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

[Pharoh]

I LOVE THIS STORY!!!!!

[hirokas]

@Rayan THANK YOU!!!!!
C3 has been finished! 12 pages long, that's a record.

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.”

[hirokas]

Either Tortilla and Jasper or tied, or the poll messed up...
Random Dose of TTD News!
I now have a ticker in my signature that shows roughly how long I've been writing TTD. So, apparently, it takes me about two months to do a chapter (actually, 1 and 2 were easy while 3 was very hard). I've begun work on Chapter 4, but because it's Hawk narrarated, I have writer's block- Hawk seems to give me that...
Holly is actually going to have kids, spoiler! It probably will be decently difficult, but she'll make it because she's awesome. No, neither Hawk or Sparrow will be the father; I have someone else in mind...

[hirokas]

MORE TTD news! This is becoming weekly.
Out of boredom, I made TTD wolves!

This one is Sparrow. Yes, he likes pocky. he's a voice in my head; I would know.

I managed to find one who looked quite a bit like Holly.

For some reason Hawk only has a bandana. Oh well.

The husky's name shall be Jasper, and I hope that didn't happen because of Twilight. Someday maybe I'll take some weird pictures of him.

[hirokas]

Bump I promise I'll write some of C4 tonight.

[summertaters]

Very nice! Keep up the great work!

[hirokas]

Thank you!
New poll: who is your favorite character? Maybe it's too early, but still...

[hirokas]

Bump

[hirokas]

All of the completed chapters have been posted! The newer version of C1 is up too.
I'm working on a Sparrow chapter, and, thanks to an anonymous classmate, we have our first Sparrow fangirl! Let me know if you are too; we're always looking for members, even if he says that he isn't as hot as they say.
Yes, he's a voice in my head. Everyone is (all the wolves, I mean).

[hirokas]

Bump