(WIP) Cry for the Moon ~Last update 3/20

Subject: (WIP) Cry for the Moon ~Last update 3/20 Sun Mar 07, 2010 3:00 pm

Inspired by "Never Cry Wolf" (excerpt in "Bears and Other Carnivores")

--

~One~

And suddenly, there was light.

Krallour was mystified by this new thing called... sight. Finally, she could see the forms of her mother and brothers and sisters instead of just feeling them. They had seemed so big before, but now they seemed even bigger. Her mother's pelt was white tinged with gold, and her amber eyes laughed happily at Krallour. In wonderment, Krallour turned her head, looking at the three other wolf pups next to her. She had no idea how she could see, but it must have just been time to open her eyes.

Her two sisters were different colors; one was white, like their mother, but her upperside was grey like their father. The other sister was purely a silvery shade, with orange eyes like a dark cavern.

"What are their names, mother?" Krallour asked, turning her muzzle back towards the white wolf looming over her pups.

"You know yours, Krallour," Mother said gently, and tipped her nose up towards the two females. "The white one is Arolet, and your grey sister's name is Arosabre."

"Who's he?" Krallour asked, pointing with her ears towards her brother. He was considerably larger than her, as well as her sisters, and he had a dark grey pelt tipped with black.

"You know him already, don't you?" Mother laughed, smiling.

Krallour looked at him again, eyes narrowed. "Oh," she said, suddenly remembering the long time ago. "He's Yarwhik, right?"

"That's right," Mother said, nudging Krallour gently.

"Whee!" the young wolf giggled, and dashed over to her exasperated siblings.

"Come on, Krallour," Arolet scoffed, flicking her head upwards. "You know our names."

"But I'm the youngest," Krallour whined, lowering her head and tail in slight submission. "I couldn't hear mother when your ears were open because I wasn't old enough yet."

The trio of wolf pups broke out in laughter and, seeing the humor in her statement, so did Krallour. Playfully, the four wolves began chasing each other about in a tangled mess.

There was a sudden weight on Krallour's back as one of her siblings leaped on her, hysterical. Playing along, Krallour dropped, exposing her light underside to who she noticed was her brother Yarwhik.

"Gotcha that time," Yarwhik said with only a smile.

Krallour then realized something as she gazed at Yarwhik. Slowly, she stared down her front, observing her pitch-black pelt that grew lighter as it went more towards her belly.

"I'm dark, riiiight?" she chimed to Yarwhik.

"You bet," he replied, looking as if he was going to leap on her again, even though she had already submitted.

With a shove of her paws, Krallour was able to rise to her feet again, keeping her head and tail low to signal that she did not want to fight again.

"Like the sky," she commented, tilting her head towards the first winking stars. The huge fireball was already lowering itself below the horizon, as if to inch away from a predator.

Krallour wanted to say something else, but she didn't know what it was. She lowered her muzzle again to see Arosabre dashing towards Mother.

"Is Father coming back soon?" Arosabre asked, staring up at Mother with pleading eyes.

Mother giggled, her eyes gleaming down at her pup. "Of course, dear," she assured, strengthening the statement with a comforting nudge of her wet nose.

Krallour looked down at her paws. The ground was covered in bright green grass that slowly bowed with the sun as dusk approached. She had never seen a color this hypnotizing before; the final rays of light that were about to disappear over the other side of the world tinted the grass a glowing teal.

"The grass is pretty," she said absently, and then returned her focus to her siblings.

"You're being slow again!" Arolet teased from afar as Mother stalked off with the other three pups.

Startled, Krallour broke into a run. "I'm coming," she called back, only slowing when she finally reached the rest of her family.

--

When the large disk of light finally broke out into shining above her head, Krallour looked up to the fully-revealed stars. Father would be back from the hunt any minute now; that she knew. As she returned her gaze to the three other pups, they were mapping the stars with their eyes as well. Krallour wondered what the instinct for wolves to look up at the sky was about.

Curious, she padded over to Mother, who was staring at the vast yonder as well.

"Why do we always look at the sky like that, Mother?" she asked, titling her head.

Mother looked downwards with her eyes without moving her muzzle, which Krallour thought was kind of creepy. "I can show you after dinner, during Resting Time," she offered before returning the rest of her head to a position that allowed her to see her pup without being too scary.

Krallour jumped with glee. "Really?" she squealed, bouncing about. "Oh, boy!"

Apparently taking the enthusiastic reply as a "yes," mother turned around and glanced towards the horizon at which the sun had set only a while before.

She had been doing that for several seconds now. Krallour was confused and also wanted to know what it was for. In wonderment, she stared at Mother, trying to make out her expression.

Without warning, Mother let loose a loud bark, and Krallour staggered back, as she had gotten a chance to witness Mother's dangerous teeth. She did not want to be torn up by those teeth. The thought scared her, but she knew for sure that her mother would never try to hurt her.

Still confounded, Krallour followed Mother's gaze, and immediately knew what she had been staring at. The pup's somewhat poor vision had only just revealed to her the group of wolves pacing at high speed towards the group of five.

"Father's coming back!" Krallour called, looking back at her playing siblings. They all immediately froze in their rabble-rousing, and glanced towards the shape thundering towards them.

"Awesome!" Arosabre exclaimed, leading the other two pups in standing next to Mother.

It wasn't long before the shape of wolves finally let each take their own form, and a few split up to go back to their families and pups. However, one canine retained his path, and skidded to a stop before the group.

Krallour stared in awe. She had never seen Father before. He was a large, handsome wolf with a black pelt, which had a gray upperside. It was an odd pattern she had never even wondered about, but now she was proud of Father just for that.

"Father!" she yelped, excited.

He directed his attention down to her, and also for the first time she glimpsed the calm brown eyes staring down at her with contentment. It was only then that she noticed that he was carrying something in his maw.

"I brought you something," he rumbled, tossing the bundle onto the ground in front of them. It was a bird, big enough for all the pups to share.

"Wow!" the pups gasped simultaneously, and then spoke in unison again. "Thanks, Father!" At the same time, they all dug into the bird with their tiny fangs.

This was Krallour's first time tasting meat as well. She hesitated a bit more than the others, and sniffed nervously. Despite her pessimism, the prey smelled better than any milk she had ever tasted. Intrigued, she opened her jaws wide, and tore off a piece of meat.

Instantly Krallour was completely satisfied. She swallowed, her mind singing with the wonderful taste.

"How come you get better teeth than us?" Arolet asked enviously, but also partly joking.

"Not her fault," Yawhik said defensively between bites. He immediately lunged into the meal again.

"Do we still have to drink milk?" Krallour whined to Mother. "I like this better."

Mother shook her head. "You're old enough for meat now. Unless you don't want to eat it all the time..."

Arolet immediately shrugged.

Within a few more minutes, the only things left of the bird were feathers, beak and bones.

"That was delicious," Krallour said, rolling onto her back with pure satisfaction.

She was thinking only of the meat for a short while until she suddenly remembered something.

"Mother, what was it you were going to show me? About the sky?"

Mother sat down pensively, but appeared to know what she was doing. "Oh, that."

The pups immediately turned towards Mother, focusing on only her, as if Father didn't exist. He just followed their gaze and encouraged Mother with a blink.

"Wolves do have a special habit for looking at the sky," she told them. "Especially before they learn how to howl."

"Howl?" Krallour asked, mystified by the word. She tilted her ears in puzzlement. "That sounds important."

"It is," Mother said with a nod. "It's another word for a wolf's singing. No one else does it."

"Really? We're unique?" Arolet said, her eyes a bit wider than normal.

"Wolves are renowned for their singing," Father interjected, but no one looked in his direction except Mother.

"Sometimes during Resting Time wolves decide they want to sing," Mother continued. "It ends up turning into a huge chorus of howling."

"That sounds kind of complicated," Krallour added again. "Can you teach us?"

"It's mostly instinctive," Mother replied. "You'll know how next time we start."

"Can you start the singing?"

Mother hesitated for a moment. She appeared nervous, or maybe shy. "Well.... all right," she breathed, and then paused. To the pups' confusion, she tipped her muzzle towards the sky again.

Krallour shuddered. Get on with it, she thought, but in truth even she was a bit afraid.

And then, like a falling star, Mother opened her mouth and began to sing.

Krallour shook harder. It was the most bewildering, and yet sweet sound she had ever heard since her ears could hear. Frozen with wonder, she listened as Father joined the howling not long after.

I don't want to miss it, she urged herself as other wolves began to add their voices. There were a variety of them, all projecting poems into the night sky, but Krallour didn't have any ideas for what to sing.

Just do something random! she screamed inside her head, and was finally able to will herself into trying it out.

To her disappointment, her singing sounded pathetic compared to the rest. But it's still a howl, she reminded herself. Not knowing what else to do, she sang about things she had recently experienced.

"The sun breathes its last breath,
Only to return again the next day.
Even if it makes the grass bleed blue,
The sun still returns.
Moon chasing high,
And no such thing as backwards,
Life goes on, and on and on."

After that, she couldn't exactly make out her own words, and it seemed like only an instant until the song faded away into the faraway expanse of space.

"It's over already?" she whined.

"You thought it was fun?" Mother asked, seeming inconfident about the quality of her song.

"Absolutely!" Krallour protested with a loud bark.

"Maybe we can do it again tomorrow," Arosabre pointed out.

Of course, Krallour told herself with a mental shove.

"It's Resting Time now," Father said, almost as if he wanted to interrupt the conversation. "Be sure to get plenty of sleep."

"All right," Krallour groaned, although she then regretted that she had not made herself sound so pessimistic. Satisfied for today, she lay down next to Mother and snuggled into the warm pelt for the night.

--

Subject: Re: (WIP) Cry for the Moon ~Last update 3/20 Sun Mar 07, 2010 4:01 pm

~Two~

That was a while ago.

Krallour was a bit older now, and could catch the smaller animals for herself. She had learned that hunting bigger animals with the pack was more efficient than catching a lot of small animals. She had learned that the way she had rolled over and exposed her belly as a pup was how to signal defeat in a fight. The higher-ups in the pack always had their tails held high to signal their status.

Which meant that apparently Father was the alpha male of the pack.

Krallour was now padding alongside her siblings in a large group made up of the entire pack. Father had said that they were going hunting for a moose today, since their last few attempts had been unsuccessful. Krallour had never heard of a wolf who had starved to death, but she had heard of packs who had gone for over a week without eating due to unsuccessful hunting.

I'll be sure to help the pack, she thought to herself, instead of hinder them and cause another mess-up.

She was gazing almost absently at the trees around her. The season was early spring, so small patches of clear ground dotted the earth's snow covering. Pine needles bent with the weight of ice crystals, but they never seemed to break. Krallour was confused by this.

The shade cast by the thick coniferous trees placed the pack in darkness. It reminded Krallour of nighttime, which only made her want to sleep. She fought the urge to fall to her paws and reminded herself that she was on an important mission.

Krallour was watching the style in which the wolves of the pack were moving. Like a river, they were almost perfectly synchronized with their pawsteps and movements. The line was mostly single-file, except for a couple of misplaced wolves in the front and back. No one seemed to care; maybe this was the way it was supposed to be. She was, with all her willpower, attempting to fit herself into whatever formation in which the pack was walking. She tried keeping her spot, but the others seemed to too unbalanced in her current position. Swerving to the right, she stopped momentarily, and then retraced her steps back to Mother.

"Where are we going?" she questioned, only slightly worried.

"You haven't witnessed very many Pack-Hunts, have you?" To her bemusement, mother had replied with a question.

It wasn't long, however, until Krallour had picked up the meaning in that statement. Pack-Hunt, she thought. Like a hunt with my family, except with more wolves.

She nodded to herself, satisified with the situation. With the gist of the activity stuck to her mind, she trotted back to her spot in the line, which had conveniently remained empty. Krallour was only a bit surprised at how quickly she was able to blend in with the spectrum of pelts.

Finally, she picked up the rhythm of this walk by watching the motion of her many-colored packmates. They had an odd sense of movement that always seemed perfectly synchronized; it set her mind astray with befuddlement, but with a shake of her head, she managed to send her brain on the right track again.

Her paws settled into the heartbeat of steps once more.

Krallour craned her neck, trying to make out the identities of the wolves nearer to the front of the formation. The beta male had snatched the lead, and usual; Father must have decided that his subordinate was capable of being in front again today. ((Note: I changed something at the beginning of this chapter.)) He must be the one scenting for prey, Krallour told herself with a more focused glance at the wolf riding point.

She didn't know many others ahead of her, and looking backwards wouldn't help. Especially because now the party was curving to the west to follow a river upstream.

The river's great torrent still boomed mightily under the thick but fading ice. A few tiny fish were visible, but only occasionally. It definitely wouldn't be a good idea to jump into this river; any animal but a stout caribou would be dragged away by the water's fickle paws in a heartbeat.

"We're on the edge of the territory now," Krallour reminded herself, recognizing the far-off scent of untouched snow. This was the location where the saga of her pack ended, and where that of another pack began. The river was the limit to the legal wandering of the Riverbend Pack.

She took her time to observe the banks of the river, and how they were eroded by the constantly rushing water. Knowing the shape of its edges would help her navigate in the future.

What then made her really think was the shallow, sluggish section of the river that was about the width that a wolf was long. It would be hard for a huge group to cross, which was a logical reason for the river to be part of this territory's border.

At this point, she began to hear more pawsteps than those that existed within her pack; unfamiliar pawsteps carrying with them unknown scents and murmurings.

Krallour lifted her eyes to see, through the trees and across the water, another wolf pack heading in the opposite direction, even though their actual path was unknown. From what she could see, everyone in that group had black coats. They were probably just ten wolf-lengths from the opposite side of the river; their swift movement fluctuated constantly, confusing her, as well as revealing several more shadow-colored wolves.

But what brought her confusion and curiosity even further was the next wolf that emerged from the shady depths of his pack's pelts. His coat was a pale bluish-silver, shifting like a river as he ran with the utmost care and grace. Even as he looked picky about where he put his paws, he kept up with the rest of the pack; this must have given him an advantage in keeping his footing.

Krallour's heart skipped a beat when he glanced at her without turning his head. His eyes were the same aqua shade as the grass that one day, a long time ago, back when she was only a pup. She could remember that day vividly now as she witnessed the color of his eyes.

And then, he was gone.

What time had seemed like minutes had only been a couple of seconds in reality. The pack of dark wolves dashed out of sight, apparently indecisive about which way they should head next, and with them the mystifying blue-silver wolf whose pelt shined like show in the moonlight.

"Krallour!" came a howl from close by, snapping her out of her fantasies. She had been oblivious to the fact that as she watched the Darkness Pack, as she had begun to call it, her own paws had come to a standstill. Her pack, the Riverbend, were practically usurping her spot in the formation.

"I'm coming!" she replied, somewhat startled, and got her paws moving her back into the midst of her own kind. Even though she was focused on the hunt again, she could not get the silver wolf out of her mind.

Just as she was about to bite herself for a reason she couldn't make out, a hoarse bark sounded from the front of the line. Krallour lifted her head to see the beta point his snout to the left. Had the pack turned, they would be moving reverse of their target.

Krallour had one thought before the pack swerved:

A moose!

The rest of her mind was a jumble of movement until she caught sight of the huge brown herbivore wandering alone down a path of trodden snow. At that point, she straightened her thoughts out and positioned her ears forwards so that she could listen to the higher-ups' orders on how to strategize the hunt.

The signals would probably be silent from now on. Krallour knew very well that it was better for one's prey to be unaware of one's presence.

The first instruction she received was a shuffle from the alpha, who had resumed his position as leader for the time being. Beta following close behind, he slid one paw awkwardly to the side, and the pack began sizing the moose up.

Krallour's ears twitched in response. She fell into the circle being slowly formed by the pack, all the time examining her target until further notice.

The moose appeared weaker than normal, probably because it wasn't in a group at the moment. Its fear was most likely weighing down its movements and sense of adventure. This would make it harder for it to fight back if its willpower was being suppressed as well.

Krallour interrupted herself as she took notice of the next signal. The ring around the moose closed, and the wolves drew nearer to it. Soon it would be time to pounce, Krallour knew. She took a glance to the right; her three siblings were next to one another, focused with their rainbow of eyes on the moose's hooves. She inferred that this was because it could kick out at any moment and seriously injure a member of the pack.

At last, the circle began to move. Some wolves moved closer to the prey, others moved farther. The moose began pacing as if it was bored. Definitely anxious was the way to describe it. Krallour licked her lips with satisfaction, glancing back at her brother and sister. She had a feeling this hunt would be successful.

And then, the alpha leaped. He latched onto the moose's haunches like a leech, and the animal began to run. Wolves aimed and jumped, others moved out of the way, as if to let it pass by without their worrying.

Bucking like crazy, the moose suddenly dropped, but fortunately the pack was smart enough to jump off. However, it was temporarily stilled by this motion, and the pack took its chance.

Some appeared to forget that it could still move, however; it began to roll over, maybe to crush those on its back, but again they all dismounted. This hunt was harder than Krallour thought it would be.

The moose took its chance to flee; baffled, the pack chased after with little hesitation. The two running groups were evenly matched, even though one consisted of more members. Wolves took a while to give up, and they can run for almost a mile; of course, Krallour was no exception, even though she was young.

Some of the pack tried to leap, but they always landed barely short; it was hard to fly through the air as fast as one could run. A few jumps were successful, and several of those who aimed well landed scratches, but the running moose was always moving too much for a wolf to hold on for long. This looked like one of the hunts that would have to be given up.

A majority of the pack seemed tired, but until they all exhausted themselves from running no one would stop. That was the way a wolf pack worked itself.

Even so, there were more bushed wolves every second, it seemed. Despite this, the moose would not halt even for a second. It apparently had more stamina than its enemies, even though it was alone. Some members of the pack were lagging behind. It was proof that if they ran any more, they would be overexerted.

It seemed like a long while until the carnivores finally gave up the chase and sat down, breathing hard. The moose slowed to a jog; even at this pace it could stay ahead of the tired wolves who targeted it.

"We failed again," Krallour breathed. She lowered herself into a laying position and closed her eyes momentarily. The pack would be moving again soon. Now was not the time to lag behind.

Subject: Re: (WIP) Cry for the Moon ~Last update 3/20 Tue Mar 09, 2010 10:38 pm

~Three~

Krallour's ears hung down like the branches of a pine tree weighed down with snow. The hunt had failed again; the wolves of the Riverbend could only be catching small prey until the next caribou was caught or something. Krallour hadn't starved for a while; the last time she had eaten anything was about a day or two ago.

Her pawsteps sank farther into the snow than she thought they would; it was spring, so there were a few bare patches, but the habitat of wolves is always snowy, except in the midst of summer. The freezing never really got into her fur, even as young as she was.

The pack were retracing their steps down the river again. Krallour wasn't thirsty from that hunt; she had already drank a little when the pack had first reached the river. The ice over the water only existed in the remotely still sections, but even then it was thick. Wolves were able to dodge around the ice and drink from the rushing sections; they were usually the most filtered by the current, and thus the tastiest and cleanest.

Krallour's mind was caught up in water now; she should snap out of it so she could keep her place in the line. The wolves didn't seem hindered by their exhaustion, for they were only walking at this point.

She turned her head towards the river. She remembered that, before the pack had scented the moose, she had seen another pack across it. She had dubbed them the Darkness Pack, for all members but one had black pelts. The odd-wolf-out had instead showed a silvery-blue pelt that glittered like fresh snowfall. She wouldn't be surprised if his name had to do with snow...

And then, something glinted in the corner of her eye. She whipped her head around towards the water, from which the sight had come. It wasn't a normal gleam of running water; it was a fish! She scanned down the river until she saw it again. From then, she didn't let it out of her vision; she could catch it, and then the pack would have food! Even if it was just a little bit of food, the hungry wolves who hunted hardest and hadn't eaten for days could have it instead. She could finally help the pack!

Krallour stepped up to the bank and kept walking downstream until she found it below some ice that wouldn't be broken by a wolf's weight, but its strength. Seeing her chance, she bunched herself up a bit and carefully jumped onto the ice.

It was only when her first paw landed that she remembered a jumping wolf had more force than a stepping wolf.

She had suspected it would happen, but to her horror, the ice cracked, leaving her to plunge into the freezing water. It ran fast, and she went along with it. She was able to keep her head above the surface, but just barely.

"Someone save me!" she howled, and it was then that the dazed pack noticed that she had left her spot. Even though they were hypnotized by tiredness, everyone rushed to the bank, but no one dared to jump in. They would be able to save their packmate, but instead they would be carried off by the current.

Just when Krallour thought she was going to be left to drown in the river, one of the wolves did jump in. She only had time to see a silver flash before she recognized the wolf as her sister Arosabre. Her pelt had been tipped with snow, for the color was faded into one unlike Krallour had seen before.

The next thing Krallour knew, her scruff had been grabbed and she was hauled onto land. She looked up at her sister, although the savior she had expected was not Arosabre.

Instead, it was a small wolf with a blue-silver pelt like that of the wolf from the Darkness Pack, and his eyes were the same color... could this possibly be the same wolf? He couldn't have gotten across the river.

"Who are you?" she asked, her head clouded. She shivered.

"You saw me, didn't you?" he replied, again, with a question.

Krallour was surprised. His voice revealed that he was young, barely older than her, if at all. He seemed a bit naive to her, but maybe that was just a first impression. She nodded absently.

Then silence, as if nothing had ever existed. Apparently her pack was confused on whether to reprimand the stranger or thank him.

"How did you get here?" Krallour questioned, rising to her paws.

"I followed you," he answered simply, tilting his head slightly.

When Krallour was standing, he looked even smaller. He was barely her size!

"Who are you?" she repeated, a little bit frustrated with his personality.

"I was looking for the flower," he said, apparently absent-mindedly. "I'm Kirike."

"Why did you save me?"

Kirike stepped back. Apparently he was overwhelmed by all these questions, and his ears appeared to flatten.

"Sorry to bother you so much," he apologized, and continued walking in reverse.

"Why are you saying something like that? You're not bothering me."

Krallour paused. "Where's your pack?"

Kirike froze, as if his pelt had turned to ice. He seemed confused. "I don't... know," he said sadly, but perked up again almost instantly. "But I know where they went."

"I should probably go back now," she interrupted, and turned around. "I know where the shallow section of the river is. I can cross there."

She took a few pawsteps before remembering something. "Thanks, Kirike," she said slowly, and continued down the bank.

Without even a "you're welcome," Kirike stood and stared after her, as if he was going to pounce on her any minute. Krallour felt slightly uncomfortable.

The rest of the journey seemed longer than the way she had taken the first time. Thoughts of Kirike had pounced onto her mind and stayed there, much like a wolf to a moose. Her head was filled with mist as she stalked back to camp with her pack. The snow on her paws didn't even seem cold any more. She couldn't make out whether her sisters were asking her questions or fretting about the lost prey.

One clear voice rang in her ear, though: "What were you thinking?"

Startled, Krallour sat up instantly to see Mother looking at her with a worried expression. "Why in the world did you jump into the river like that?"

"I saw a fish," Krallour replied, meekly but without hesitation.

Mother appeared to have a loss for words. Her ears twitched.

"It was big!" the young wolf added in, jumping forwards a bit.

"If you had gone a bit slower, you would have stayed on this side of the river," Mother jabbed back. Then her voice soothed: "Who was that other wolf?"

"I don't know," Krallour partially lied, with only a moment's hesitation. She really had no idea where he had come from.

"Shame," Mother said, turning to take her leave. "I would have thanked him if I could."

"I already did," Krallour assured as Mother left to go lay down somewhere else.

With a sigh, she slunk down to her belly and rested her cheek on her paws. All the wolves needed a rest, and she was no exception.

--

Krallour was jolted awake by something nuzzling her shoulder. At first she thought it was Mother, but she had already learned earlier that day not to make assumptions.

"Wake up," a familiar voice urged, and she was nuzzled in the side again.

"Kirike...?" she asked drowsily, rising sluggishly to her paws. No doubt she was tired; she wouldn't be able to take a long journey like that. "How'd you get here?"

"I came here because I wanted to," he said, and stepped back as she blinked sleep out of her eyes.

"What about your pack?" she said, still not fully awake.

There was silence for a minute, and then: "I... this is the only other pack I know."

This snapped her to her sentence. "What do you mean 'the only other?'"

"You're the only one I know here. Who's your leader?"

"Back up," she said, and then raised her head so that she could see him. "Why are you here in the first place?"

He hesitated again, and lowered his ears and nose. "I... can I show you something?" He looked down more.

"I don't see why not," she replied, intentionally adding a hint of snootiness in. Even so, he didn't seem to be fazed. "But don't wake Mother."

He nodded absently, and began to slink away like a limping lynx.

As she caught up to him, Krallour was puzzled. Kirike's expression was unreadable, except for the fact that it was with a sadness that she had seldom seen anywhere. What could possibly have happened that she absolutely needed to see?

Nevertheless, he was still padding on, but as if he was hopeless and without any life. She followed briskly, keeping pace with his irrefutably quick gait, even while walking. He appeared to be wandering, but Krallour thought he must absolutely know where he was going. Otherwise he would have nothing to show her when he got wherever he needed to go.

He was leading her on a path she didn't recognize; she hadn't been in this direction through the territory before, but obviously, he had. This was most likely the direction he had taken to get here. If he had gone a different way, it would have taken a much longer interval of time, and this would be a shortcut. Or the other way around. That was possible too. But why would he take her the long way? This was most likely the short way. If there was a short way at all.

Krallour continued with thoughts like this for quite a while. A few times she stumbled over the snow to which she paid no attention, but Kirike was apparently too immersed in his own wonderings, or notice her in the slightest.

At the last time Krallour tripped, she noticed that she was in the woods again. But this was a different section; she didn't recognize its layout in the slightest.

Finally, the trees cleared. But what replaced them were so many wolves; Krallour took this time to count. There were fifty-three black wolves, and several others of varying colors. There were even more pawprints leading away from the scene to prove that other wolves had been here but had left. During this fight, the black wolves had obviously been outnumbered, but whoever had claimed victory over them had most likely left this area by now.

"Why are you showing me a battlefield?" Krallour asked, even though she already knew the answer. She stared in disbelief at the crimson-stained snow and the weak pawprints that led to the inactive souls of those half-hundred wolves who had died in this battle. They must have been crazy as a magpie to challenge a pack so much bigger than themselves.

"My pack," came the soft, sad reply from Kirike. "My pack is dead." He whimpered quietly and collapsed into a laying position, as if he had suddenly dropped dead himself.

Krallour blinked in shock. How had his entire pack been eradicated in such a short time? It had barely taken any time at all, it seemed, for the last one to fall onto its frozen grave.

Silently, and with an odd lethargy that appeared to poison him, Kirike stood up and turned around. He began to totter away. Krallour took one last glance at the settled carnage and followed him, her own pace slower than normal after witnessing the unbelievable sight.

"So many wolves dead," she murmured, her eyes focused on Kirike's melancholy expression.

"She called you Moon-heart," he muttered in an unorthodox reply, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye.

"Huh?" Krallour was confused. She had barely learned any of the Lupine Language, which was what most names were derived from. As far as she knew, it was all names, for she had never come across a wolf whose name was not multiple worlds from the Lupine Language squished together.

"'Kra' means 'moon,'" Kirike explained, slowing his miserable pace even more. "And 'Llour' is 'heart.'"

She tilted her head and squinted. She could barely make heads or tails of this. Wouldn't that be a better name for him, since his pelt was the perfect color?

She was oblivious to the fact that she had spoken this thought aloud until Kirike replied.

"Actually, that's similar to my pack's name," he related, oddly enough with a smile of recollection instead of a frown. "My pack's name was Tae'ka'kra, which roughly means 'moon of shadow.'"

This didn't help set Krallour's mind straight. She was more confused by the name of Kirike's pack, and whether he had rammed his head into a tree when he was a pup. Or rather, whether he had inherited the insanity of his relatives.

"How do you know all this?" she questioned.

After a brief pause, she added, "And what does your name mean?"

Kirike's ears flicked outward in a simple, understanding manner. The gray color reflected the starlight from above for a split second.

"My pack taught me the Lupine Language," he summarized. "And sometimes they even spoke to each other in it. It's kind of nonsensical, but that's one way I learned."

He had quickened himself again, but never looked in Krallour's direction, even generally. She waited for him to answer the other question she had asked, but he didn't seem inclined to.

"Are we going home?" she replaced, skipping the matter about his name. She was referring to her own pack, but wondered what Kirike's opinion would be.

He opened his mouth as if to answer, but suddenly halted his motion with a grave expression. It was easy to infer that he had just remembered something.

"If you go back, what do I do?" he wondered solemnly, sitting down on the thin snow with a soft thump.

"You could come with me," she suggested, leaning forward a little bit to add a bit of persuasiveness.

He turned his head towards her, but didn't move his eyes from her throat. "Would they accept me? I'm not one of you."

Krallour stopped. She didn't know how to answer the question; wolf packs didn't usually accept outsiders or loners, let alone those whose packs were killed. Usually those became lone wolves, but it was rare to see the only survivor was almost too young to fend for himself at all. Those wolves usually died off after they went out on their own and tried to look for other loners of possible a more open-hearted pack.

Kirike looked up to check her bemused expression, and hung his head hopelessly directly after.

"It's worth a try," she reassured, taking a step forward. She hoped Kirike didn't detect the wavering uncertainty in her voice.

He glanced up at her through lowered eyes, but nevertheless began to rise to his paws.

Subject: Re: (WIP) Cry for the Moon ~Last update 3/20 Sat Mar 20, 2010 11:11 am

~Four~

Before Kirike could elevate himself very far, an odd rumble resulted in a quake of the ground.

"What's going on?!" Krallour howled, startled by the heaving earth beneath her wobbling paws.

Kirike looked frightened, but the only other evidence that his emotions weren't at the normal calm level was a small whimper with his muzzle pointed to the north.

Slowly and cautiously, Krallour followed his gaze, and instantly jumped back when she caught a flash of golden-yellow through the snow-capped spruces.

"We should get out of here," she cried, but Kirike had recovered his relaxed expression and was now slowly retreating backwards in her direction. Something big was coming. And fast.