front of them, though saliva began to flood their muzzles, they watched the deer, finding the weakest. Wolf instinct sang in their blood, calling for them to just feed, feed, feed, though they resisted it. The black male showed an interest in one deer, a buck which was smaller than the others, and dragged its hoof visibly when a slight crack, as the female purposely trod on a stick and startled it.
The blue eyed female, and the large, golden eyed male glanced at each other, and afraid of offending the other, looked away. They had chosen their prey. The male led the first charge, and circled the partly lame buck, growling and snapping at his nose, as the female snuck up behind him, and began to bite and worry at his hind legs, causing open shallow wounds which bleed freely and splattered the earth with blood. The buck, now being bitten on both ends, ran, fleeing the attackers that hurt him. He weakened quickly, with his lame hoof, and the two wolves who still leapt and bit at his rump.
He stopped, suddenly, back in the clearing, his long slender legs trembling with exhaustion, his hind legs now pitted and a deep red, his whole skin twitched violently, as though a fly had landed on him, when in reality, the male had just opened the bucks shoulder to the bone. He drooped his head, and the female leapt at his throat, hanging on, having just missed the jugular. She kept a tight grip as the deer, finding life deep in his fading body, whirled her around, her body being swung through the air, as the bucks momentum tore her loose, and opened her teeth marks, drenching her muzzle with blood and blinding her momentarily.
The male leapt up, and as his greater weight swung on the bucks throat, the buck collapsed, unable to get to his feet, his lifeblood coating the snow as the two wolves backed away, granting him respect, and waiting for him to die. As his jerky movements slowed, and then stopped, the two wolves threw back their heads and howled, their individual voices weaving together to announce their kill. As the howl died, both wolves began to feed on the carcass of the buck, grateful to be fed. They became more guttural, harsher, as they sated their hunger. They snarled at each other, though they restrained themselves from attacking each other. The feeding slowed, and calmed down, as they became fuller. The female finished first, moving away and beginning to lap slowly at her bloody paws.
Her eyelids drooped as she lay, watching the black male feed still, his stomach bulging. He was so utterly wild, that her tail stirred a little in the snow beside her as she slowly began drifting to sleep. She was full, and warm from the chase, and now tired out, she slept. She shivered a little, laying in the snow, and curled up tighter, tucking her nose under her tail. The male stopped feeding now, and began tearing meat from the carcass, and buried it in small places around the carcasses, leaving caches just in case they failed to hunt and kill again.
The male yawned widely, his stomach bulging a little as he moved nearer to the female, to protect her from the cold. He nuzzled the sleeping female and herded her towards the valley, and towards the caves they had both seen. He peered warily into each one, noticing that the first he had come to had had a rock fall and was blocked. The second had a scent that he didn't know, but it was enough to make him sneeze, and back away, pushing the female with him. The next cave he came to was small, but warm and free from any scents that arose fear in the pit of his stomach. He pushed the female in, and curled around her, keeping his back to the entrance, and blocking the cold.
The first the female knew of the males actions was when she woke up, blinking her blue eyes sleepily, before pawing at them. She was warm, and no longer damp furred. She looked around, and noticed that around her small body was a mass of black fur, and only then did she feel the males breath on her shoulder, from where it had fallen. She made a soft growling sound, deep in her chest, and licked at the males head gently enough to just barely stir the fur there. She lay awake, just listening to the sounds of nature, and to the males breathing. She settled, her muzzle pointing downwards resting just barely on her paws. Her tail curled in to cover her hind paws, and keep them warm.
She lay there awake, just watching the way the snow fell, or what she could see of it from over the males back. She moved a little, and the males head slid down onto his own paws, freeing the female. She moved, to rest her head on his back, enjoying the white the snow fell, and added to the snowy layer, which had already erased their tracks from earlier. She was warm and safe, though her shoulder still ached a little, itchy where the cut had been.
She bent her head awkwardly, to run her tongue over the quickly healing wound, her tongue soothing the slightly sore skin, which had been pulled during the hunt. The dried blood had worn off of the cut, and opened it. She growled softly, and uttered a soft murmur of pain as her tongue caught a small piece of gravel, stuck into her shoulder. She shook a little as she carefully manipulated her teeth into gripping that small, irritatingly painful bit of gravel, and ripped it out, barely holding back a snarl of agonizing, instead whining, growls coming through the sound.
The male awoke when he sensed her change in breathing, insistently nudging her muzzle, until she lifted it up. He tenderly lapped at the now bleeding, but clean wound, soothing the skin and easing the bleeding. The growls threading into the females whines faded and stopped, as her breathing calmed down from the frantic pace it had been. Her blue eyes lightened from a dull grey to the normal bright blue, and she stood, shuffling her paws a little to ease the ache, which had been rooted deep in her shoulder and forgotten during the excitement of the hunt.
The male stretched, and snapped his heavy jaws, yawning widely. He then stood, and shook, sitting down to drag his paw across the back of his ear, catching a particularly itchy spot, which settled as he smiled in the wolfish way. The itch gone, he stood again, and moved towards the water, needing a drink to dampen the inside of his muzzle. The female followed, limping a little, though now able to keep up with the male, rested, warm and with her wound cleansed. He lowered his muzzle, whiskers brushing the water slightly and creating small ripples which became larger with his breath. The ripples widened even further when he began to lap at the water, curling it into his muzzle, and satisfying the thirst inside him.
The female just sat, watching as his upraised, plumed tail swished slightly as he enjoyed drinking, his stomach rippling a little as the cool fluid began to fill it. He drank his fill, and murmured happily, the water was clean and cold, and fresh from melted snow. The female waited patiently, before lapping at the cold liquid to quench her thirst. She was thirstier than she thought, the water hitting her belly making her shudder.
The pair stretched again, having eaten properly, and drank, and slept, their pelts were thick and warm, and they were the beginnings of a pack.