The Third Dawn- Realistic Wolf Novel (Another Poll, C4!)

[hirokas]

Summary
Hawk, Holly and Sparrow live a peaceful enough life. Peaceful for wolves, anyway. Holly's a rude, sarcastic two-year-old, Hawk is an overly optimistic pacifist, and Sparrow is the wolf who raised them, so he's essentially a killjoy. But it's a good life in Skypack, a wild wolf pack, a community of wolves who represent their family. The family they never had, since all three wolves are missing one or more parents.
But all this changes when Snow, Hawk's trainee, rebels against the ideals of mixed-heritage packs, declaring that only forest-born and forest-bred wolves can stay. The rest will die. Oh, and one catch: The forestborn wolves live, they just get taken prisoner as Snow's personal army.
Cultures, religions, and families change when Snow's militia sets in. Holly and Hawk have escaped, but Sparrow has accidently shown them his true past- something that could get him killed, by Snow or Sparrow's own pack. When Holly is expected to lead the makeshift rebellion that has begun, with the aide of battle-trained wolves who had been foretold of the war, it seems like something's gone right, but a fatal accident to one of the only wolves she loves nearly destroys her, and the wolves begin to wonder- will they make it out alive?

Read
Chapter One: first post
Chapter Two: was posted (see above)
Chapter Three: was also posted, but in the third post. (new title: The Third Post)
Chapter Four: The Third Post
Chapter Five: Done, haven't posted yet.
Chapter Six: Also done/unposted
Chapter Seven: Done/not posted.
Chapter Eight: Almost done, I think. I can't decide how long it will be.
13 and 14 are also done.

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[hirokas]

Hawk was cold.
He sighed deeply and wrapped himself into his tail and the soft grass surrounding him. He’d woken only a few moments earlier, and now his nose was turning a little blue from the freezing morning air. Hawk really regretted waking from his deep sleep, where he wasn’t cold. Not that the dream was actually pleasant- unless you thought that running through an entire forest while it was on fire was pleasant.
As in, not at all.
He pressed his tail a bit more tightly to the ground so he could see and glanced at the other wolves sleeping in the hollow. Hawk, his friends Holly and Sparrow, and his pack, the Skypack, lived in a ditch on a large plateau. A huge forest made a banner of green across the edges of the final hills. Across the river that stretched out beside the hills and curved into the pack’s territory was a large span of sparse woodland with a small lake in the middle of it. The forest was a good source of prey, the lake was filled with fish, and there were plentiful patches of useful herbs that the Healer of their pack, Willow, would be able to use for treating injured wolves, but the forest was totally off-limits to Skypack. The only other large, organized pack of wolves that Skypack knew of was Thunderpack, a slightly larger pack that occupied the forest and strictly guarded the border that followed the stream and separated the two packs. Sure, the Healers of the two packs were able to cross the borders to commune, but even a Healer was usually unwelcome in either pack, even though Healers were completely untrained in the art of fighting and were probably unable to launch an attack. It didn’t help that Thunderpack’s current Healer was Ice, a cold, unfeeling male wolf that rarely even spoke with his own pack and always shunned most wolves. Not even Willow, a friendly, gentle wolf who seemed to radiate a feeling of happiness, was excluded from Ice’s coldness. She’d attempted several times to befriend him, but he still held an unreasonable grudge against her.
Beside Hawk, a wolf stirred. He turned his head quickly to the source of the disturbance, relaxing when he saw Holly’s bright green eye, opened and looking puzzled. Hawk shook his head to let her know that it was all right, and she could go back to sleep. Holly sighed, but not as if she were tired; it was more like an as-if-I’d-take-orders-from-you sigh. It was Holly’s normal sigh- rebuking someone for asking, implying or saying “something idiotic,” as she put it.
Holly was, as some nicer wolves had said, “highly independent.” The slightly less polite wolves said she was “rude.” Rude wolves called her “headstrong and stubborn.” Hawk wouldn’t tell her, as he valued his health and sanity, but he was, as most rational wolves were, classified as “rude” on the matter of Holly’s temperament. Holly was brave, a great fighter, loyal and determined, but she was impossible to reason with and used her own logic, then flared up and attacked innocent bystanders when she messed up. Still, Holly was nearly Hawk’s sister, and at good times she was content and innovative. Sparrow definitely seemed to like her.
Sparrow was nine months older than Hawk and Holly. He often seemed far older than that; his past was empty of parents, he seemed troubled about his old life before Skypack, and as the commander, the second in command of Skypack, he had next to no free time and he was strained with work to do. Starsky, the captain and highest ranking member of Skypack, was pregnant with a litter of pups, and had almost no time that was not consumed by Willow obsessively checking her breathing and telling her that she needed to rest. So, naturally, Sparrow was given the burden of leading an entire pack at the age of almost four summers old. Not easy, good or full of free time.
The medium-brown male wolf was usually working for the pack these days. When he did get time alone, he usually vanished to somewhere far away from Skypack. No one could blame him, really; life as a commander was stressful and on top of that, nobody liked Sparrow. Sparrow didn’t really like wolves in general, with the exception of Starsky, Hawk and Holly. Hawk had been his “trainee.” That meant that Hawk was placed in his care at the age of seven nights with a full moon in the sky- moonskies, as the pack wolves called them- and Sparrow was to train him to fight, hunt and survive.
Starsky was the captain, the leader, of Skypack. In the forest, when a commander became a leader, they received the first part of their pack’s name as the second part of their name. Captains were the only wolves that had two-part names. All other pack wolves received natural-sounding names that they kept until death. A few cruel captains had taken the names of prisoners that their packs captured, usually giving them names such as “Unnamed.” Hawk had never seen any such prisoners, but Holly’s mother had told her some, which Holly had told Hawk. They were just pups then, ignorant and bubbly. They hadn’t realized that their fathers were dead, having been killed in the same kind of fight that Hawk and Holly would someday be in. Come to think of it, they hadn’t yet figured out they had a pack, let alone a father.
Hawk and Holly’s fathers were already weakened when they were sent into the fight that claimed their lives. An epidemic had swept through the camp and killed about four wolves of the sixteen that were in the pack at the time. The Healer at that time, Jasmine, had not been able to even guess at the name or cause of the plague that had swept through the pack. This whole time, the Thunderpack had stood by and watched the pups and wolves of Skypack die. Several fighters, grown wolves that didn’t have pups and were young enough to fight, wanted to attack the Thunderpack wolves, ignoring Jasmine’s warnings that they were not strong enough and that they could never possibly survive a fight with well-fed, strong wolves that were not ridden with sickness. The captain, Crowsky, had been too fight-ready, and he pushed the Skypack wolves into battle. He tried to goad the Thunderpack into war against his pack, but Thunderpack had actually had some sense, and they ignored him for a while. Only for a while, though- the need for revenge always thrives in a place surrounded by other’s calls for blood. Because of that, Hawk and Holly didn’t have fathers. Holly didn’t have any parents, and Hawk’s mother Feather had been too busy with the other pups, trying to push all thought of Hawk’s father out of her head, ignoring her own son because he looked too much like her unknown mate that had been killed. The revenge won out, like it always does. Hawk’s life was wrecked because of Crowsky, which would have sent any other wolf into a rage against all wolves, made her turn her back on them, made her believe that the future would only come if she fought for it and won, made her believe that life was just a battle that she had to win, and when it wasn’t, there was a trick around the corner. Holly was one of the wolves subject to the rage that revenge had thrust them into. Revenge always wins, like it had for their fathers, for Feather, for the nameless wolves killed in the battles.
Always.

Hawk tried to wrap himself around himself tighter; the pain that now sliced through him was nearly unbearable. His father had never been mentioned to him. Feather refused to speak of Hawk’s father and all the other wolves-correctly-assumed that Hawk didn’t want to hear about him. So, really, all this was an overreaction, he told himself. This would be worse if he had even known his father’s name.
Hawk jolted upward, slightly relieved that he had not been awakened by Holly, who would have yelled at him until he woke up. His father’s name-that's what he wanted to know. Yes, it was stupid and probably would make it worse, but at least he would know his father’s name. That was totally rational, right?
No, it wasn’t. He didn’t even have to make a big deal out of it, either.
He lay there for a while, debating whether or not to ask Feather. Eventually, curiosity and stupidity won out. He would ask Feather what his father’s name was.
He finally got to his feet and was about to leave, when it struck him again. It was actually a really bad idea. What if Feather broke down and, irrationally, ignored Hawk for another quarter of his life? He’d already pushed it by asking her as a pup. What was he risking by asking now?
He sat down again, a heavy thump that made several sleeping wolves open their eyes. Oh, great. He’d now blown any chance he had of asking Feather anything. Holly was asleep again by now, but Sage, Storm and Blossom’s eyes opened, while Cinder’s shut again quickly as if she would never get any more sleep.
Storm was a gray, tall male wolf. He, Cinder, and Sparrow were siblings. Storm was a strong hunter; he was a decent fighter, but he and Cinder were slight in build and shared the lack of weight and power. However, he had a sense of authority and wisdom that you couldn’t ignore. He was close to Starsky, as his brother was commander, he was the oldest fighter besides Cinder, and he was strategic and intelligent. All these aspects made him someone whose face you just couldn’t forget.
His sister, Cinder, was another story. Cinder was smart and strong, a gray-black color with blue eyes, and she often was subject to the obvious flirting of male wolves, yet she had absolutely no interest in them. She was slightly annoyed by the prospect of possibly having to stay home from fights to raise pups. Any fight. That was another thing about Cinder: she wouldn’t miss a fight for the world. She was brave and quick; her favorite strategy of outsmarting enemies was slipping out of their ready claws and teeth until they were ready to drop from exhaustion. She’d bonded with Blossom and Feather when they raised their pups nevertheless; another thing about Cinder was her love of puppies, not that she wanted any herself.
Blossom was a rare tri-color. That meant that she was an odd mixture of black, brown, and white- in her case, black and brown swirled with white patches. She was also the mother of Oak, Light, and Rose, the three youngest trainees. Or, as Holly called them, in order, Supposedly Cool, Way Too Hyper, and Maybe Decent. She still loved Rose, though; the light red, quiet little female was sweet and ready to learn, and on top of that, Holly’s trainee and almost replacement little sister, standing in for Holly’s dead brother and sister. Light, on the other hand, was the opposite of her sister: hyper, acted before thinking, and seemed oblivious to everything but herself. And extremely clumsy. And hyper- had Hawk mentioned that yet? Oh, and Light was really hyper. Oak… not so much. By a long shot. He was “depressed.” Actually, he was trying to look cool. But then again, that was Oak for you. Holly, with the help of Sparrow, had summed it up: “Oak: sarcastic, tries to look cool, fails, looks depressed, hates me as everyone else does, and, all in all, is mad/sad.”
Sage was Blossom’s mate, the father of Oak, Light, and Rose. He was medium brown, with green eyes and one white foot. He was a good all-around fighter, and he was always up for a joke. He had a wicked glint in his eye, and he frequently pranked his denmates. But he was also brave, and he was extremely loyal. Once he met Blossom, Sage had actually stopped pranking wolves for a moonsky and had rambled on about Blossom instead of his new ideas for irritating Thunderpack wolves. It was kind of sweet, actually, unless you were Holly, who took it upon herself to personally and explicitly pantomime her throwing up at the sappiness.
Hawk shook his head. Holly. Where anyone had come up with her, he had no idea. He really had no idea how they seemed to be siblings, too, what with their differing appearance- Holly’s fur almost neon orange and her eyes a defiant, sparking green, Hawk’s fur an earthy brown and his color-changing eyes, brown when he was upset, blue-gray normally- and their extremely different personalities- Holly being, well, Holly, and Hawk being quiet and observant. Hawk wasn’t usually certain that they could stay friends sometimes, but there was always something that Sparrow would say or that Holly would find out or that Hawk would tell someone that made its way back to Holly and Hawk, and they’d make up.
Hawk wasn’t really sure about Sparrow. He disappeared for great periods of time, and then refused to tell where he’d been or make up a lame excuse for leaving. Sparrow seemed to be able to keep the peace between Hawk and Holly, but he seemed to not be able to keep his own; Sparrow was distant and depressed most of the time, and the other part he seemed to be trying to put on a brave face and make wolves think, “Hey, that’s Commander Sparrow! He most likely does not have any secrets that he doesn’t want to talk about!”
Hawk was really good with matters regarding wolves; he could figure out the positions in groups, or if someone had a secret, or if someone didn’t belong somewhere. And Sparrow radiated secrecy. He didn’t fit in the pack at all, either. He was trying and failing.
He wasn’t Commander Sparrow. He was just Sparrow: creating alibis and telling lies.
Just Sparrow.
He was Just Sparrow, and Just Sparrow had a secret that couldn’t be trusted, that, if told, would get him killed.
Just Should-Be-Dead Sparrow.

Hawk shook the snow off himself, watching the slow stream of wolves flow out of the dens. Light and Rose bounced out of the trainee’s den, and Oak followed them, the trainee’s fluffy fur sprinkled with snowflakes. Leaf came out more regally, haughtily, her hazel eyes sparking with indignance. Apparently, another trainee had woken Leaf, who was more of a night wolf, from her last-minute nap.
Snow slunk out behind her, blending in with the snow and pressing himself to the ground. It was a Snow thing; if he didn’t want to be noticed, he wouldn’t be. You had to watch him to know where he was on those rare occasions when he detested attention.
Snow usually stuck out in a crowd. He was Hawk’s trainee, a strong one too, but he had come from outside the pack. He was the son of two loners, or at least that’s what everyone assumed. Snow didn’t have friends, instead spending his free time training by himself. He seemed dangerous to Hawk, even though he was just a trainee. But even so, he scared Hawk, and seemed to enjoy his trainer’s fear in a strange manner.
His sister, Leaf, shared his solitary ways, but even as one of the two oldest trainees and the sister of the strangest wolf in Skypack, she had managed to befriend Rose and control Light’s hyperactive energy, so she had some friends at least. Most wolves still steered clear of her, but Holly had taken her out for training once or twice. Their small age difference- Leaf was half a summer younger than Holly- was another factor that brought them closer as friends; Leaf was nearly Holly’s age, and very mature to top it off. She seemed to act as though she had to be responsible for her brother’s acts, and as if it pained her to have a nearly nonexistent brother, he was gone so much. Hawk didn’t have anything against her, but still kept away from her brother when he could.
Feather had woken early, as she often did. Cloud and Moon were nestled at her feet, looking like pastel-metallic parts of the scenery, what with Moon’s silver coat, Cloud’s pale silver, and Feather’s light gold. Storm was standing at a distance, watching his family. Moon was perfect combination of Storm and Feather; she’d received a tomboyish, outgoing nature with a soft side, blue eyes, and her coat was had the shiny paleness of Feather’s and, obviously, Storm’s gray. Storm was bound to be proud.
Storm and Feather’s son Sage was sleeping in a snowdrift. The wolves had woken early today, due to Hawk’s disturbance, and it was a natural trait of their unique wolf species to be unable to fall asleep after waking up; once they woke up, they were totally woken up. Most wolves tried to catch a few extra minutes of sleep, ultimately failing yet trying again the next day.
Hawk’s species were not true wolves. Having never met true wolves, their species didn’t know how to name themselves- were they the greater wolf, the dwarf wolf, the dark wolf?- and so never considered the matter much, simply referring to themselves as wolves. The older wolves and captains usually did have stories of the true wolves and how the pack wolves in the forest differed from them. Hawk, as he was proud to say, avidly studied the biology of their species, and had named them creek wolves, after the fact that they preferred running water above forests in their territories. All he’d found out in the two summers he’d been alive, though, were small traces of facts about true wolves. He knew that creek wolves had more solid coats, versus the mixed colors of true wolves, and that the creeks, as Hawk called them for a nickname, had markings when the true wolves did not. From his own observation, he’d found out that creeks could only have white or a darker or lighter shade of their base color for markings; red wolves like Holly couldn’t have brown markings. He’d also found that most black wolves were splashed all over, and with white rather than dark gray, whereas white wolves where almost devoid of markings.
Holly wasn’t so amazed with his discoveries, even though Hawk knew that they were sure to change the wolves’ world for the better. And speak of the wolf, she sauntered over to where he sat, her expression smug.
“Whad’ja do?”
“Nothing.”
Hawk stared at her, exasperated. “It’s never good when you look like that.”
“This just me being happy.”
“Don’t pretend I didn’t know that. And even though I don’t want to know, what’d you do?” Hawk groaned.
“Shove Snow off a cliff.”
Hawk gaped at her. “But he’s my trainee!”
“No, actually, I shoved Oak off a cliff. Snow’s set for this afternoon, and he gets shoved into brambles.”
“Why are you so sadistic?”
“I am not sadistic. I merely bring balance. Chaos must be brought upon this Hawk-induced euphoria. Your happy’s so loud I can’t plot or curse at the trainees.”
“Right.”
“I’m serious. This is my sole purpose in life: to annoy you.”
“Sparrow make that up?”
“Nope. Me.”
“Take you all night?”
“Nope. Last dawn, night, and this morning.”
“So, tell me why again you woke up so early?”
Hawk stared at her, numb. He realized that Holly would obviously tell Feather, and he was getting no where with Holly’s “unconventional” methods of persuasion. No mater how good she was at it, it was borderline hypnosis she was so good at arguing.
Hawk bounded away, scattering snowflakes in his wake. Several of them landed in her fur, probably her eyes, but she didn’t notice, just stared at him quizzically as she went into her mad-Holly mode. Hawk didn’t really care; he could run from his problems for the time being, he would. He’d rather be anywhere but there right then.

Next stop was hunting, but he didn’t even come close to leaving the densite. Starsky wasn’t that mad to his decision anyway; she said that he could help Willow, as Holly had to train her trainee sometime. Rose was spending all her time with Willow, trying to cram studying herbs, treating wolves, learning the old pack legends and all the other Healer stuff into a trainee’s already jam-packed schedule. Not surprisingly, Rose was failing.
Hawk had been planning a trip to Willow’s anyway. In classic big-brother syndrome, he was worried about Moon and Cloud, his half-siblings by Feather and her new mate Storm. Members of the pack were all related, and so closely that even half-siblings were counted as siblings, so that’s how Hawk felt towards Moon and Cloud. The reason for paranoia was that Hawk was prone to it, and that another one of Hawk’s research findings was that most puppies die before adulthood as a cause of being a reckless trainee, diseased, or weak. Creek wolf puppies were either big or small, and big ones generally got stuck in their mother, causing a difficult birth. The small ones like Hawk and Holly, plus their littermates usually died. Moon and Cloud were small.
Hawk looked up at the front of Willow’s den. The entrance was draped with woven strands of fireweed, a tough, bright plant that Willow and other Healers used as a warning signal to trainees and fighters, a beacon to make sure they didn’t run into it. Willow was literally obsessive in her attention to detail; she could not possibly leave an unsorted pile of herbs unsorted. Yet again, obsessing: Just another happy trait that made it even harder for the wolves to survive. But Willow’s insanity came in handy; her herbs were sorted perfectly, and she could examine wounds flawlessly.
Hawk was coming to Willow’s aid more often now; apparently, Hawk was some sort of superwolf second only to Rose in terms of Healer-usefulness. She seemed to like his company, too, for unknown reasons. He came to help her often enough, though- Willow was friendly, talkative, knew lots about diseases that creek wolves could get, and avidly supported his research.
Hawk shoved through the fireweed, and stood in the doorway awkwardly. Willow was asleep, an annoying perk that Healers got to enjoy: they didn’t have to wake up at the crack of dawn to hunt and train their tails off. No, they sat around, ate breakfast and shoved some plants around. Lucky.
“Willow?” Hawk asked tentatively, wondering she really was asleep.
He poked her, getting agitated. Yes, she was asleep, and unconsciously flaunting it too.
“Willow!” He shouted it a little louder. Wake up!
Willow raised her head and stared at him with bleary blue eyes. “What?”
“Wake up. It’s already morning.”
Willow cursed the morning a few times, then stretched. “Fine. You here to help out?”
“Yeah. Starsky said I didn’t have to hunt.”
“Oh, right, you sprained your paw.”
There was an awkward silence.
“Um, Willow, that was about fourteen dawns ago?”
“Right.”
Hawk didn’t get why Willow was trying to make small talk. They weren’t friends, related, or close, they were just packmates. So why all the friendliness? It was a daily thing, her asking him outdated questions like she was Feather, trying to check in on him and bond. Then again, Willow was like that to everyone, even Holly and Snow.
“What do you want me to do?” he asked as Willow fell into the simple, easy morning routine.

Holly was standing outside, annoyed. Her fur was radiating it.
“What are you doing?” she demanded.
“Uh, helping Willow?” he asked hopefully.
“Right. That is sooo helpful. Rose is already caught up in her training, thanks a lot”- she ignored Hawk’s glare at her outright lie-“and you’re playing with leaves and dirt, while Snow loses yet another day of training due to his stupid, idiotic, procrastinating, insipid trainer.”
“Isn’t that a bit redundant?” Hawk asked meekly.
“Shut up!” she harshed, pacing back and forth. “I can’t believe that you asked for a trainee, then ignored him completely! You have the attention span of a puppy! It’s not a game anymore, Hawk. Snow isn’t a little feather that you can ask your mommy to watch while you play with the other puppies. You have to actually do something!”
You mean the way that you’re doing something? Should I curse at Sparrow and shove trainees into thorn bushes?
“Can’t believe it,” Holly growled once more. “Whatever. I’ll take Snow out. You can go play with your friends. Have a good time.”
Hawk stared after her sadly as she stalked out of the densite, calling Snow’s name. Had he actually done anything wrong? And why was Holly feeling the need to go out so much? Why did she have to avoid wolves at any possible cost?
Did she even still like Hawk?

Hawk and Holly sit in a small nest, not bothered by anything. Holly yawns slightly, light pink mouth against bright red fur. Her green eyes are only half-open. She seems contended enough, smiling slightly as she shifts into her nest.
Hawk stares at her, for lack of anything better. Poppy, Holly’s mother, died the dawn before. Now, the big wolves are burying her. Hawk wants to stop them, tell them that Poppy can’t breathe underneath all that dirt. Why are the burying her anyway? It’s not like she’s gone forever. Wolves always come back. At nighttime, Hawk can still see his father visiting him. His father tells him all the great things that Hawk has done, compliments him. So unlike Feather. Feather is wrapped in her tail, sleeping. Her entire body moves with her breathing. Up and down, up and down, upanddownandupandownandupanddown. She is happy now, unlike all the other times. She was sad when Hawk’s brother died, and then his two sisters, and then his other brother, and then when Hawk got really sick. Hawk does not know why; they will come someday, as they always do, and visit Feather at night time.
His small brain delirious with the half-sleep he is in, Hawk loses consciousness happily.

Hawk was no longer a part of that happy, oblivious time, but it was comforting, and he lost himself in the memories of Feather and a happy Holly.


Chapter 2
Sparrow’s ears half-pricked in interest. Hawk and Holly had never fought. Tensions were high between them now. But then, he thought, they were getting older, to the age that they could find mates…
Sparrow shook his head. Hawk and Holly were practically siblings; Sparrow would never think of becoming his sister Cinder’s mate. Stupid, he told himself. Stupid, like so many other things he’d done. And here he was, about to go trotting off to the aftermath of the fire he started when he was a pup. Back in time, many seasons ago, Sparrow had lived in no pack. It hadn’t been an official pack, more like a cobbled-together group of wolves. They hadn’t even had real pack names- it was pure luck that Sparrow had received one. An image of his parents passed his mind, but he shoved it out. He had tried to forget his family; Sparrow had been abused at his parents’ hands for years, and watched his siblings die and suffer. But oddly enough, Sparrow didn’t really care anymore. He wanted to forget everyone more than anything. He’d finally found that after a while of living on your own and feeling like a murderer, you kind of lost a little sentimentality. Whatever. He’d go trot off to play in the ashes of his old life and pretend that it made him feel better. The dramatic image usually made any wolf who came by and questioned him believe that Sparrow merely missed his parents, not that he had no affection for them and had pretty much killed them. Somehow, the old pack’s site was soothing and made Sparrow a little more optimistic. Maybe Holly and Hawk would shut up because they were so mad at each other- Sparrow usually couldn’t get them to. Peace would be a nice change. Maybe Sparrow should ditch the pack and… No, he wasn’t ready. When the war started, he would leave. Gone. Bad stuff tended to follow him, and he was commitment-phobic anyways. After all, he’d started the fire when he stayed too long. He wasn’t going to think about it, he told himself. Fires were bad. Sparrow didn’t do fire. Fire wasn’t Sparrow. There. End of story.
Sparrow realized he was holding his breath and his eyes were scrunched together in anger. Why? He didn’t really know or care. He let his breath out, a loud whoosh-ing sound, and unclenched his teeth and eyes. His tail whisked once or twice over the snowy ground, creating Sparrow’s own mini-storm. Why couldn’t he have his sister Cinder’s life, peaceful, only interrupted by battles or defiant trainees? Or Storm’s, having a mate, pups and a happy, giddy life? It was obvious Storm and Cinder were siblings; they had the same gray fur and shape of their and head and tails. Sparrow’s own body was lean and small, his tail long and thick. He seemed huge compared to Willow, or Hawk and Holly, but Willow had almost no fight training and Sparrow was nearly a summer older than Hawk and Holly, and those two were pretty small in the first place. They were runts. It was the brutal truth- the two wolves had only survived because Sparrow had raised them, kept them warm.
And he hated himself for it.
Darkness was rising. That much was obvious. And Hawk and Holly would be forced into the thick of a fight for their way of life, their essence. Sparrow really had no wolf to blame but himself. He had created them, in a way, by raising them and keeping them alive. This was his fault.
Again.
He sighed, a frosty cloud of his breath appearing in the cold winter air. Sparrow got to his feet, thinking how easy it would be without snow. Or Snow. The young white wolf seemed to be the cause of Hawk and Holly’s arguments. Hawk still stood for Snow as an evil murderer, while Holly believed strongly that Hawk was delusional. Sparrow realized that his thoughts were running in circles, always coming back to the pack. Not his pack, he never called it that. It was the pack. The pack that had ungratefully taken Sparrow in. He didn’t blame them, Sparrow was really bad at fighting. He could hunt, but that was it. Sparrow began to slowly move forward, his paws stinging from the sharp rocks and snow underfoot. Sparrow picked one up, stopping in the freezing frost. The dark gray of his paw pads was tinged red from the blood vessels close to the skin on them, or actual blood- he couldn’t tell. His paw pads never seemed tough enough to make the journey to the Rock, as he called it. The Rock was the huge mound of stone that marked the site where his parents, siblings and Kira had been lost. Sparrow hadn’t told Cinder and Storm that Sparrow wasn’t actually their sibling yet. He didn’t plan to- he’d already told them about his past. But the version that Sparrow had told Cinder and Storm was a lot more fairytail-ish:
Once upon a time, Sparrow, Cinder and Storm had been cute, fluffy little puppies. Their parents Lily and Bracken had been friendly and kind to them, adoring them and showering the young pups with love. But one tragic day, the adorable trio had been stolen by humans and dropped off in Skypack, where they resided currently.
Storm and Cinder seemed to accept what he said without question, believing that they were simply too young to remember and endlessly praising their “brother” for his memory and bravery in succeeding to rescue them all from the humans. Their expressions of awe and amazement had prevented Sparrow from telling them the truth. Sparrow had been the first to open his eyes, first to be sentient, of his litter. He had told this to Storm and Cinder, and they accepted that they had probably been too young to remember. But the real story was much different.
Sparrow had been born to two wolves. That’s all he knew. He had a vague idea of their names, but it was vague. Were their names Star and Frost? Or Stone and Sun? Something like that. He had absolutely no idea. His siblings. That he remembered a bit. He had a sister named Lily, whose name was borrowed for his “mom.” And a brother named Bracken-that’s where Sparrow’s “dad’s” name had come from. Maybe another sister named Riley. But there had definitely been Bracken and Lily. They were dead now, of course. The fire… Sparrow’s memories flooded back in a rush.

Sparrow’s eyes were wide as he spun around. He had to get away, far away from his parents. Bracken raced beside him, his eyes focused straight ahead. Lily shot behind them, her eyes blazing with a fire of determination.
“Sparrow!” Bracken howled. “We need to go! They’re coming!”
Sparrow stared at him. “They’re going to hurt us again!”
Lily touched him quickly with his tail. “Sparrow, we have to get away. We’ll be fine, but not until we get away.”
Bracken fixed his brother with a hard stare. As the oldest, he seemed to believe it was his job to lead. He did his job perfectly.
Sparrow’s throat ached with fear. “I’m scared! I-I can’t do this!”
Lily’s blue eyes were filled with sympathy. “I know. We all are. But there’s water and food just ahead-we’ll steal some from the humans. It will work out, Sparrow. We’ll never see our parents again.”
Bracken’s gaze softened. “Sparrow, we know. It’s terrifying. We’re two moonskies old. We don’t really have a chance.” As soon as he let it slip, he seemed to realize. “I’m sorry-I didn’t mean-we’ll be fine-“
His voice was cut off. It would be one of the last times Sparrow heard him. “Sparrow! Get off the tubes!”
Sparrow clawed at the large tubes with human writing on them in huge black stenciling. “Maybe it’s food!”
Bracken arched an eyebrow skeptically. “How do you know? It could be dangerous…”
He probably said more, but his words were swallowed up in noise as the tube clanged to the ground in a rush of silver. The tube had opened at the edge, and a small amount of smoke had slithered out. The smoke settled in the dry grass and soon a small sparking noise had started going off. It would always remain as a warning signal to Sparrow, telling him that danger was near. The small spark suddenly seemed to find fuel in the dry, thirsty grass, and flared to the height of Bracken. Lily eyed it warily, fear igniting as fast as the flame in her blue eyes. “Sparrow, I don’t think that’s food.”
The flame continued burning, and it soon reached the size of a young moose. Bracken jumped away from it, but Lily’s fur was singed by it. She yelped as her fur’s tips sparked with the flame.
Bracken turned his gaze to Sparrow. “Sparrow!” His words were laced with fear. “What…?”
The fire burned higher and brighter. “Bracken! I didn’t know!” Sparrow’s heart filled with fear, a deep black tide that swallowed any bravery that he’d had.
Lily’s fur was burning brighter. Her blue eyes were rimmed with a long edge of white, sparking and burning with fear. She too turned to her smaller brother. “Sparrow. This is it.”
It took some time, but Sparrow finally realized what she meant. “No!” He knew that for the rest of his life, if his brother and sister died, he would be alone and blame himself. “Please no…”
Lily’s eyes turned to sadness. “We’re dead, Sparrow. The fire… We don’t stand a chance.” She fixed him with her blue stare, letting him know that they would all die and they couldn’t do anything about it.
Bracken pressed close to Sparrow. “It’s better than our parents.” His voice was fierce now, as if he needed to stay strong for his siblings. Sparrow was grateful for Bracken’s fur next to his, the last thing he would probably ever feel.
“I know.” Sparrow stood for a while, just taking in his siblings’ faces. Lily’s on fire, Bracken’s standing half-up, half-down as if he wanted it flat. Lily’s pale cream, Bracken’s dark brown with red-orange markings.
The fire grew bigger still. Sparrow looked up when it made a huge snap, the loudest yet. He nearly fell over in horror.
The fire was now bigger than any object he’d seen. Bracken’s face was lit with red, flames casting burning shadows onto it. Lily had fallen to her side, the fire blazing across her body. It was a grotesque sight, as her skin was charred and a large cut across her eye forcing it shut and bleeding into it.
“Bracken!” he wailed. “Is Lily dead?”
Bracken’s eyes now shone with cold fear. “I don’t know and I don’t want to check. Let’s go!” He shoved Sparrow forward with his head.
Sparrow stumbled a bit, but then turned to his brother. “We can’t!”
Bracken thrust himself in front of his brother. “Do you want to end up like Lily?”
Sparrow just stared numbly at his brother. “No.”
“Then come!” Bracken raced off toward the forest.
Sparrow watched in horror as his brother was engulfed by the flames, swallowed up by them, and listened as shrieks of horror in the same tone as Bracken’s as the only wolf who cared for Sparrow in the world was killed by the deadly fire that Sparrow himself had started.

Sparrow pulled himself out firmly of the memory. In the beginning of these flashbacks, so many years ago, he had come out of them gasping in pain, exhaustion, effort and a hundred other emotions. He had learned to control himself, keep himself together. He actually hated the flashbacks. Sure, it would be great if he just put up that pretense to make himself look brave and wonderful, but it was the slightly lame truth. He did miss his siblings, but he didn’t want to see them again. Did that make sense? he wondered. No, it didn’t, actually. It also wasn’t to make him brave-looking or wonderful. He didn’t want to see them because- cue the dramatics-
He was scared.
The brave wolf that had raised Hawk and Holly from pups, rescued two abandoned gray wolf pups and told them he was their brother, and was Commander Sparrow of the Skypack, was terrified of his memories. Sparrow hadn’t changed in the slightest since the fire. He was still the small, frightened wolf pup that had started the fire that killed his pack.
But on the other hand, a small voice whispered, you made a new life for yourself and became the commander.
Sparrow stopped and stared at the large rock in front of him numbly. He’d also lied about his past to every wolf in the pack. They didn’t know Sparrow, and never would. But they had met some brave, great wolf named Commander Sparrow, who could do anything, who everyone loved, who was one of the greatest things they’d ever met. No one liked Sparrow. Sparrow was an idiot, as Holly would say. He was not, as the pack thought, a great and brave commander/teacher that came from a pack that he had tried and failed to save. Wow. Sparrow was starting to like this wolf. Real Sparrow was a small, scared, wolf whose parents and pack rejected him, who had been named Sparrow because he was weak, timid and small, whose siblings died by his hand. In a case of Commander Sparrow versus Real Sparrow, the rational wolf would throw Real Sparrow out of the pack and stomp him into dust. Real Sparrow, as was obvious, was not rational. If he was, then why was he standing in front of his old pack’s deathbed? He stood in front of the Rock now. He would, yet again, have to sit on front of his siblings’ grave and know he had done that to them.

Sparrow would be sentenced to something like exile or death if it was found out that he had killed his siblings. Bracken had told him, in the only dream that Sparrow had ever had of him, that it wasn’t Sparrow’s fault that Bracken had died. Seriously, wasn’t that one of the lines of almost every single tale that wolves had thought of? “I forgive you, (insert name).” And how come when you died, suddenly you got magical powers that could make you wise and powerful and all that? Well, if Sparrow was going to get magic powers that could suddenly make him wonderful, now was a great time. Sparrow glanced around quickly.
“If the dead wolves around here that are suddenly wise and all-knowing, can I have some help over here?”
No response. He wasn’t actually expecting one.
“If you can’t help, then kindly shut up in my dreams. I don’t need you telling me that I have a great destiny in cryptic riddles.”
If they were going to listen in on his life, then maybe they actually could when he needed them to.
“I’m going back now, so if you have any special notices designed to annoy me to death, please rise out of the ground or something noticeable like that.”
No dead wolves rose out of the ground.
“’Bye, then.”
He turned around and left, feeling a little guilty.

Halfway back to the pack, Sparrow heard several familiar howls twisted together and saturated with fear. One was a little lower than the other, slightly musical and sad. The other was sharp and desperate, with an edge of defiance somehow. Hawk and Holly were, apparently, terrified. More howls that he couldn’t recognize came. He searched through them, stopping dead when he heard Starsky’s, still full of authority and beautiful, even when she was terrified. Storm’s howl came, deep and sad, pitched higher than normal.
Sparrow sighed. He was required to howl back, even when he hated his. It was to notify the pack that he was safe and ready to help. At times like this, he seriously wondered why he had ever decided to be commander. He put back his head.
Hawk had once described Sparrow’s howl to him. According to Hawk, it was sort of soft and loud at the same time, while a bit more song-like than the other wolves’ howls. He said it was low and still tinged with bits of high notes.
Sparrow thought it sounded like a choking deer.
But Hawk and Holly and the pack were still reassured by the sound. Starsky had let him know quite forcefully that Sparrow was indeed required to howl in case trouble arose. They had nearly fought about it once, but-
Starsky.
Starsky was pregnant. By now she should be giving birth. The other wolves sounded scared. Something in Sparrow’s head clicked.
He howled again, now fully understanding what was wrong. Hawk would definitely recognize the howl; he was the only one who could over long distances. Hawk had a sort of gift for recognizing howl, and he and Sparrow had always been close, sort of. Sure enough, Hawk’s footsteps sounded from about twenty moose-lengths away. Sparrow heard him tell Holly to leave him alone, and Holly told him to shut up. Hawk growled something about her never shutting her own fat mouth, and Holly said something that Sparrow didn’t want to repeat.
Hawk turned a corner and stopped, panting, in front of Sparrow. They stood in a thick pine forest. Sparrow was in the thinnest bit of it, on a dirt path probably made by humans. Hawk had some shelter, as he stood in the bushes by the side of the path. Hawk didn’t trust Commander Sparrow entirely; Sparrow had realized long ago that Hawk saw Real Sparrow when he talked to Sparrow.
“She’s having her pups, isn’t she?” asked Sparrow.
Hawk’s eyes were filed with despair and fear. “You’d better come see. It’s pretty bad.”

It was more than pretty bad.
Willow had sent a reluctant Leaf to guard the entrance. Hawk tried to push past her into the captain’s den, but Leaf shoved him backward, yipping, “She isn’t done yet!” Hawk glanced at Sparrow, pacing towards him again.
“See?” he muttered.
Sounds of pain flowed from the den, and scents of blood would reach the noses of wolves quite often. These things only added to the alarm of the pack. The wolves wailed their heads off. Sparrow was quite tempted to yell at them to shut up. Holly apparently noticed Sparrow, and trotted forward with urgency. She shot Hawk a glare and told Sparrow, “She started a few heartbeats after you left, Sparrow. She was hunting with Storm and Sage. Willow’d been forcing her to stay in the den, so she was desperate to get out. I was looking for ginger for Willow’s stores, and then Starsky just flopped over and started howling. She was way out by the south edge of the river, and Storm and Sage panicked. She was exhausted, and she looked really scared. Willow was over at Thunderpack, trying to reason with Ice ‘cause he’s being a jerk and wouldn’t give her the rue that she needed. Leaf was freaking out and she ran all the way to Thunderpack to get Willow and Willow was freaking out too. Then they got back here, but Sage and Storm hadn’t figured out how to get Starsky back yet, so Willow started wailing like some deranged human pup and no one else knew where Starsky was hunting. So Leaf went to look for me” -she shot a smug look at Hawk- “and I told her where I saw Starsky, and we got her back but it took a really long time and she hadn’t even given birth to one pup. We got her back in the den, but she started bleeding. And here we are.”
Holly told the whole story almost too quickly for Sparrow to follow. She was panting when she finished, as if trying to catch her breath.
Another pained wailing peeled from the den.
“I’m going inside,” Sparrow muttered. “If those two can, I can.” Actually, one of those two was the Healer, and one was giving birth, but Sparrow, Starsky and Willow were close enough in rank and friendship that Willow wouldn’t care. Starsky might actually want Sparrow there. Starsky’s mate was nonexistent, as far as the pack knew. He never visited. Quite a few wolves thought it was Sparrow. Sparrow was going to basically raise the pups, but he was Starsky’s commander and friend. The pups’ father wasn’t around, so Starsky and Sparrow were going to take them on by themselves.
Sparrow ignored Holly’s furious glare; she was obviously offended that she couldn’t go in. He pushed through the soft barrier of meadow grass that hung over the den.
It was not a pretty place.
Starsky’s gold coat was streaked with blood and sweat. Her amber eyes were wide and scared. Willow was trying desperately to force raspberry leaves into her mouth. Willow’s own coat was bloody and soaked with water and herb dust. Sparrow paced to her side.
Willow shot him a glance of fear. “She’s not going to make it.”
Sparrow’s reaction was kind of weird. It was like when you touch something hot, but you don’t feel the burning. It seems normal temperature, even cold. But you realize quickly that it really is hot, and then you look done and see that your paw’s burning.
That’s how Sparrow felt when his world basically fell apart. Starsky was going to die, so how was life still going? Starsky and Sparrow both came from backgrounds that would get them killed if they told of them. They had kept each other afloat. They had raised Hawk and Holly. They led the pack together. And she was going to leave.
Sparrow sank to the ground next to Starsky. Her eyes became a little less fear-filled and wide when she saw Sparrow. He kept her gaze. They didn’t have any romantic emotions, but they were close enough to the point of being nearly siblings. Sparrow put his head to the floor of the stone cave that was the captain’s den.
Willow closed her eyes. “Don’t tell them yet. Don’t think about her dying. Don’t think about who you’re going to pick as your commander. Because she definitely will die if we think that way.”
Sparrow nodded, trying to give her the attention he could spare from Starsky. He felt like a hole was opening up inside of him. He recognized the emotion from when he was a pup. Starsky had filled the hole, and she was going to die. He remembered Willow’s commands and forced his attention to the pups.
Willow gasped.
Sparrow looked around for a moment, but then saw Starsky. Her eyes were sealed shut, and a small pup was lying next to her. The pup was gold, like her mother, but looked as if she was gold but then had been rolled in dust. She lay in a fetal position, with her eyes shut and her tail tucked over her legs.
The dusty gold pup suddenly gave a great shudder, then let loose with a loud, life-filled roar. She unfolded herself, and began squirming towards her mother’s stomach. Willow picked the pup up and placed her at Starsky’s stomach. The puppy gave a huge cough in response.
Willow’s face was shocked, teary, triumphant and joyful at the same time. Sparrow was frozen in amazement. The pup had been ready to die just moments ago, and was now very much alive and suckling.
The pup gave an angry yelp as her mother shuddered once more. It seemed that it was much easier for her to give birth now. Starsky closed her eyes and strained.
A new pup lay by Starsky. He was gray, with a white stomach, paws, tail-tip and ears. There was a patch of white on his muzzle that looked like a blizzard; it faded into the gray at the edges and was slightly paler than the other white markings. He lay un his side, one paw stretched out, the rest curled towards him, tail cured across his body, ears flopped forward. His eyes were shut tight.
Sparrow stared at the small pup. He looked half-dead, yet there was a sort of charge to him, a sort of power that would someday arise. Sparrow poked the pup with a paw.
The gray pup gave a quiet, weak snarl and struggled upwards. He fell backwards immediately.
“Lick his fur!” Willow called through a mouthful of fur; she was doing the same thing to Gray Pup’s sister. Gold Pup gave another angry yip and battered Willow’s mouth with her paws. Sparrow looked away to Gray Pup. Gray Pup was untangling his limbs. Sparrow stopped the small pup’s progress with a paw. He pulled Gray Pup closer to himself and began licking the pup’s fur the wrong way. The puppy immediately smacked him with a paw.
Sparrow nosed the pup. It was the best he could do without hurting Gray Pup badly.
Gray Pup growled and hit him harder, leaving tiny claw marks on Sparrow’s nose. Forgetting himself, Sparrow put his paw down on Gray Pup’s tail.
“Stop it!” Willow growled.
Sparrow’s head shot up, after Gray Pup gave a squeal. Starsky was wide-eyed and tense again. She gave a low whine of fear, and the next pup was born.
This pup was female. She was also gray, with two white paws. Her left front paw had a streak of white that trailed up from her paw, across her tail and onto her tail to give her a white tail.
Willow picked the small pup up in her jaws, but the small pup responded with a low, angry growl. She scratched Willow’s face with her small paws. Willow yelped and dropped the pup at her mother’s stomach, then turned to Sparrow.
“That’s the last one,” she told him.
Starsky seemed to be reviving herself. With a deep cough, she lifted her head.
“I suppose you two want me to name them?” she asked, her eyes sparking with their usual humor, even after she had nearly died giving birth.
Sparrow’s depression vanished, to be replaced with excitement. “Yes, can we?”
Starsky nodded. “Who was born first, Willow?”
Willow’s eyes made it obvious that it was as bad as Sparrow thought it had been for Starsky not being able to remember the birth. “The gold female that looks like you.”
Starsky nodded and studied it, while Gold Pup gave an angry squawk and threw herself at her mother’s stomach.
Willow’s eyes gleamed. “She’s strong. Any names?”
“Bird,” Starsky said, staring pointedly at Sparrow.
Sparrow and Willow nodded, while Bird gave a big huff and settled for suckling some more and Sparrow just felt uncomfortable and as if Starsky expected something important of him that he couldn’t live up to.
“The gray male was born next,” Sparrow had told her as a gust of wind blew into the den, ruffling Gray Pup and Little Pup’s fur. Bird was still snuggled into Starsky’s fur, warm and safe.
Starsky nodded. “How about Heron?” she asked, looking as if there was a distant memory connected to this name, something that made it a need rather than a suggestion.
Willow nodded. “Any reason?” she said, asking Sparrow’s question.
Starsky tensed. “No.”
“Alright,” Willow said, her voice soothing again, as if it would be absolutely life-threatening for Starsky to become even slightly anxious. Maybe it was, Sparrow wasn’t a Healer. “Moss for the other girl, then?” Willow continued.
Starsky nodded thoughtfully. “That suits her.”
“She has the looks of a Healer, and it will suit her even more if she decides to train as one,” Willow pointed out.
“Really?” asked Starsky absentmindedly. “They’re all named, then.” She gazed down at them, eyes full of affection.
Sparrow felt a shove o his shoulder, and turned to see Willow. “Let her rest,” Willow told him. “She needs it.”
As Willow and Sparrow left Starsky and her pups, a soft, contented sigh issued before all became quiet in her den. Starsky was peaceful at last, had survived the birth, had three healthy pups. Willow was obviously pleased with herself. From the looks of everything outside Starsky’s den, everyone else, including Hawk and Holly, were calm and carrying on as normal. Everything was fine again.
Except Sparrow.

[Haaaze]

I love this story. it's my second favorite book after Warriors, even though it's about cats. But i think you should write more and publish it! It would make a great series.

[hirokas]

Thanks so much! I had NO idea anyone liked it that much. I'll write more today.
Edit from several months later: must use post for chapters. Here's 3 and 4!
Chapter 3
Holly stormed back to her den, her mind boiling over with images of Hawk, ready to attack her, and Sparrow, saying “I’m going in,” like he was going on some war mission instead of watching a birth. Seriously? There was definitely something messed up with guys.
Holly circled in her snow-patch for a moment, then flopped down with an angry huff. Sometimes she wondered if she was right when she counted Hawk as a brother. Her brother, if he existed, was not that stupid. Hawk was still obsessed with Snow. His new attitude toward his trainee? “SNOW IS GOING TO KILL ME! WE’RE ALL DEAD! NO!”
Guys.
Speaking of Snow, Holly’s trainee Rose needed some training, and Holly had to go hunt… Holly sighed again. She had to get some sleep sometime soon. Holly’s dreams nowadays were either nonexistent because she was awake, walking to the river, or they were riddled with memories of her mother. Holly’s mother Poppy was the only person that seemed to care about her, but Poppy was hundreds of moonskies old, far too old to carry pups, far too old to survive another litter of pups. Poppy had survived about a season before dying of fever caused by her pups, orphaning Holly without any siblings in her litter. Holly had a brother and sister, but they had never met her and Holly knew that the wolves in her pack pretended that they alive for her benefit. Her siblings were dead.
She was alone. Very, very alone.
Holly pulled herself out of her depression and sat up. She rocked back and forth slowly. She’d go see Rose and give her fight training. Holly put her paws out and began moving towards the three rocks that made a staircase up to the pack’s densite. It was an odd gait, one that mostly involved walking with her front paws and dragging her hind legs. She was sitting the whole time. Was this what Hawk would classify as a symptom? she wondered. He seemed to believe that she was sick. No. She was sick of mind. Sick of heart. But she wasn't sick. Winter was cold. Holly was orphaned, alone, tired and worried. Maybe she looked a little insane. It wasn’t Hawk’s business, anyway.
Holly finished dragging herself to the entrance. She finally felt strong enough, so she got to her feet and walked the rest of the way to the trainee’s den. She shook her snow-dusted reddish fur and poked her head in the den, then shrugged and shoved past the trainees, stepping on a half-asleep Oak, who yelped angrily. Holly rolled her eyes, muttered “Chill, Oak,” and finally came to a stop in front of Rose.
“Rose?” Holly murmured.
Rose opened an eye, and then sprang to her feet. “Holly! What are we doing to do today?”
Holly made a soft murring sound, which was a sort of quiet wolf happy noise or laugh. “How about fight training with Light and Leaf by the forest?” Holly suggested.
Rose’s eyes widened. “But… I wouldn’t be fighting you?”
Holly shook her head. Rose had only trained with Holly. Rose had never tried fighting with an evenly trained opponent that wasn’t holding back so she could gain self-esteem. Of course it would scare her.
“No, Rose,” Holly told her gently. “You’d be fighting Light, but she’s just as strong as you. You’re perfectly matched. You’ll be completely fine,” Holly added as the trainee’s expression of unease grew. Would she really be able to fight?
Rose nodded, still looking a bit frightened. She followed as Holly swept her tail towards the entryway and broke into a run.

Storm and Sage were waiting with Leaf and Light at the edge of the ditch. It was a windy day, and their fur was buffeted by the gales of wind. Storm matched his namesake, appearing to be a dark gray cloud. Sage just looked tired and annoyed.
Light bounced at the sight of her sister Rose. Leaf nodded politely, not looking at Holly. Of course, Holly thought, her brother Snow would have told her about Hawk and Holly’s fight. Leaf would be feeling guilty.
Rose dashed over to Light. “Fight training today.”
“I know!” Light squealed, bouncing up and down. “And there’s a pack meeting this morning!”
Rose brightened considerably. Pack meetings were every half-moonsky. Thunderpack and Skypack would meet in peace and share news and meet each pack’s wolves, but the next day they became enemies again. It was acceptable to have friends in the opposite pack, so long as your friendship didn’t threaten your packs, involve lying to your pack or it didn’t become more than a friendship. Rose had a friend in Thunderpack, another female trainee named Apple. Holly and Tide, Apple’s trainer, had become grudging friends due to their inseparable trainees.
Sage sighed. “Yes, pack meetings are great, but unless we start training, Cloud and Moon will be fighters faster than you!”
Light straightened and nodded somberly. “What do we do first?” she asked Storm, her trainer.
Storm shrugged. “You tell me.” His fur swirled around his face, so he spoke through a mouthful of fur.
Light screwed up her face, concentration burning in her dark brown eyes. She shot a glance at Rose, who shrugged.
“Um… I attack, right?’ Light pointed out, confusion in her voice.
Sage prodded Rose, and drew her aside with his tail. He whispered something in her ear. Rose’s spring-green eyes gleamed with uncertainty. She whispered something to Sage, who shook his head.
Storm didn’t even flash a glance at the two. He kept his gaze on Light, whose fur was ruffled with embarrassment.
“How?” Storm asked patiently.
Light’s fur stuck up straight, and a small amount of red was visible underneath her dark brown fur. “Um…”
Sage flicked the ground with his tail, flashing a look at Rose. She nodded.
“I would jump at you?” ventured Light.
Suddenly, in a flash of pale red, Rose sprang and landed on Light. Light was completely caught off guard, and she merely yelped while Rose pinned her and battered her with her front paws.
Sage nodded again, and Rose released Light. Rose trotted back to Holly, her tail held high and eyes happy.
“Well done,” Holly murmured, pleased with her trainee.
“And that is exactly what you would do, Light,” Sage told her.
Rose’s eyes were bright and clearly overjoyed at the praise given to her. “Can I try again?” she asked Sage eagerly.
This time, Sage glanced up toward Holly, clearly asking permission. Holly nodded- she seriously needed help with Rose’s training; the trainee was obviously behind.
“Yes,” Sage told her. “Look- you put your paws like this, sort of bunched up, put your tail out, and crouch.”
Rose nodded, looking determined. She swept her gaze across the wolves in front of her, trying to pick a victim. Holly murred again at her eager trainee; Rose’s green eyes were glinting with mock ferocity. Holly turned away from her trainee and trotted towards the trees, yelling, “I’m going hunting!” to Storm and Sage. There were some whispers and giggles at her announcement, then a scuffling sound.
Holly rolled her eyes. The trainees laughed at everything. She took another step forward.
“Ha!”
A small laugh sounded, and then Holly was attacked by a huge lump of fur. The lump rolled Holly over and pinned her on her back. Holly was staring into Rose’s eyes, triumphant and framed by her pale red fur.
Rose’s eyes sparkled. “Did I scare you?’ she asked with absolutely no concern for Holly’s health.
“Yes,” Holly admitted, while Rose murred loudly and shouted back to the others, “I got her!”
Storm sighed. “We can see that quite obviously, Rose. Get off Holly.”
Rose reluctantly stepped off of Holly, still looking pleased. “I got you!”
“I know, Rose,” Holly told her.
“How about we go back to the pack?” Sage suggested. “It’s almost midday. The pack meeting will be soon.”
Holly nodded. Between hyper trainees and lack of sleep, she was exhausted. “Lead the way.”
Sage took a step in front of Leaf, sweeping his tail to tell the other wolves to follow. Holly nudged Rose and slowly walked up to the others.

Hawk was waiting for her, looking annoyed. “Where were you?”
“Training my trainee, idiot, like you should be. They’re called trainees for a reason,” Holly told him.
Hawk’s eyes narrowed, but there was a flash of uncertainty. “You know what he’s like!”
“Yes, I do, and he’s a trainee about half the size of you that can fight. Oh no! We’re all dead because Hawk is scared of his little tiny trainee!” Holly rolled her eyes. “Snow. Is. A. Trainee. Hawk, would it kill you to actually teach him, or would it be an opportunity for him to kill you?”
Hawk stared, gaping, at her, and Holly sighed in exasperation. Hawk goes and acts like someone died and made him captain, then gets all sad and whiny whenever someone mentions how irrational he was? Well, all Holly could say was: if you’re going to do that, then act like you aren’t terrified of your stupid trainee, and if you do, don’t throw a tantrum whenever someone mentions him!
“Hawk, you need to do some training with him,” Holly reminded him harshly. “He’s going to train himself.”
“But he is!” Hawk blurted. “He leaves every dawn and comes back a little later and he’s all mad and tired!”
Holly sighed. “Yeah. Your trainee trains himself?” But there was a core of truth and logic to his words. Snow did leave every dawn and come back more irritable and tired. He did seem to learn new fight tactics and moves that no Skypack or Thunderpack wolf had heard of. He did seem to know how to fight and hunt, even when his trainer was too scared of him to talk to him. He did seem to hate Hawk, and actually throw himself into fights with him as if Hawk had some terrible crime on his conscience that Snow had to punish him for. Holly jerked her head up involuntarily. Hawk was right.
Snow was somehow training himself. He hated Hawk and probably wanted him dead.
And Hawk might not stand a chance in his terrified and tired state.
Holly’s mind was whirring. It was possible that Snow was training alone, and it seemed that he was to Hawk, but what if that was merely a cover for some other thing that Snow was doing? What if Snow went hunting that time of day because of routine? What if Snow was plotting against his pack? What if, what if, what if?
“Hawk.” Holly’s tone was softer, a little more gentle, but still steely. My insane, paranoid sort-of brother. “I know you think Snow is out to get you. But did you consider that Snow just goes hunting that day? Or that he just needs time to think? He’s kind of always mad at you, so it’s a little idiotic to decide that he wants to kill you. Hawk?”
Hawk’s eyes had widened in fear as if he hadn’t considered that possibility, and he was now trying to squish himself into the ground. He was pressed flat to the soft grass that coated the densite’s ground, his fur was spiked up, and his tail was fluffed out like a porcupine was sticking out of his rear end.
Oh no. Seriously, was she able to talk to Hawk without a show of terrified behavior from him? Yeah, Holly was scared for her pack too. A fire raged in her mind, burning away any thoughts not based on Snow and obliterated rational reasoning. But would it really be intelligent to tell Hawk “I KNOW! SNOW IS GOING TO KILL US!”?
“Hawk, I realize that you’re convinced that Snow is evil. He is a trainee. He does not possess the power to kill you. Okay?” Holly attempted logical conversation in her best I-know-you’re-crazy-but-I’m-not-telling-you-that voice.
Hawk slowly retraced from his terrified position. “Okay…” he muttered uncertainly. “But what if-“
Holly’s gaze swept the densite, and she cut Hawk off without looking at him. “Snow is not going to kill anyone. He doesn’t have a reason or way.”
“But what if he…” Hawk just trailed off at the end of his next sentence, as if he didn’t want to consider the possibility of his new thought, or he was trying to be dramatic. Either way, his “reasoning” was getting annoying, and knowing Hawk, he’d trailed off because it was dramatic.
“What if a giant beaver fell on your head?!” Holly yelled. “Hawk, kindly finish your stupid sentence and then be as dramatic as possible!”
Hawk scrunched his face up like Holly had clawed it. Oh, so he actually was scared. “Hawk,” Holly said, trying to pretend she was totally calm and indifferent and that she hadn’t just set her former friend into a meltdown. “Just finish your sentence.”
Oh, joy. More drama: Hawk was scrunched up to the point of hilarity, and he was acting like Holly had told him to bang rocks on his head and then go play with the nearest bonfire he saw. This was the reason that Holly woke up angry. Or, as Sparrow put it, attacking any living beings within reality. What Sparrow didn’t know was that Holly yelled at trees and rocks, too. Oh, what fun insanity is.
Holly sighed as Hawk flopped over onto his side. Seriously? That was pushing it- way too far. She was about to deliver some smart comeback, but then heard Storm’s call to bring the wolves over to the camp entrance.
Every half-moonsky, the two packs in the forest to share news, discuss treaties and anything else. There was a truce during that time, but if it was broken by the other pack, the attacked pack was free to fight. It had happened before once, and that had been one of the bloodiest wars that the wolves knew, the second war in their history. Holly sometimes wondered if her father’s father’s father’s father had been killed in that fight.
“Hawk, no one really cares or is pleased when you do that,” she reminded him harshly. “Now get up and let’s go to the pack meeting.”

Thunderpack didn’t look happy.
Their captain, Bluethunder, was standing at the entrance of the clearing, waiting for the Skypack wolves. He was frowning deeply, and Grass, the commander of Thunderpack, was speaking quickly and quietly. Holly strained her ears to her what Grass was saying.
“…but Apple said that she’d seen him with them!”
Holly stiffened. What could possibly have happened that Apple could have seen, for Thunderpack to be in such an uproar?
Bluethunder shrugged, and seemed to contemplate his commander’s new information. Holly had to push her ears even farther forward to pick up his quiet reply.
“I’ll ask Starsky about what she’s seen. If she has found any evidence that supports Apple’s theory, I’ll announce it here. It’s possible, Grass, but not certain. Go calm them down, will you? And tell Rock to stop giving Dark and Steel those glares.”
Okay, so what was Apple’s theory? From the sound of it, Thunderpack was either upset at or blaming some trainees named Dark and Steel- whatever that name meant, what was “steel” anyway?- for some random wrong that they believed had been committed. The two trainees could very well be the “them” in Apple’s story. But who was “him?” Apple had seen somebody with “them.” Holly glanced at her pack- they’d entered the clearing where the meetings were held, and most were conversing with Thunderpack wolves. Good, Holly thought. She’d be able to talk to Apple or Tide without looking odd.
Holly darted over to Rose, who was trotting happily alongside Light and Oak. Leaf hung back, but was close enough to be called part of their group. Holly fell in beside Rose.
“Rose? I saw Tide and Apple, do you want to go talk to them?” Please, please say yes, say yes, say yes…The words became a quick, obsessed chant in her mind.
Rose looked up at her, a curious expression on her face. Her thoughts seemed easy to read at the moment: Why, oh why did I get the crazy trainer? But Rose seemed to shrug off her worries about Holly’s mental health, and nodded happily.
“See you, Light!” she called over her shoulder as she tried to keep up with Holly, who was racing as quickly as possible over to Tide and Apple. Yes, Holly was compulsive. No, she didn’t have a problem with it. And she didn’t see any reason why anyone who did should be anywhere near here. That was the reason she spent time with trainees and male wolves: they were often too oblivious to notice anything, and were up for anything Holly could think of doing. Although, for the “males” bit you could also throw in “likes fighting, running around maniacally and annoying anyone and everyone.”
Rose skidded to a stop beside Holly. Holly now stood in front of Tide and Apple, and they didn’t look great. Tide was sitting stiffly, her eyes darting around wildly as if she was about to be attacked. Apple was a tiny heap of brown fur on the ground. Her paws were crossed over her nose, blocking her vision, and she was curled up in a small ball.
Well, now it was obvious that Apple wasn’t pretending to have seen the “them.” Holly took a deep breath and sat down next to Tide.
“Tide?” Holly glanced over at the gray-blue she-wolf. Tide had looked up, frightened though Holly was using the gentlest tone possible. Her eyes darted to Apple quickly, as if Holly was going to attack her.
“What?” Tide’s voice was quiet and sad, not at all matching her ragged, depressed appearance. She seemed to calm a little bit at Rose’s presence, and Holly gestured for the light red trainee to come over; maybe she would calm the frightened pair further?
Rose stared wide-eyed at the two depressed wolves. Apple was one of her best friends, and now she was curled into a little frightened ball. Not very happy.
Rose whined softly. “Are you sure they’re okay?”
“Of course,” Holly told her. Yes, she was lying. No, it didn’t matter. Much. “They will be.”
Rose nodded determinedly. She trotted to Tide’s side and hesitated, glancing at Holly, as if to say, Are you sure?
Holly hesitated. She’d already lied to Rose once about the well-being of the two wolves, so what was she supposed to say? Finally, Holly nodded.
Rose sat down next to Tide and cocked her head. “So, what happened?” she asked, sounding gentle and genuinely curious. She fixed her light green eyes on Tide, the picture of innocence. Holly made a mental note to consult Rose the next time that she ever wanted to get a story out of someone.
Tide looked upward and raised her head slowly. She blinked a few times, and a small amount of the fog covering her eyes lifted.
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “Apple was the one who saw them.”
Rose nodded understandingly. “Do you think I could try to wake her up?”
“Wake up?” Tide blinked, looking confused. Then she laughed weakly. “Oh, you don’t have to. She’s awake. Not sane, no, not sane, not at all, but she’s her, yes, she’s here…”
Holly stared at Tide in alarm. Tide was maybe a summer and a half. Now she was blabbering like an old Healer. She wasn’t making any sense, nor did she sound like the young wolf that she was.
She didn’t have a lot of time to think it over, though. As if in a daze, Rose turned to Apple. She prodded the dark brown trainee’s fur, looking concerned, then closed her eyes, and stood absolutely still.
For that small moment, Holly couldn’t see anything but the two wolves. Her mind was completely focused on wishing for Apple’s revival. And she could not take her eyes off Apple.
Apple’s fur quivered and her legs twitched, as if she was trying to wake from a deep sleep, and it finally struck Holly that Apple shouldn’t really be unconscious if she’d merely seen Dark and Steel talking to Snow. Had something happened to her that was to frightening for words?
Holly looked towards Rose. The young trainee wore the same expression that Holly did- her eyes were troubled and guarded, as if she was unwilling to share how bad the situation was.
Apple twitched with a sharp jerk, her legs splaying out, her head thrashing. The Thunderpack wolf’s eyes popped open, and Holly realized that she had never seen Apple’s eyes. They were actually quite pretty, sort of forest-green, she was thinking, when Apple twitched again and Holly’s attention was focused on her.
The final spasm seemed to make all the difference. Apple coughed and shuddered, then stretched. Her eyes seemed to focus, and she flinched when she spotted Rose so close to her.
Rose eyes popped like she was a young bird, and it would have been comical if it hadn’t been such a tense situation, almost. Only almost
Holly stifled a sigh. So much drama. The trainee wouldn’t be so messed up if all that happened was that she saw Dark and Steel talking. So… why the show?
As if on cue, Apple shook her head and sat up, looking actually pretty healthy. Holly looked at Tide questioningly.
Tide looked down at her feet and sighed sadly. “Trauma.”
“What?”
Tide glared disdainfully at Rose’s question. “My half-aunt or something was a Healer. Trauma is extreme shock, and sometimes it can send our type of wolves into stress-induced comas. Apple was completely frightened, and hit her head on a rock, therefore rendering her unconscious. The only reason we put all the effort into getting her here was for proof.”
“Proof?”
“Against Snow.”
“For what, eating his kill before taking it home?” Holly rolled her eyes, and Rose glanced reproachfully at her.
“For attempted murder on the entire forest,” Tide said gravely.
There was a moment of quiet.
“Right, Tide.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes. I’m not kidding!” Tide shouted, her voice gradually rising with hysteria.
“Okay, then,” Rose said. “How’s he gonna go about it?”
“First, he wants to start killing all the wolves that weren’t born in the forest. Then, he wants to attack anyone who doesn’t support his decision. The rest, he said, can live.”
But why’s he want to do this anyway? Holly wondered.
“Why?” Rose asked, echoing Holly’s thoughts.
“I don’t know!” Tide said. “He just will. I think it’s some insane idea about how we aren’t pure enough. I heard Dark and Steel talking him, about how they’d start the plan immediately.” Tide stared at her. “I fully believe that they mean it.”

The rest of the pack meeting went by in a blur. Holly was impatient and her mind was racing. No thought could be complete or understandable. Everything in her head had shifted focus to Snow.
It was difficult to believe that a small, introverted young wolf could or would take over the forest. Why would he? Was Tide telling lies, just to throw the Skypack wolves off and so Thunderpack could attack them easily? But the reality had became too apparent; everything just clicked into place and Holly would make better use of her time planning how to tell the other wolves than suspecting them.
Rose might have said some things to Holly during the meeting, but she’d wasted her breath. Holly wasn’t really noticing anything, just nodding whenever she thought she heard someone’s voice next to her.
Tide’s voice and scent had vanished into the crowed. Her fur was now lost in the mixture of wolves. Holly hadn’t even seen her go, much less been looking for her. But she did have some idea of where Tide had gone: after Apple woke up, chances were that Tide had gone to consult the Healers, who had received a lengthy training in medicine rather than a few passed-down terms from relatives- Tide’s assessment was really nothing more than a guess.
Holly became a little more aware after some time, and jumped when she saw Hawk right next to her. He had a confused expression, as if it was only rational for him to be scared. Holly’s half-asleep, freaked-out face appearance might’ve helped, too.
“What do you want?” she sighed, after pretending she hadn’t seen him proved useless.
Hawk seemed to brace himself. “What happened to Apple?” he asked.
“Nothing,” Holly answered, trying to seem offhand and failing.
Hawk began to look exasperated. “Really, what?”
“If you want to know that badly, I’ll tell you later,” Holly said, knowing that it would annoy him.
Oddly enough, Hawk believed her. “Okay,” he said, and wandered off.
Holly’s tail swished in the snow as she stared at the snowflakes that had been unsettled. The snow was more watery now, a sign of springtime. Good, so at least there would be something nice about whatever fights that would be fought, Holly thought. Then she realized how much she sounded like Hawk and quickly switched to another train of thought.
She sat for a while, feeling idly bored. She couldn’t remember a time when a pack meeting had gone so long, and she was being serious, not exaggerating. What was keeping everyone? Whatever, she could ask Hawk later.
Finally, she heard Starsky’s order to leave. Holly jumped up jubilantly and sped after her pack, glad that she could go home.

Sparrow seemed on edge; Holly guessed with annoyance that Hawk had told him how Holly hadn’t wanted to tell anyone anything and hadn’t listened to the meeting. Usually, Holly listened carefully at the meetings, and not because she was into politics. She simply liked to comment sarcastically on everything that the captains said. Today would have worried Hawk, because he worried about everything and because Holly had offered absolutely no commentary and appeared to be falling asleep. At least, she assumed she looked sleepy. She felt that way.
Sparrow glared at Holly, probably orchestrating a series of accusations to hurl at her. Hawk merely stared off into the distance with a strangely happy expression, probably imagining what drama the war would bring. He would likely feel at home, Holly thought sarcastically.
Sparrow marched towards Holly with Hawk trailing happily behind.
“Since you’re not going to tell me yourself, what happened?” Sparrow asked her wearily.
Holly smiled slowly. “Why should I tell you?” she countered.
Sparrow stared at her. “You know, the joke gets kind of old when you pull it constantly. We know you’re going to tell us-“ Holly stifled a laugh; maybe Sparrow knew but Hawk seemed to not know anything in his daydreamlike state and was obviously contradicting Sparrow- “you pretend you won’t, okay. We get it.”
Holly glared at him. “Fine, but the pack’s going to go insane if the hear. Tell Starsky we’re going hunting and we can talk about it somewhere else. Sparrow shook his head, looking suspicious. “I can do it on my authority. Oddly enough, I do have a somewhat high rank.”
Holly nodded. “Okay, then. Let’s go.”

“We do need to catch some prey on the way,” Hawk reminded the other two wolves dutifully. “It’s going to look weird if we can’t catch any food.”
“It is the middle of winter, hadn’t you noticed?” Sparrow asked absentmindedly.
“Yes, but it’s thawing,” Hawk pointed out. “More animals can find the plants they have to eat, and there should be some prey.”
“Hypothetically, Hawk. We’re not actually hunting.”
“Right.”
Hawk had snapped out of his slightly disturbing stupor, and was now bantering easily with Sparrow, while Holly occasionally called someone out for being stupid. Sparrow had a place in mind to talk, and since Hawk and Holly had not had any suggestions to offer they had assumed that Sparrow knew what he was doing and had decided to remain silent.
After a short while Sparrow announced, “Okay, there’s a good hidden route along here that we can follow.” There three wolves walked in silence, Sparrow and Hawk probably waiting for Holly to start and Holly herself not knowing how to start. She finally decided to just tell them the whole story.
When Holly had finished, she received mixed reactions. Sparrow continued steadily along as if he had known all along that Snow was planning total destruction. Hawk stopped dead as if it were the worst possible thing to realize that he wasn’t just paranoid towards his trainee.
Actually, it kind of was.
Holly was about to ask what came next when she received an answer, sort of. A small brown and white puppy barreled through the brush ahead of them and stopped dead on Holly’s paws, staring up at her with exuberant green eyes.
Holly heard a sharp intake of breath from Sparrow and Hawk. She realized that they were worried that she would attack the pup and sighed. Just to spite them, and because the puppy actually was really cute, she leaned down to the puppy. It was male by the scent of it, but it didn’t smell of any pack. Oh well. That’s what questions were for.
“What’s your name?” Holly asked the pup. Hawk relaxed, but Sparrow stiffened. Holly bit her tongue, trying not to turn around and yell at him to stop judging her. Hooray for stereotypes, Holly thought.
“Forest!” said the puppy happily. “I live over there.” Forest waved his short tail at a vague gray line of thatched material that smelled of the bored-looking wolves it enclosed. Holly nearly growled at it, angry that it kept her fellow wolves trapped, but didn’t want to scare the puppy.
Hawk didn’t seem so subtle. “You live over there?” he asked incredulously, gaping. “Willingly?”
“Sure!” Forest said. “It’s great. They give us tons of food and they play with us too!”
“Wait,” Sparrow said. “Who’s ‘they’?” He was frowning.
“Humans!” Forest replied brightly.
The pack wolves groaned collectively.
“Joy, we’ve got a captive wolf for help,” Sparrow muttered. “I’m sure this will give us all the answers we’ll need.”
“Come on, Sparrow,” Hawk said. “He might know something about Snow.” Apparently, Hawk had smelled Forest’s gender too.
Holly glared at him in disgust. “Really, Hawk? If you were a parent, would you tell your pups that they were all going to die?” She looked at Forest, who had thankfully just been sniffing some nearby buttercups and had not heard Holly.
“I guess not,” Hawk said, “but logically, shouldn’t his parents know? Snow’s targeting captive wolves, and his parents are probably captive too. I thought you’d figure that out, Holly; you’re usually very smart…” He trailed off at Holly’s expression.
“Shut up!” she shouted. “Let’s just ask Forest, okay?” She looked around for the puppy, but only saw a brown-white tail disappearing into the snowy foliage. “Oh, great,” she sighed. “Let’s play Hide-and-Seek with a captive puppy.”
“You should really be more optimistic,” Hawk suggested.
“Just shut up,” Holly growled, and she followed Sparrow into the bushes.

It turned out that the pup’s family wasn’t that far. Holly, Hawk and Sparrow followed him to the strange woven gray stuff, where Forest slipped under a part of the material that had a hole torn in it and a ditch dug underneath. Holly gritted her teeth as she tried to fit under it without tearing out too much of her fur.
“What is this stuff called, anyway?” Holly asked the puppy, glaring at the material which now had several tufts of red and brown fur stuck to it and had left Holly’s skin stinging.
“Oh, you mean the gray thing? It’s called a chain-link fence,” Forest informed her, sounding very important.
Holly nodded. “Nice.” She looked out towards the wolves milling around inside the “fence,” or whatever Forest had called it, and tried to find some wolves that resembled Forest.
Forest noticed her. “My family’s this way, come on!” Holly and Hawk followed him obediently, whereas Sparrow sighed and muttered something before coming.
Forest came to a bouncing stop next to two adults and two other pups. One of the adults smelled male and was so dark gray he appeared black. The male- who was almost certainly Forest’s father, unless there was some other insane backstory going on- was also splotched randomly with white and had amber eyes. A wolf who smelled female and was, as Holly’d said before, probably Forest’s mother, stood next to the male. She was red-gold and had medium brown eyes, white paws and a white chest. The two pups that stood next to them also smelled female. One was pale gray with bright blue eyes and white paws, a white tail and a white patch on her chest. The other was brown and white, like Forest, with slightly lighter green eyes, but that was really the only difference. Even their white front paws and stomachs matched.
The parents now stood, watching the pack wolves, but didn’t look apprehensive; in fact they looked quite welcoming. Big mistake, Holly thought. If they acted like that to every wolf who passed through their place, they were going to end up losing some pups. Maybe it was just Holly, though; fighters were trained to defend against strangers, and Holly was extremely naturally apprehensive of other wolves.
The two puppies wrestled on the ground, but looked up when Holly, Sparrow and Hawk got closer to them.
The female adult looked directly at the pack wolves. “My name is Cider, and this is my mate Bishop. Who are you?”
Weird names, Holly thought, but Hawk answered her politely. “I’m Hawk, this is Holly, and that’s Sparrow. We’re from Skypack, one of the wolf packs in the forest. We live down the river, on the plateau.”
Bishop looked like he’d never even seen the river, much less the plateau that Skypack lived on. “We’re rescue wolves, from the humans…?” Bishop faltered when he saw that the pack wolves were almost as confused as he had been. “Basically, we’re the human’s pets,” Bishop amended.
“Oh.” Hawk appeared to be struggling to maintain a polite expression, and his disdain was becoming apparent. Sparrow was just staring at the ground, trying not to laugh, and Holly was staring back towards the packlands, trying not to growl at Bishop and Cider. “Well, we need to talk to you,” Hawk continued. “We’re investigating a certain wolf in the forest.” Holly winced at how much he sounded like a curious puppy.
Bishop and Cider stared at the pups. “Can we take them?” Cider asked.
“Sure. Why not?” Sparrow finally spoke up, sounding like he didn’t care. He probably didn’t, actually.
“Piper, Misty,” Cider called softly. The brown pup looked up and trotted over to her mother, but the gray puppy, since her wrestling partner was gone, instead stared at a bug climbing a flower, fascinated.
“Misty,” Cider said, a little more forcefully. The pup, Misty, looked up and noticed her family, then stood up and followed them. Holly wondered why they were walking away, when she saw that Hawk and Sparrow were walking towards a corner of the enclosure. Holly hurried after them, trying to pretend she’d known that they were leaving all along.
“Holly, can you tell the story?” Sparrow asked.
“Why not you?” Holly growled, but resolved to after he stared at her, remembering that wolves’ classic staring contests for dominance with Sparrow were not easily won. It was like he never blinked. Also, because she was the one who knew the story.
Holly told the entire story, how Hawk had been frightened of Snow, how Snow had been so secretive, how the pack meeting had gone. When she finished, Cider and Bishop looked utterly perplexed and terrified.
“So, we’re just here to warn you and ask if you’ve seen any of Snow,” Hawk told them. “He’s white, with some gray spots across his face and body. He’s got blue eyes. See him?”
“No,” Cider answered thoughtfully, “but remember Shine and Pepper, Bishop?” she asked her mate.
Bishop nodded and turned to the pack wolves. “We originally had five pups, but our last two, a female named Shine and a male named Pepper, went missing about a month ago. We never saw them again.” Bishop stared at the ground.
I would bet anything that Snow kidnapped them for an army, Holly thought. Hawk and Sparrow seemed to have reached similar conclusions; they both looked worried.
“Shine is gold-brown, with blue eyes, and Pepper is gray with brown eyes,” Cider added helpfully. “Tell your pack to look out for them, please.”
“Okay, thank you,” Sparrow told them.
All together, Hawk, Holly and Sparrow sprinted from the cage, their hearts pounding and their minds racing, filled with adrenaline and having no idea of the future.

On the walk back, they were mostly silent, but once Hawk spoke up.
“So, Snow’s definitely going to try to kill us then?” he asked.
“Yes, almost certainly,” Holly replied, keeping her eyes focused on the small mound ahead that was the plateau that they lived on.
“So, what now?” Hawk asked. “We fight? Are we the heroes or something?”
It was probably a rhetorical question, but Sparrow walked in silence for a minute, then replied, “Yes, Hawk, I think we are. I think we are.”

Chapter 4
It was a normal day again, or as normal as it could be, what with the difficulty of keeping Snow’s possible plans. Who, in their right mind, would attack someone tons of helpless pups along with fighters? Who would decide that even the smallest wolf was a threat? Who would go so far as to attack an entire forest and build a war force against it? But Holly and Sparrow insisted that they had more information before accusing Snow. Well, Sparrow insisted, and Holly had gone along with it as to annoy Hawk, as usual.
The previous dawns had been quiet, and Holly, Hawk and Sparrow had not spoken much, out of a combination of thinking and awkwardness. It was too difficult to be cordial and talk when they all knew how likely it was that the forest’s time was coming soon. Sparrow was out more often, for reasons Hawk could only guess as to be fear. Holly was more sullen, if that was possible, and she hid in bushes more often, plotting who knew what. Knowing Holly, though, she was probably just wracking her brain for ways to wreck people’s days. Classic Holly.
Whatever the reason, they didn’t see each other much. It was possible that solitude was just a result of paranoia, but how did you figure out a side effect of a lifelong trait? Paranoia was normal; maybe solitude was just a passing phase, maybe it would come in handy for whatever was about to happen. Whatever that was.
Hawk slumped downwards; he was sitting and leaning against a large rock, hiding in the shade. It was cold, being the end of winter, but Hawk was happy to note the end part. Next moonsky it would be spring, and far warmer. Prey would be plentiful, and all would be well, if Snow hadn’t launched his plan by then.
Hawk’s sadness and nostalgia were nearly audible when they returned. Was there anything that wasn’t going to change? Even Holly was obviously more studious and relaxed. Sparrow was slipping up in his charades. And Hawk was visibly scared for the first time he remembered. Normally he’d be happy, maybe helping out with the puppies in the pack. Now he was thinking over what could possibly happen whilst hiding in the shade of a snowy boulder. Holly, Sparrow and Snow were formerly the only wolves who lied and slunk around the densite. Now they’d been joined by Hawk, who had promised himself to never lie. Look at him now. Hiding something from his pack that could kill them. Yet another thing he now had in common with Sparrow. Hawk was yet again looking up to his old mentor, only this time he despised it.
It was kind of his fault, though. Hawk’d been responsible for Snow, and look where he was now. Ready to wreck his forest without a shred of regret that anyone could see. Ready to kill Hawk, his trainer. Did he even care at all about Hawk? Was there any small bit of him that didn’t hate Hawk’s guts? Was it possible that deep down, Snow still liked Hawk, who had basically raised him? Was it possible that Snow could come back to everyone, and abandon his visions of destruction?
No.
It was painful, but it was so true; Snow was gone. Metaphorically. He’d crossed the line of caring. He didn’t know anyone but himself anymore. He was on Snow’s team now, and he wasn’t going to come back, so Hawk was going to suck it up and just accept it. That would be easy, right?
No. Again. He was kidding himself, in a sort of melodramatic way. A sad melodramatic way. Something wishful again that would never come to pass, as if one of the songs in wolf howls about never giving up. Something like that, something easier said than done. Something happy for optimists blinded by happiness. For wolves like the former Hawk, something small to content wolves and satisfy them when they thought everything was horrible for them, boo hoo.
Now he sounded like Holly, too. Where was he going to end up if he kept it up like this? Shoving trainees off cliffs? Cursing his head off at Starsky?
Like Snow?
Anything else, he thought. He didn’t want to think about Snow.
Against some protest buried deep in his head that she was too attentiative, Hawk went to see Willow.

Willow was curled into a small ball, sleeping. Her herbs were stacked carefully on the stone floor, and Rose quietly played with some extra fireweed strands in the corner. Hawk hadn’t realized she was here; that was going to make it harder for him to think about Snow, so it was probably good.
Rose looked up when she saw Hawk entering, and shrugged. “She was asleep when I came here.”
Hawk nodded, kind of worried about Willow. “Can I try to wake her up?”
“If you’re insane enough,” Rose said, shrugging.
He didn’t have to. Willow came to a split second before Hawk reached her, and she was panting and staring at nothing with wild eyes. Her eyes finally found their ways to Hawk.
“Snow!” she whispered.
She apparently didn’t see or care how confused Hawk was. “What?” he asked, completely lost.
“Snow. He’s going to take over the forest… and he’ll kill them… and everyone’s going to change… and Skypack will die…”
Rose and Hawk froze, now extremely confused and scared. “Willow, come on!” Rose shouted forcefully. She glanced at Hawk. “It’s a prophecy,” she told him. “She had a dream and saw everything that she just saw. It was probably a little clearer, but anyways, whatever she just said is very likely to happen. Not all of it, just most of it. You’d better go, anyway.”
She really hadn’t had to saw anything. Hawk was already gone.

“So, what you’re saying is that we’re right?” Sparrow asked.
Hawk had run to the fighters’ den and got his Sparrow and Holly when he had left the Healer’s den. All three of the wolves were now following the same trail they had followed several dawns ago, when they met the captive wolves.
“Yes. Almost certainly,” Hawk said. “First Cider and Bishop, now Willow, and she gave a prophecy. It’s pretty much given.”
“Why would he, though?” Sparrow asked himself. “Snow, I mean. Why would he want to destroy the forest?”
“Because he does,” Holly said, rolling her eyes. “Weren’t you even listening three dawns ago? I told you what he was doing.”
“Right, but why would he destroy the whole forest?” Sparrow asked.
“Actually,” Hawk commented thoughtfully, “’because’ references the cause of doing something, and to do something because he wants to do something would mean that the cause of doing it was because he wanted to, so there should be an underlying cause.”
Holly and Sparrow stared at him.
“What?” Hawk asked self-consciously.
“It’s nice when you correct sentences, Hawk,” Sparrow told him, “but when you give us the full explanation, we get headaches.”
“And it makes me want to rip your throat out,” Holly added helpfully. Sparrow shook his head at her. “Fine. Maybe just attack you.”
“Not even that,” Sparrow said wearily.
Holly glared at him. “What’s the point of having claws if I can never use them?” she asked, looking irritated.
“You’ll get a chance, soon enough,” Sparrow said. “Just not on Hawk.”
“Why not?” Holly asked, seemingly mystified.
“Shut up,” Sparrow said, not even looking at her.
Holly’s eyes brightened. “Hey, you sound like me! I have taught you something!”
“Do you want Snow to hear us?” Sparrow asked
“Yeah.” Sparrow sighed. “Okay, maybe not. Why are you correcting all my sentences?”
“They are grammatically incorrect,” Hawk pointed out.
“Let’s just get this over with,” Holly growled.
The three wolves crept under the fence, trying not to be seen. Hawk and Sparrow were doing well, as the snow had partially melted in that area and the grass underneath was dead and brown. Holly’s red coat, however, stood out like an elk in a tree, and Cider noticed her immediately. Holly groaned loudly while Cider ran over.
The goldish wolf, usually so bright and happy, now held her head down and dragged her tail on the ground. Her brown eyes were dull, and her coat was spiked in some places while in others it was flat, as if Cider had tried to smooth it in an attempt to appear unruffled by something.
Holly, in an unusual show of compassion, asked her, “What’s wrong?”
That seemed to be the wrong thing to say. Cider squeezed her eyes shut and tucked her tail between her legs. She didn’t speak.
Hawk stared across the fenced area, looking for Bishop. If Cider was this depressed, then how was Bishop holding up? Hawk decided to try Cider again.
“Please, Cider,” he said quietly. “We have to know. We might be able to fix this.” Hopefully, that was true.
Cider looked up slowly. “You shouldn’t be here.”
Hawk flinched at the sound of her voice. It was raspy and dark, as if she hadn’t drunken anything for days. Her eyes, now seemingly boring holes into Hawk, were darker than a few moments ago, and her tail was now pressed to her side. She wasn’t the same Cider at all.
Sparrow looked at Hawk, his face cautionary. Staring straight at Cider, without moving or blinking, he said, “We know. But neither should he.”
Cider’s shoulders slumped like a heavy weight had been taken off them. The clouds in her eyes lifted, and she looked at Sparrow calmly.
Now with a clearer voice, she said quietly, “Why is he, then? He’s done too much.”
“Can you show us?” Sparrow asked, strangely gentle.
“Me.”
“You?” Sparrow asked, sounding confused but still with a light and soft tone.
“Yes. Me. He said I wasn’t good enough.” Cider’s voice was short and slightly wild-sounding.
Sparrow nodded, as if finally understanding something, his eyes becoming something strange, like an old memory that he didn’t like. “Oh. He tried to kill you.”
Hawk stood, numb with the accusation against his trainee. No matter how true it was, it was still an accusation, and the reality only made the shock worse. How could Snow have done that? He would’ve liked to ruminate on the possible motives and cause, but Cider’s voice cut his thoughts short.
“Yes. He didn’t succeed. But he did for Forest.”
Yet again, the shock that hit was Hawk like being dunked underwater. One cold, freezing feeling after another with no rest or pause to absorb it. Forest was dead. By the cause of his own trainee? No. It couldn’t happen. Snow didn’t have the means necessary…
Thankfully, Sparrow answered some of Hawk’s unspoken questions. “Can we see the body?” he asked. It wasn’t going to help out Hawk very much in the way of closure, but at least he might figure out how it happened.
Cider turned around, her head drooping again. She’d retracted into her own mind, most likely remembering, as Hawk was, her young son. The body, now, Hawk reminded himself, trying to make himself think in the cold, stiff way that Sparrow had. Maybe it would be so painful.
Nevertheless, it was.
By the time the reached the circle of trees were Forest’s body allegedly lay, Hawk felt like he’d shatter into a million pieces if he heard anything more. Thankfully, Holly didn’t say anything, which may have made Hawk just crumple up on the forest floor.
The four wolves now stood before a small lump of dirt, which Hawk assumed was covering Forest’s body. He steeled himself, not wanting to see at while wanting to know the answers that would only come from seeing the body with his own eyes.
Cider pawed at the dirt silently, tossing small amounts to the side. She growled at Holly when the pack wolf tried to help, and Holly for once backed away, even whining quietly. But the look she gave Hawk made it clear that it was all a show, and that Holly clearly outranked Cider. Why was Holly worrying about ranks instead of pup’s deaths?
When Cider uncovered Forest’s body, her eyes were dead and dark again, and she ran off into the other side of the fenced area.
Forest’s body wasn’t as bad as Hawk thought it would be; it was worse, but so were Hawk’s coping abilities. He stared at the body silently, then put his head up and howled.
He was cut short by Holly.
“You idiot!” she growled. “Do you want Snow to hear? We aren’t supposed to even be here, and even the stupid captive wolf knew that!”
“Holly, shut yourself up,” Sparrow growled back.
“Fine.” Holly’s teeth were bared, and she was almost nose-to-nose with Sparrow.
Both their heads turned, though, when they heard soft footsteps that Hawk knew they recognized.
The newcomer, though, was red-gold, not white and gray, and carried no pack scent. Cider had come back, and following her was a black, gray and white shape that Hawk knew as Bishop.
Cider’s eyes were wide; she most likely didn’t expect or want some strange wolves fighting by her son’s body. Bishop sort of peeked out from behind her.
At Cider’s feet lay two small puppies, a brown one and a gray one. Piper and Misty. Cider shuffled them along, occasionally nipping one when she didn’t move. Both pup’s expressions were incredulous and mystified, as if the news of Forest’s death was news to them. Their faces brought up a new question about Forest.
“Cider,” Hawk began, trying to sound conversational- or at least as conversational as you can sound when discussing the death of someone’s pup. “How long ago did Forest die?”
“Just this morning,” she said, now looking as confused as her pups. “Why?”
Holly lowered her head, her eyes now closed. “Because,” she said quietly, a strange feat for Holly, “that was when the murderer was here.”

After explaining that Snow was the murderer and telling Holly off for being so cryptic, Sparrow bid the captive wolves goodbye and assured them that both they and Snow wouldn’t be coming back. He’d had to drag Holly out by her ear, as she wanted to sweep the enclosure for Snow, and she did end up scratching his muzzle badly enough that she drew blood. After he shouted at her again, the procession continued on, and Sparrow, probably in an attempt not to be further attacked, agreed to let Holly run the rest of the way back. Her response was almost funny in the childlike way she reacted: bouncing up and down, then racing off.
The silence between Hawk and Sparrow was sharp and obvious; they really didn’t have anything to say. They’d both seen the body, and they both knew that Snow was still in the outskirts of the forest by the enclosure. Sparrow’s eyes were dark and thoughtful, and he appeared to be dwelling on something.
It was Hawk who finally spoke.
“Why did you let her go?”
“Who, Lily?” Sparrow asked absentmindedly, as if that was his default answer.
Hawk was intrigued. “Who’s that?” he asked. “Lily? Where’s she from?”
Sparrow seemed to snap out of his daydream. “No where,” he muttered. “Who do you mean?”
“Lily, the one who just were talking about?” Hawk asked tentatively.
“No, I mean the one you asked me about before that,” Sparrow grumbled.
“Oh. Holly. You knew Snow’s still here.”
Sparrow sighed, stopped walking, and turned to Hawk. “Because she can handle herself and she knows the enemy. You, on the other hand, would try to work out a truce and go down trying to make friends.”
“No I wouldn’t!”
“Yes you would, and you know it. Holly’s here, now be quiet and try not to be cursed out. I think you can handle that.”
Hawk still felt annoyed that Sparrow was assigning different tasks, but when the red streak that announced Holly’s arrival came into clearer view, he did stop talking and listen idly to Holly’s heated rant.
When they all arrived back at the densite, only Rose noticed them, and that was just so she could tell Holly about what had happened in her absence and worry over Sparrow’s cut, so that was normal. What wasn’t was that everyone was out of their dens and staring up at something.
A small gray flash streaked over the top of the rock where Starsky made announcements. It was directly over her den and conveniently located. But the distance from the rock to the ground was about the size of a moose, and would prove fatal if anyone fell.
Hawk was still confused when he saw the pup.
Moon was atop the rock, dashing back and forth with her brother. Cloud seemed to lose his footing a few times, and whenever he did every single wolf watching would gasp, and Feather would howl sadly. Storm was sitting next to her, and he looked terrified.
Holly, Hawk and Sparrow just stared at the two puppies, but thankfully Starsky had just come out of her den for whatever reason, and noticed the pups. She scrambled up the side, ignoring Willow’s pleas to let someone else do it, and snatched one of the pups- Cloud or Moon, Hawk couldn’t really tell.
The remaining puppy stared down at his sibling and skipped to the edge of the rock for a better look. Unlike his sister, though, he managed to hop from rock to rock until he was at the height where Starsky could get him to the ground safely.
Feather breathed an audible sigh of relief.
Starsky glanced at her sister, then straightened.
“Some of you are probably wondering why I came out anyway. First of all, it’s slightly difficult to sleep with puppies running around above you, and second of all because there’s an announcement I have about these two.”
Moon’s eyes brightened, probably thinking that it was a good announcement- she was an eternal optimist- but Cloud’s shoulders slumped. Like Hawk, he seemed to think that he was going to be punished, and he glared at his sister.
“As you’ve probably noticed,” Starsky continued, only looking at the pups, “these two have reached trainee age.”
Cloud’s eyes brightened, and Moon looked like she wanted to bounce up and down.
“Blossom, as of now it will be required of you to train Moon.”
Blossom nodded, and she watched the new trainee as Moon skipped over to her trainer.
“I’ll train Cloud,” Starsky said, only looking at Cloud’s astonished, happy face and, yet again, completely ignoring Willow’s worrying.
The crowd began to disperse slowly, with Cloud and Moon dancing around their trainers happily, and all the younger wolves’ eyes turned to Willow. A popular custom in Skypack was that the Healer would tell the story of the Dawns, the way that the packs were all created, after pups became trainees. Late at night, all the younger wolves would wake up and sit in a circle as she told the story. No one knew what happened in Thunderpack, but it was probably similar.
Holly didn’t like the story- she made snide comments the whole way through- but Hawk still remembered the night when they had become trainees: she had listened with wide eyes and great attention, nudging Hawk whenever he started to fall asleep. Knowing Holly, she did love the story, but wasn’t, as she said, “soft” enough to admit it.
Willow was retreating back into the den, tail swishing. Cloud and Moon had left their trainers to follow her, and Rose, Light, Leaf and Holly were following after them, with Oak dragging behind and sulking.
Hawk trailed slowly after the group. Snow wasn’t there, so he was sort of breaking the customs as well as who knew what. He should be here, but then, wouldn’t he just ruin the story?
Feeling slightly shallow, but happy, Hawk followed the others into Willow’s den.

The interior of the den was rather small, so it was a tight fit, but all the wolves managed to squish in. Holly wound up next to Oak, who glared at her sullenly, and she happily told him that he was something rather inappropriate. Light was next to Rose, and both trainees’ fur was fluffed up and spiky. Leaf sat by Hawk, and her eyes made it clear that she was not available for conversation.
Once everyone was settled, Willow began her story.

“Hundreds of springs ago, before anyone any of you remember was born, a huge plague was transferred from the humans to their dogs, and in turn to the wolves. More than half of them died; it was nearly mass murder, you can’t imagine. Brave fighters, small pups, mothers, captains. Of course, back then nothing was very organized so they were just leaders. They only spoke in body language, too; they couldn’t communicate very effectively.
“Finally, when the strongest fighter had fallen, the leaders of all the packs agreed to leave. They would travel to a new home, a better home, to raise their pups in peace. They could be safe and continue the generations.
“At the same time, the dogs’ humans and family were dying. Being dogs, they didn’t want to leave, but their leader died finally, and all the humans left with most of the dogs. The remaining dogs tried to survive, feeding on scraps and corpses, but they had no water and became sick from the infected food and meat. They too decided to leave with the strongest among them.
“The two groups, now nearly infection-free, traveled slowly to a new land. The weak died until the disease died out among them, and they arrived in a beautiful forest filled with a lake and herbs that the more medicine-oriented wolves remembered as useful for treating disease. They couldn’t find anything for the strange epidemic, but they doubted that it would come back anyway.
“The only problem with the mixed-breed group was that they numbered over a hundred. They couldn’t possibly make their own pack that large. At least, that was the logic of most of the wolves. One of them, Thunder, decided that he could find a way to overcome the population and make it work. So, one dawn, Thunder announced himself as leader of Thunderpack.
“This was, as some of you know, the first dawn.
“Needless to say, he didn’t. Food was scarce, and the lower-ranking wolves didn’t get any at all and died of starvation. Some wolves left the pack in rebellion. Some of the loners were captured by humans yet again. But the ones that stayed in the pack began to make a plan.
“The rebelling wolves told Thunder of their decision to leave and make their own pack, but he didn’t take them seriously. So the rebels attacked, killing many of their own kind and in turn, themselves. They were not prepared. Thunder and an older rebel wolf who couldn’t fight stood back and watched, helpless, as their armies destroyed each other.
“After dawns of bloodshed, Thunder and the old wolf called for peace. They announced that they would fight each other to save the remaining wolves.
“The fight lasted for seven dawns and nights. It was bloody, and no one knew how they both survived. But when they finally broke away, Thunder had been bested. The rebel wolves had won their freedom.
“But the fight had taken its toll on the old wolf. He staggered away, and then died in the shade of a tree. The rebels were stuck in a period of grief while trying to find a new leader.
“The good news, though, was that the dawn he died a young brown-and-white female stepped forward. And you all might want to listen, because this is how our pack was created. The female announced herself to be Sky, granddaughter of the old wolf. She said that, to prevent the bloodshed and high population, the wolves would split into two packs, one led by Thunder and the other by herself. She laid down the basic rules, detailing the life of a Healer, the role of a mother, the separate territories. She created the basic rules, and that’s why we call them Sky’s Laws, after her.
“The moment that the dawn ended- by the way, that was the second dawn- Sky and Thunder took their wolves, went their separate ways, and both lived long lives before dying peacefully. Sky carried pups many times, sadly only having one litter live, and Thunder became a father. The Dawns became an important part of our history, and the reason we came to be this way.”

Willow looked up at the audience. Light was asleep, Rose was exhausted-looking, Oak looked annoyed, and Holly was rolling her eyes. Only Hawk remained attentive, staring at her with wide, excited eyes as he always did. He obviously loved the story; after all, he’d filled in many of the blanks that Willow couldn’t. He was rather obsessed with peace and nonviolence, something that would come far too soon, but he was still a good wolf.
Contented and a little tired herself, Willow gestured that they should all leave. She watched each of them go, from the sleepy Light to the sarcastic Holly. Only Hawk actually stopped to say goodbye.
If only he knew how long he has to live.

[hirokas]

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[klinea34]

this is an awesome story! cant wait for next part!!

[hirokas]

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