#wolf squad

"Hey, check this out!" Kalua called out, almost surprising herself by how much stronger her howl had gotten. Sure, it was still very clearly a high-pitched pup howl, but already so much closer to how the rest of her pack sounded! Not much longer, and she’d be grown up, and then she could go wherever she wanted whenever she wanted!

And more importantly right now, the howl did the trick and summoned her siblings. It also summoned three adults, who came rushing when they heard her but quickly decided that this wasn't something they needed to deal with.

Now, the five cubs were clustered in a circle, one more confused than the last.

"So... What is it?" Lyra finally asked, tilting her head to the side.

"No idea!" Kalua's tail wagged hard enough to bump against Riven’s black fur on one side and Len’s grey pelt on the other. "I thought it was a weird hedgehog, but it's not moving, see?"

Riven crouched down and tried to sniff at the thing, though she flinched back the moment her nose touched it. "It's spiky!"

"Maybe it doesn't like being bothered?" Len's ear twitched. "Maybe we should just leave it alone and let it leave."

"But I want to know what it is! Maybe it's a hedgehog plant or something, they have to come from somewhere, right?" Kalua asked.

Alex sat down. "I don't think that's how hedgehogs work."

"We could just ask someone?" Lyra suggested and started looking around for an adult.

Riven’s tail wagged slightly in agreement. "I don't think it's dangerous, but if it is alive, those spikes could really hurt."

But Kalua shook her head. "No, I don't think it is. See?" Fearlessly, she stepped forwards and batted at the thing with a paw, gently at first, then with more force, and immediately jumped back with a yelp. "Ow! I still don't think it's alive. But it does hurt." Whining softly, she started licking her pricked paw.

"See? That’s why you should leave stuff like that alone." Len sighed.

"But," Kalua answered between licks, "then I wouldn't be able to find out what it is!"

"All right, then, what do we do with it?" Lyra gently nudged Len to the side so she could look at Kalua's paw and lick it for a moment, too. "We can't be too rough with it, or we'll get hurt. But I don't think it can answer us anything, so we can’t ask it. So, if you don't want to ask one of the adults..."

"Huh. Uh... Well... We'll... We'll think of something!" Kalua's tail slowed for a moment, but soon picked up speed again.

"Yeah? Like what?" Alex asked, tilting his head to the side and causing his sister's tail wags to falter.

For a moment, all five of them were silent, either trying to come up with something, or wondering how long it would take Kalua to cave and ask one of the older wolves.

"Maybe we could look for clues?" Riven suggested. "It has to have come from somewhere, right? So maybe we can find some tracks, or a nest or something like that?"

"That's a great idea!" Kalua jumped a little into the air from excitement. "Let's split up! There has to be something nearby, right?"

The others nodded, some with more enthusiasm, some with less, but they all put their noses to the ground and walked a few steps, trying to pick up a scent. The ground smelled like dirt, a little soggy from the rain two days ago, and of course, there were the tracks of her, her family, and the rest of the pack.

"Well, I'm not smelling anything strange," Alex informed the others after a moment. "Just us."

"Maybe it didn't come on the ground," Lyra said. "Like birds, those fly, too." She closed her eyes and raised her head, only to promptly sneeze when a leaf from a nearby tree landed on her nose.

"Oh, maybe that's it." Alex padded over and looked up. "See? There! Lots of the spiky things."

Kalua rushed to his side so fast she crashed into him, almost barreling him over and spraying Lyra’s golden fur with mud from the sudden stop. Not that she noticed either of those things, focused as she was. "You're right!" She rose up on her hind paws, trying to balance as well as keep an eye on the spiky balls high above.

Evidently, both things at once were not part of her skill set; she stood like that for a few heartbeats, then stumbled and crashed on Len, making them both land in the dirt. "Sorry!" She got off of him, stepping on his flank once and leaving a muddy paw-print in his thick grey fur, then focused on the tree again. "Do you think we can get more of them off there? To look at?" Experimentally, she jumped up, and did not come even close to reaching any of them.

She also had not thought to check the area before she did, as she realized with a loud yelp when she landed on something very spiky.

"Are you okay?" Lyra asked and gently nuzzled her sister.

"Let me see." Len circled Kalua to look at the hurt paw. The pricks didn't seem too deep, hadn't even bled, but Len winced a little at the thought of landing on the spiky thing anyway.

"I'll live, I'll live..." Kalua shook her fur, but made sure to keep the paw raised for now. A bummer. This was supposed to be an exciting discovery! Not painful! How mean of the spiky thing!

She turned to it, and tilted her head to one side, then the other one. "Does it look different to you now, too?"

The other four turned away from Kalua to look at the thing, and ended up in a circle around it yet again.

"It's definitely flatter than before," Len answered.

"I think there's a crack on it, too." Riven carefully leaned in further, making sure to not touch the spikes. "There is, right there! I think there's something inside."

Once more, Kalua's tail started swinging from side to side, injury forgotten. "Can you see what? Is it a baby hedgehog?"

"I... Don't think so?" Riven paused. "I think it's smooth?"

"Can we open it more?" Kalua stepped forwards, flinching slightly when she used the pricked back paw.

Len immediately stepped in her way. "Do you want to jump on it again?"

"Of course not!" Kalua's fur stood on end at the thought. "But maybe there's some other way? Like, if two of us grab it really carefully and pull, or--"

"Please tell me you're not planning to bite the spiky thing?" Len's ears flattened slightly, and Kalua stopped.

"Hm. Good point, probably a bad idea. But there has to be something!"

Alex had walked up next to Riven to sniff at the weird thing. "Smells plant-y," he commented. "I can see the thing inside, but not how we can get to it."

"Oh! Maybe if we're really careful, hang on, I have an idea!" Kalua pushed past Len to join her siblings. "There's a crack, right? Where?"

"Right there." Riven moved as close as she dared, allowing her to point at it with her nose. "It's very small, though."

"I was hoping that maybe I could..." Kalua reached out with a paw, but winced and pulled it back before reaching the crack. "Nope, I definitely can't. I was hoping maybe I could get into the crack—like, a paw, or one of my fangs—but I'm too big for that." She sat back down and thought, head tilted slightly to the side.

"You probably still don’t want to ask anyone?" Lyra asked, but Kalua laid her ears back.

"No, I want us to figure this out ourselves! I know we can do it!" She stood up again and circled the spiky thing. "It opened when I fell on it, so it can open further! We just need to figure out how we do that without me having to jump on it again."

"Maybe we can drop something else on it?" Lyra suggested. "That should work similar, right?"

"Oh! Good idea!" Kalua ran over to Lyra to nuzzle her. "All right, let's look for something!"

The five spread out for a moment. Len was the first to find something and return to the thing, a surprisingly large rock in his mouth. He dropped it, and the thing was pushed down into the ground.

"Hey! Call us when you find things!" Kalua complained as she rushed over, rockless; Alex and Lyra had found their own stones, though smaller ones than Len.

"All I found so far was a rock, though," Len answered, “And those are everywhere.” He picked it back up, revealing the thing underneath.

The ground was soft enough that it had sunk into it quite a bit, but it was a lot flatter than before, and as Kalua looked at it, she could see a bit more of something smooth and shiny visible through a now wider crack. Carefully, so it wouldn't prick her again, Kalua reached out with a paw to pull it closer, then turned to Len.

"Can you do it again?" She gave him her best puppy dog eyes—not that she knew what a puppy dog was—and wagged her tail.

"If it stops you from trying to chew it open..." Len was about to pick up the rock, but noticed a glint in Kalua's eyes. "Please tell me I didn't give you any ideas?"

Before she could answer, he lifted the rock and dropped it on the spiky thing again. When he removed it this time, the crack was already fairly wide.

Kalua sniffed at it, but only got a dark plant scent, like Alex had said, nothing new. Definitely not like hedgehog. She also noticed, though, that the spikes had gotten flattened. "I think I can open it now! If I'm really, really careful."

Before Len or Alex could stop her, she started scratching at it, and when that didn't work, held it down with one paw while trying to grab it with her teeth. She did get pricked a bit, causing her to whine a little—to the alarm of her siblings—but she was so close to solving this mystery! And finally, after a little more pulling, the spiky shell opened!

Kalua dropped the half in her mouth, then carefully pulled the smooth, shiny thing out and laid it on the ground so all her siblings could look at it. They'd managed to open it! Success! Now they had a shiny, smooth... Thing.

Kalua nudged it with her nose, trying to make sense of it. "So... Does anyone know what this is?" She looked from the thing to her siblings. “Alex, it has a similar color as your fur!”

"That doesn’t mean I know anything about it! I have no idea," Alex answered. "It's not an animal."

"Yeah, I got that far!" Kalua sniffed the smooth thing again. "It's hard. Kinda cold but not really. Doesn't smell like much, just a bit like plant."

"Maybe it's a weird leaf," Riven suggested. "It was hanging up on the tree, right? At least something that looks like it. And leaves are falling right now."

"Ohh!" Kalua looked up again, and after a bit of searching, once again spotted more spiky things between the leaves she was used to. "I didn't know trees could have more than one kind of leaf! Do you think it's because it's more fun for them to throw different kinds?"

"Maybe! It'd make sense, at least," Lyra agreed, tail wagging.

"But then why don't all trees have different kinds?"

"They're probably just all different," Len answered and sat down so he could scratch his ear. "Like how you keep getting yourself in trouble, while I'd be fine just staying here, if I didn't have to come save you all the time."

"Well, it's not like I'm asking you to save me! But that makes sense!" Kalua looked up at the spike-leaves a moment longer, then nudged the smooth thing inside it again.