Beauran Book 2 ~ The Return. {Wolf Story}

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great, its coming along really well.

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Thanks! Next chapter coming soon... XD

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Oh yeah! Next chapter! Sorry it took so long, I've just got caught up in other stuff.

Isolation

The pack of wolves were almost across the valley by midday, for they had been walking slowly and miserably. It was darkly overcast, so it could’ve been night. Armik led the way, through forests and across rivers, which were horrid raging rapids.
Twilight’s neck was sore and grazing. They were near the mountains now, in a forest of dead pine trees. There seemed to be limited life around, they had only seen a few rabbits and a couple of scraggy-looking birds.
Some wolves had gone by though, teasing and growling at the pups. Armik smirked every time.
Soon they came to a path, winding up the mountain. At least it had alive trees here. Armik stepped onto the path and led them up. It was a thin path, right on the edge of the hillside, and the drop over the side was very steep. Almost vertical. Twilight shivered.
They went up, each with their captors in front of them. They kept to the very side of the hill, not wanting to fall. And above them was a lot of snow that would definitely crush them if it decided to slide down the mountain.
The path was covered in snow too, and Twilight’s feet soon began to freeze. They went sore and numb, and her ears were cold too. As she stopped to shake off a little, her collar was yanked and she was forced to go on.
In a while, when all of them were terribly tired, sore and numb, Armik stopped his pack at a path leading off into a thick forest on the mountain.
“This way.” He snarled, just as thunder rolled over them and a spot of rain came down. Twilight shuddered and went in the direction she was dragged in, under the shelter of the thick pine trees.
The rain picked up heavily, loudly splattering down on the trees. Lightning flashed across the sky, lighting their dark path. It was followed by roaring thunder, making Skye whimper in fear. Her captor yanked her lead and she yelped.
In a moment they arrived at a clearing, dark and thickly walled by trees. At one end, right in the mountainside, was a cave entrance. In the stone beside the doorway was a wooden cage door of sticks tied together that Armik and another two guards waited beside as the others led the poor pups into the dark.
Once they were in, Twilight felt relieved to be dry, even though it was their prison. It was oddly comfortable-feeling though too, and in the middle of the room was a large bear-skin. She supposed it got cold up in the mountains, and they wouldn’t want their prisoners to die.
Twilight’s captor pushed her to the middle of the room with a hard nudge in the hind, which made her snarl. He snarled back. He lunged forward and grabbed her collar, pulling it off with one yank. Twilight shook off, ruffling her fur.
The others’ collars were pulled off too, and the guards went to the door. Copaci rushed forward, trying to escape, but one of the wolves spun around and clawed him in the face.
“Copaci!” shrieked Skye, rushing forward. His face was scarred, blood staining it. But his eye was unharmed, and he snarled at the guard who did it.
“Feeble pups. You’ll die in here, right after we kill your families. They won’t come to save you, you’re locked up in the mountain, in a place no one will find. Ever!” snarled Armik, before a guard pushed the door shut, somehow locking it into the stone. A patch of light fell across the floor, shadowed by lines. Armik’s silhouette was across the door, before he walked away, followed loyally by his pack.
The seven pups watched the rain fall outside, dampening their bare clearing. So sad. So lonely. Their view of everything outside it was barricaded by the thick trees, and there were no little animals in that forest. Twilight looked desperately out, for a sign of hope, but nothing came for the whole hour that she stared.

* * *
Somehow, sometime, the small pack had all fallen asleep on the rug, cold and shivering. They tried to keep themselves warm by huddling together in one big furry ball, but the wind blew right in through the bars of the door.
Twilight awoke in the morning to find it still overcast, but by thinner clouds. The forest outside was lit up, and all of the trees were dripping from the rain. It was chilly, and all of the trees were covered in snow, so the rain must have frozen at some point. The clearing was thick with snow, and no footprints were in it. Still no living things around.
She carefully stood up, making sure she didn’t rouse anyone, and stretched out. Twilight walked over to the door and sat in front of it, taking in the morning air. Even if they were in a cave, but still.
A bit of snow had seeped in under the door. She happily bent over it and ate some, which quenched her terrible thirst. She decided to get all of it – more snow would come in later for the others.
Twilight sat down. A breeze blew in a ruffled her fur, spraying powdery snow into her eyes. She blinked it away. The tops of the pines swayed in the wind, tipping snow off. It was so completely lifeless except for the wind. She wanted to get out and run around, leap about in the snow and hunt for rabbits. But the bars were before her, locking her away from the world.
It started to get very cold with the wind, and she went into the cave to lie on the rug again. Before she lay, Twilight suddenly noticed something in the corner. It was another rug! A baby bear-skin, nice and fluffy. She went over to it and picked it up with her teeth, pulling it over her back as she sat down again before the door. It was lovely and warm.
As she sat alone in the quiet, Twilight had time to think. She suddenly realised there was no food. Nothing to feed them. They would have to find a way to get something to eat. Like Armik said, they would die. But they wouldn’t if they were fed.
Maybe they could get unsuspecting creatures seeking the warmth of the cave? Or try to make the animals’ calls, luring them in? Both of those options might work, but with ever plan, there were flaws. She would have to get the help of the others when they woke.
* * *
About an hour had passed before Merlia stirred, groaning. Ginger’s head was on her back, and she slowly wriggled out, carefully trying to not wake him.
She got up and shook. When she saw Twilight she smiled.
“Hello Twilight.” She said quietly. “Have you got something planned yet?”
“No. Not yet. But I know we can drink, just eat some snow. And I’m thinking of luring rabbits into the cave to eat.” Replied Twilight.
“Oh, I can do that!” exclaimed Merlia excitedly.
“Great! We’ll leave luring to you, and killing to me and Rai.” The girls smiled at each other, before Merlia came up to sit with Twilight. Twilight pulled the rug over the two of them, and they watched the clearing outside for signs of life. Nothing approached, until suddenly a grey, furry ball hopped through the snow.
Twilight and Merlia jumped in excitement at the rabbit, scrambling from under the blanket to the sides of the door out of the prey’s sight. Merlia stared at the floor in concentration as she made very odd squeaking sounds, not natural to wolves. They were tiny, sniffing-like squeaks that the rabbit immediately heard.
Twilight peeked around the rock and saw the rabbit loping through the snow towards their barred door, its little nose in the air and whiskers twitching. It went forward, closer and closer, until it finally stopped at the door.
The rabbit sniffed the sticks that made their bars up, before wriggling underneath and tumbling onto the floor. Twilight looked at Merlia and she nodded. With a bound, she leapt forward towards the rabbit.
It squeaked as it saw the wolf pouncing, and it ran off towards the other wolves sound asleep on the rug. It saw what they were and went the other way, where Twilight was ready.
The rabbit’s life ended quickly as the wolf bit down on it, and it fell limply to the ground. Twilight stared at it proudly.
“Twilight! We have food!” squealed Merlia. Her face was completely lit up, and all the noise woke Rai and Ginger.
“What’s all the racket for?” grumbled Ginger. “Oh, hey Merlia.”
“Food! We’ll have to share it evenly though.” Replied Merlia, sniffing the rabbit.
“It’s a good sized rabbit, and if no one’s fussy about eating guts, we’re all right.” Said Twilight.
“I’ll wake the others.” Moaned Rai as Ginger got up and stretched. He walked over to the others, and Merlia shyly looked away as he neared her.
In a moment’s time the other three were awake, and all of them were terribly excited at the sight of the bloody fur-ball on the floor. When they were all around, Twilight bent over it and started carefully tearing at the meat, picking up lumps of it and sharing it out. When there seemed to be no meat left, she spoke.
“Who’s happy to have leftovers?” she asked. A couple of them nodded, and soon everyone had a good piece of food. Even though they were tremendously small bits, they all enjoyed, eating it nice and slowly. Nothing was wasted – the whole rabbit was gone except for the bones.
When Twilight finished a small rabbit-heart and a chunk of meat, she picked up and rib and began gnawing on it. She brought it over to where the bear-skin was and curled up on it.
* * *
It felt lovely to have some food, even though she’d only been hungry for a while. Twilight wasn’t very full, however, and she wished she could hunt for big game outside. But a system of rabbit-coaxing seemed to work, and she and Merlia decided they would do it every morning before the others woke.
For that whole day Twilight sat around watching the clearing, looking at ravens in the tree-tops or watching the clouds blow across the sky. They were still grey and dark, and during the day a few showers came. It was certainly going to snow during the night.
At sunset, everyone curled up on the rug after a long, boring day, watching the cave grow dark. How long would they have to stay in that place? Would they ever escape? Would they die in this prison?
No, thought Twilight. They would survive. It wasn’t like anyone was coming to let them out, friend or foe. So they would have to do it themselves. Surely a door made of sticks would be easy enough to destroy? They were very big sticks, but still.
Twilight fell asleep slowly, listening only to her thoughts and the dying cries of ravens outside.

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Yay, another great chapter.

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Thanks!

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Your welcome!

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Somehow I felt like this was the longest chapter to type. No idea why.
Anyways, here it is. As the title of it suggests, this chapter comes unexpectedly.

Unexpected Saviours

A whole week of isolation and starvation passed. The pack worked hard and successfully caught breakfast every morning, and for three days in a row, lunch. No dinner though, and everyone went to bed hungry.
One morning, Twilight was woken with a start, as Merlia nudged her hard in the ribs. She groaned and looked up, seeing her extremely happy face staring back.
“Have we got extra game?” moaned Twilight, sitting up and scratching her ear. When she put her leg back down, the wolf’s expression still hadn’t changed. “What?”
“It’s amazing, you have to see.” She said, running to the door. Merlia wagged her tail excitedly as Twilight curiously went over to have a look. What could be so terribly exciting? For Merlia to be excited?
She came to the door and immediately heard grunting in the clearing. She went closer to the door and stuck her head through the bars.
By the mountain cliff, knee-deep in fresh snow, was Merlia’s stag. Behind him was his herd, fawns, does and bucks. Twilight gasped and her insides became fluttery. It as really them! A friend!
“Prince,” purred Merlia, and the Stag approached him. Now she knew he had a name. He trudged over to the door through the snow, and bent over to give Merlia a kiss. His huge, brown lips went all over her furry face and she giggled.
“You came!” she said, licking his head. He snorted happily.
“How did he find us?” asked Twilight, as a brave buck approached her.
“They’re very clever, you know. But maybe they’ve been chased…” she trailed off. Twilight pricked her ears. In the distance, down the mountain, came barking and snarling. Voices shouted through the trees, but she couldn’t make out the word. “Oh no.” Merlia started breathing fast.
“They’re coming!” she cried.
“Do they know how to get us out?” panicked Twilight.
“Probably. If they realise I can’t get out, they’ll probably do anything.” She replied.
“I’ll wake the others.” Said Twilight, and she raced over the sleeping bundles of fur on the rug. She nudged each one of them, moving to the next quickly. Her heart was beating fast, and they needed to be extra quiet, just in case.
“Get up everyone!” she barked. Skye awoke in surprise, staring at Twilight in alarm. “They’re coming! We’re betting busted out!” she urged them up, and a lot of groaning followed.
“What’s happening?” mumbled Ginger, staggering up.
“Just get up!” Twilight ran to the door and showed them the enormous stag awaiting them outside.
“Whoa!” exclaimed Krieger.
“Prince is ready.” Said Merlia, backing up. “Everybody get away from the door!” she urged. All the pups ran back, as the mighty stag lowered his head and backed up, shuffling through the snow.
He grunted and powered forward, bracing himself as his antlers met the branches of the door. They jerked, but didn’t come down. Twilight noticed the horse-hair rope holding them together was getting pulled, and if it broke they would all get out.
Prince backed up again and hammered the branch, breaking some of the strands of hair. The bar was loose now. He tried again, twisting his head so a fork of his antlers hooked onto a branch. The stag’s legs shuffled back through the snow, pulling at the branch. It started to snap around the middle, and the rope was breaking as Prince used all his muscles to pull the bar out of the door.
With another huge pull, the branch snapped completely, sending tiny splinters flying. It fell to the ground and disappeared into the snow. Prince stared at it, then looked up. He stuck his head through the gap he had made, and Merlia came forward.
“You did it, Prince!” she cried, licking his head. He snorted gratefully, and backed up as she hopped over the bottom bar and into the snow.
Twilight couldn’t believe it. They were free! They were out! Now they just needed to get away. The howls and snarls from down the mountain path were very loud now, and quite distinguishable. There were shouts and roars and yelps, and clearly they were terribly angry, knowing that this herd of deer wasn’t ordinary.
“Right, we need to move!” said Merlia, listening to the sound too. The deer herd looked stressed, and Prince was really wanting to move. A doe behind him grunted anxiously with her ears back.
“Where do we go?” asked Skye, who was last out. Before anyone answered, a buck from over by the forest edge grunted, and they looked over. On the opposite side of the clearing to where they had arrived from was a gap in the trees, with another path. Twilight hadn’t noticed that.
“Move! They’re coming!” barked Copaci. Merlia nodded quickly and ran along behind a buck, who was making sure she was OK. Twilight ran on through the snow, following the others. She noticed Prince was at the back, ready to fend off pursuers.
They charged to the path and leapt onto it, running through the trees on the steep, tree-covered mountainside. It was a very strange-looking pack, fifteen deer and seven wolf-pups. But that was what they had, and they charged along looking for a place to hide.
“They’ll know where we’ve gone!” cried Ginger, looking behind him anxiously.
“Yeah! Footprints!” replied Krieger. “What will we do?”
“Right.” Said Merlia, looking at her feet in thought as they galloped through the snow. “I know! The deer will have to separate! They’ll find us again.”
“What if they’re caught?” asked Twilight. “Wolf and deer footprints are very different from each other, as well as smell!”
“Don’t worry! I know what I’m doing! The footprints look different in the snow, deeper.” Said Merlia confidently. Twilight tried to trust her, it was the best they could do.
In a moment they reached two different paths. One went down the mountainside, the other went up. The pack stopped there, and Twilight heard the Shadows far down the path, probably murdering someone at the clearing in rage.
Merlia looked down the descending path. She barked at the other one, and Prince looked at it. He grunted and galloped up it, followed reluctantly by his loyal herd. Merlia nodded to her pack and ran down the other path.
Twilight galloped after, side by side with a nervous-looking Skye. This part of the mountain was covered in trees, and they couldn’t see the valley below. They just kept running, trying to find a good place.
Soon the path went flat and then up, and they were all panting with exhaustion. They followed Merlia up, and soon there was hope.
Up ahead was another clearing, completely concealed from the rest of the world. On the mountain was a cave, not very different from the one they had already been in. Without hesitation, the pack darted in.
Twilight collapsed on the hard floor of the cave, panting. Her throat was sore and her legs ached. But it was a relief to get to some description of safety. The others were also on the ground, terribly puffed. Skye shuddered with every breath from cold and from fear. But Merlia was very restless. She paced up and down, catching her breath. She was probably worried about the deer.
Twilight was also worried, that maybe the Shadows would split and they would all get killed. Or maybe just one, or maybe the other. This plan didn’t seem to have much light at all, unless they only chased the deer and they escaped from the Shadow Lands. She couldn’t really see another good way it could end.
For now she just lay down in a black, furry heap, and hoped that something good might happen.

* * *
Twilight was awoken a while later from a little nap by grunting outside. There was also whines and she could hear a little bit of crying, which opened her eyes quickly.
She lifted her head and looked around. She immediately saw a couple of the others standing around outside, and to her delight the herd was back. But something was wrong.
She stood and ran out into the clearing, where Merlia was whining helplessly and Skye was crying.
She followed Merlia’s eyes and saw a brown heap in the snow, covered in blood.
Blossom.
She grunted in pain, her legs kicking out. Merlia bent forward and licked the wound, which made the poor fawn cry out more. Skye squeaked tearfully.
“Oh, Blossom!” she sobbed.
“It’ll be alright!” said Merlia, still trying to clean the wound.
“What if it won’t?” cried Skye.
“It will!” insisted Merlia. Twilight noticed Blossom’s distressed mother looking down at the scene.
“Get her into the cave.” Said Twilight, and the two just noticed she was there.
“Good idea.” Replied Merlia. “Here, Skye, try and get Blossom over our backs.” Twilight went and stood next to Merlia as Skye tried getting the fawn up, which was a big job. Baby deer aren’t tiny.
In a moment, after much careful hauling, Blossom was over the pups’ backs and they gingerly walked side-by-side to the cave. They went in, stumbling a little on the snow, and went to the middle of the room where Rai and Copaci were curiously watching what they were doing.
Skye lightly grabbed the scruff of Blossom’s neck and the two girls slowly sat down. The fawn slid to the ground, kicking a bit in fear. She lay there and Skye curled up next to her, talking kindly.
“I’ll get something to eat and bring back a skin rug.” Moaned Rai, getting up. Merlia nodded impatiently and he headed towards the door, followed by Ginger. Twilight heard him ask Rai if he could help hunt, before they disappeared.
“Don’t worry, Skye.” Said Merlia. “It’ll be OK. With something to keep her warm, and a little bit of food, we can heal her up.” Skye nodded tearfully, licking Blossom on the head like a mother.
Her real mother, however, stood at the door, anxiously waiting. Her hooves shuffled in the snow as she peered over Skye’s back to see her fawn. Merlia approached her and kindly purred some words to her. She snorted and tried to nudge the pup in appreciation. “It’s all right, Adiva, don’t worry.” She soothed.
Twilight looked down at Skye and Blossom, who had calmed down and was breathing slower. Skye tenderly licked the wound, with Blossom shivering every lick.
Twilight decided to leave them to it, and do something useful. They would have to try and keep away any passing Shadows. Maybe they could block up the gap into the clearing.
She went up to Copaci, who looked up at her. “Come on, we’re going to go and block up the way into the clearing.” She informed him. Copaci gave her a look of helplessness, and he probably knew he wasn’t useful for anything else. Krieger was on his back with his tongue lolling out, and he wouldn’t do anything anyway.
They left the cave and crossed the clearing to the right side, where they found the gap in the trees. But how would they block it? Copaci and Twilight had a look around, not finding much but a few logs, which would need to be shifted.
The two began moving the logs, blocking the path, so they wouldn’t be found in their mountainside hideout.

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Yay! There free.....well..for now.

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Dun dun duuuuun!! Yes, for now.....

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lol