Sooty Pelt’s Pack

Sooty snarled darkly, ears flat against her head as she scented the air. Beside her, Bark flattened his ears anxiously. "Let them be, my moon," Bark murmured. Sooty could see the grief in his eyes. Behind him, she heard the pups chattering: four voices, when such a short time ago there were five. 

Shrike, my sharp-toothed idiot, Sooty thought. You would have made a wonderful hunter, my son.

But in this world, all it took was one hoof, one tooth, one claw, and that was the end of you. Shrike had not seen the mother elk coming, and he was dead. And now Grackle and Hawk were in worse shape than their brother had been when he died, bitten and bleeding, as those damn Buffalo Creek wolves approached. 

Stepping forward, Sooty lifted her tail and bared her teeth. "This is our land. Leave, and you will find no more bloodshed." 

But Sun Fur, the leader of the Buffalo Creek pack since its old leaders' deaths, just snarled. She could barely stand, but even now, she was standing tall and proud. Too proud, for a wolf who had just lost her new mate, and with only four wolves as backup. "This was our land first, Sooty. It always has been the land of Buffalo Creek. I defend it until my final breath." 

Flattening her ears, Sooty shot a glance to her pack. Grackle and Hawk looked wary at the thought of more fighting, but both were still on their feet and lifting their tails in an attempt to mimic their mother. Root and Pike stepped to her sides, grown and powerful. They were injured as well (no one in Phoenix Ash pack was without injury), but less so than their brothers. 

On a silent agreement, the two packs lunged for each other again. Sooty half-considered avoiding young Sun Fur, not wanting to end another life so soon after the male's (whose name she hadn't even caught in the chaos of battle). 

But even as the thought crossed her mind, images flashed through her mind: of her precious Seed dangling limp from a Buffalo Creek wolf's jaws only a year ago, hearing the howls of triumph as they chewed away her territory this year, while she was too badly injured to fight back. If Bark would have gotten off his tail and helped, she would have stood a chance, but Sooty knew her mate; Bark was a loving father and a wonderful hunter, but in the practice of wolf-fighting he was unversed and terrified. 

Luckily, their children were less anxious. Even as Sooty lunged towards Sun Fur, she heard the snarls of her pups, the cries of Buffalo Creek wolves as they tried to keep up. She couldn't see Grackle or Hawk, but that was fine; for the moment, she had one goal. 

Sun Fur didn't put up much fight; the fight went out of her almost the moment Sooty latched onto her throat. The rest of her pack, all her siblings turned tail and ran almost immediately. 

Sooty stared down at her fallen enemy; Sun Fur had been her rival for two years, threatening her pack, territory, and life. But to see her limp on the ground, the blood draining into the earth? It did nothing to bring Sooty peace. 

Stepping to her side, Bark nudged his mate with his nose. "The pups are hungry, my moon. They need food, and soon." 

Grackle and Hawk shuffled at the edge of her vision, emphasizing his words. Hunger was something they were deeply familiar with now, after the disastrous bear attack that had crippled Sooty for weeks, and nearly been the death of them all. 

Taking a deep breath, Sooty nodded. "We will finish marking our old border, and then we will hunt again." When the pups exchanged a nervous glance, she continued. "You won't help this time. Stay out of the fight; only come in when our quarry stops moving." 

And before any of them could speak further on the death that lay before them, that lay behind them, that was coming to their old rivals (because without Sun Fur, Sooty felt no confidence of Buffalo Creek recovering), Sooty turned and trotted sharply away from the golden corpse lying in the dead fall grass.