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Eukara Vox -> RE: The Book of Winter (1/22/2010 23:35:25)
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A Winter's Tail
by Dragonnightwolf
I’m dreaming of a white Christmas.
The song faded from memory as snowflakes fell from the skies like all of the clouds had opened up to blow around this cold, damp, and light stuff on purpose. Hot breath poured up into the air as my lungs worked their own magic, while my limbs, strong and solid, flowed in motion like a train on its tracks. Fur bristled and moved with the wind; my tail was up, high and proud. My eyes caught every possible movement. The scents drifted into nostrils of blackest color as if lost in an abyss. In the forest, cedar and pine trees with branches all covered in thick layers of snow spread around us, and here and there a slippery patch of invisible ice nearly caused many of those behind me to precariously stumble, scramble, or all together pitch face-first into the snow. Hollowed logs rose up as if to challenge the very beast inside me.
Gracefully, I leapt, flying over the log in my way as a gazelle over tufts of grass. The smell of fear, of the hunt, invaded my senses and gave shivers of anticipation. I heard sounds sharp and crystal clear. They invaded ears that pointed straight up and tilted with every measure of noise to discern exactly what made it and where. It was late in December, it was cold, it was wet; there was snow coming up to my waist, yet the prey was getting away. “Faster, Faster!” I heard one of the pack howl.
Just like the ones I used to know.
Another verse of that song I had heard in the town popped into my memory for a brief moment. Suddenly, we encountered a small field in the middle of the forest and ran through it. Here, we caught the sight of the young male deer again; it leapt, but it was tiring. This was survival of the healthy and the fit, but the beast inside of me needed that taste, that thrill, that texture. I was nearly wild with the hunt now; the deer let out a soft, pleading cry as it stumbled over some obstruction blocking its way and fell forward.
The surge, the final surge of strength I had, sent me in a leap at the deer. The end had come, the hunt was over, and we were victorious in our endeavor. We offered a silent prayer of thanks to the deer for providing itself to us, and another to the earth-mother for providing the opportunity to enjoy this meal. The last thing the deer saw when accepting its fate was the quick flash of my teeth coming for it. Then it knew of nothing more.
Each portion was divided fairly; I made sure of that myself. Naturally, I went first. My mate would have gone first as well, had she stayed with us, but shortly after our pups were born she chose to leave without so much as a goodbye lick. The devastation I had felt in my heart knew no bounds. Many of the young whelps thought that my sorrow would make me a weak Alpha. Challenge after challenge, I had beaten them with real authority. I was Alpha; I had led this clan for fifteen long years, and I was not about to give up my place without a fight. The more fights I won, the more likely it was I’d encounter some young upstart that would injure or cripple me. But up to this day, they had left nary more than a scratch on my flesh.
Once we were finished with our meal, most of the pack laid around, and I approached the betas, Max and Neela. Neela, who was lying with her face across Max’s belly, stared at me without moving. “Greetings Eldharst, what brings you to join us?”
Max was a mixture of leftover green combined with shades of gray and tufts of white sticking along the topside of his ears. Neela, as I gazed upon her, was a tan-gold color with one battle scar along the top leftmost part of her face. My own soft-blue eyes and white fur reflected from their eyes like an image on water. Pure white, no other trace of color had come to me at all.
“I came to ask if either of you would like to sing with me? You know, the 'mountains rumble' song?” I said, looking at both calmly. Max had his body upside down, which made his stare hard to read.
“I’m rather sleepy, my Lord Alpha,” Max yawned, exposing his teeth for a moment. ”Perhaps my Love here will oblige you, though?” he inquired, gazing up at her.
“Why not? I do feel like letting out something,” Neela replied, stretching out over her mate before following me to the crest of the forest’s edge.
I began. “Awoo, ahem, oh the mountains rage and growl as better we do run. The answers that we seek are hidden in the deep. The mountains rumble with promise, begging us to stay, so we walk our own ways.”
Neela took up the next verse. “Oh, we are proud and we are held strong against the currents of the winds; fly us high, fly us free as we believe in any reason to chase the squirrels and live another beautiful day. Oh, give to us the mountains' rumble when we are so brave.”
Then, we both sang the next verse together and a row of ears rose up as we sang. “Oh, the movements of our lifetimes do not promise to be full, but we of all the clans must live to breathe life into you. So, Mother Earth, respect us, give us your entire blessings, so we may proceed to live our ways. And bless us, oh Father Sky, as surely owls who hoot for all of our families live, thanks to you.”
The song ended abruptly with noise coming from nearby. Max, who had been resting, rolled sideways and stuck his face up from the snow. The entire clan was alert now. A steady row of ears stood erect as we all listened closely. From the forest came a black mass of bodies with rabid, wild-frenzied abandon on their faces. “Flee, flee! There are too many!” I snarled, gazing at the number of ravenous, crazed creatures pouring out of the forest.
“Flee, flee!” one of them called out, running for all she was worth.
I gazed up, looking past the crest of the forest at the mountains above, and realized why all manner of wolves were running as if demons were upon us all. An avalanche had occurred. “The pups!” I snarled out in realization. “Max, run the pack south, away from the flow. I’ll return to the den and snatch the pups.”
“Eldharst, it is too late!” Max replied with a whimper, starting to run.
“No, I must!” I yowled back, running for the den on the other side of the clearing.
I got there with just enough time to grasp the pups up in my mouth, toss two of them on my back, clamp one on my tail—even though that hurt—and grab the last three in my mouth. “Hold still up there,” I barked, muffled.
The pups were all whimpering with fright, but I had no time to console any of them now. I had to get them out of there. As I fled the den, the rumbling, roaring, and deafening sound got closer. I took a quick look behind me to see where the avalanche was, and nearly tripped over a rock myself. From that point I looked ahead of me. My nose was telling me the moisture was getting closer, my senses were screaming of danger and urging me to get away.
A human had been sledding nearby and, fortunately, he had left behind his sled. I grasped the contraption that connected to the sled and gave it a tug. It broke free from the ice. I tossed the pups on it before going spinning backwards down the deep trench of the hill. A short, startled yelp warned me that one of the pups had fallen off the gliding sled and was now running after it. “Stay here,” I snarled at the other pups diving off the sled, and reached for the little pup just in time before the snow was upon us.
The sled slammed into a rock and I saw with dread bodies flying everywhere. I tossed every last pup on my back. A second later, I yelped out as both the pups and I were swept in the avalanche. Snow, rocks, twigs, and the world spun crazily around. After a moment, all was still; I managed to thrust my face up, out of the cold snow. Gasping in lungfuls of air, I dove back down and began digging frantically. “Charlene, Skip, Scuff, Terest-shield, Sorturary!” I yelped and yipped, calling out their names.
“Mama, Mama!” I heard the sound of Skip's yap somewhere off to my left.
“Dad?” That was Terest-shield's voice somewhere to the immediate right of me.
I dove to my right, digging frantically and found Terest-shield a moment later.
Then, I placed her down beside me and began digging to my left, until I found Skip safe inside a log along with Scuff. “Dad?” Terest-shield looked at me. “I saw Charlene over that way before the snow covered me.” She pointed to the right and further away from us.
I licked her on the nose and quickly dug in that direction. Snow flew by the pups as I drove my paws through it again and again. But when I finally got to the body, Charlene lay there unmoving. “Charlene, wake up sweetie,” I said, nudging her with my nose.
But it was too late. “Oh no,” I stuttered, realizing her little heart was no longer beating. “No, c’mon, baby, wake up, wake up.”
“No-o-o!” I howled out in mourning, the pups taking up the cry with me, tears in their eyes.
Other howls far off took up the same echo of pain my voice had carried out. My clan, or at least some of them, were alive. I heard a few barks farther behind me, and realized that those were the sounds of my pack. We were missing three members, though.
“What of Julie, Thorn and Spiral?” I asked, gazing at the clan members about me and pulling the pups up out of the deep snow.
“We haven’t seen them; we can only assume that they are safe somewhere else,” Max replied, heaving a deep sigh at seeing Scuff alive.
There had been twelve, and now we were down by three for a total of nine.
Suddenly, I heard a howl off to my right: a summons. Surely, no one really wanted to fight me at this time of great disaster? I went off in search of the summons, leaving the pups with Max and Neela.
It didn’t take long to find out who had called me, but I stared at what he had in his mouth. My enemy held Sortuary. “Release the pup at once and I won’t—” The gesture he made stopped me cold.
He wanted me to follow. His name was Red River, though why he was called that, I didn’t know. Having no other choice, I followed him. We went further south past our territory lines to a large outcropping overlooking a spot of churned mud. I looked down at the foul-smelling pit, realizing it wasn’t mud, but some other substance I couldn’t quite identify. I stared at my enemy, waiting to hear what he had to say. He rested the pup under one paw and glared at me with his crazy-deep gray eyes. “How do you like it, Eldharst?” he asked, smiling, his fur all crimson.
“Want to know where this pup’s headed? No, not in that pit there,” Red River pointed with his other paw.
I turned to look where he was pointing. Down below, I saw a hole so deep that it could safely be around twenty feet down. I also happened to notice that his entire clan was waiting down there, too, standing around the edges of the hole, tails wagging. So, they were going to bury the pup alive, I thought.
I took a step forward, a growl rumbling deep in my chest. Red River picked Sortuary up in his mouth and held him over the hole. I stared intently as Red River opened his mouth with a smile on his face. Sortuary let out a cry of alarm, echoing as he fell down until he landed in the hole. The pack waited for his orders.
I let out a deep snarl and lunged forward. Teeth and jaws and bodies and claws and paws slammed into each other headfirst. I grasped my enemy at just the right angle and as we stood on hind paws I started pushing him towards the edge of the pit.
Sortuary was still alive, I could see that, though it appeared the pup had suffered an injury of some sort. I strained with all my might, and we both fell off the edge, he landing on his back in the mud and I landing in the hole next to the pup. I groaned out in pain, turning over and leaping on a rocky protrusion sticking out far too high for the pup to leap, but not high enough for me. The pup grabbed my tail in his mouth and I lifted us out of the hole, placing Sortuary off to the side. I growled at the pack, which moved out of my way. Then, I walked over to where Red River was laying on his back. I stood over him, my tail high. I gazed down on my enemy. But he gazed back.
“If I can’t win, neither can you, Eldharst. Go, hide the pup!” the wolf howled in anger.
I tried to go to Sortuary’s rescue, but Red River grabbed my front paw in his mouth. I snarled and spun on him, dropping my hind legs on top of his stomach and pressing down. His body sunk easily beneath me and my free front paw shoved down on his chest, pushing his whole body under. The smell was overwhelming and I was almost ready to collapse when bubbles poured out of the strange mud and freed my paw.
I turned around, but the pack and my pup were gone. They had separated in so many directions that there was no way of finding him.
Resignedly, I returned to my pack to find out that Max and the others were waiting. When I drew nearer, I saw one of Red River’s clan members lying dead before my pack and Sortuary was safe!
“Oh, joy of joys!” I howled out, happily rushing over to lick my son all over.
Where the tree tops glisten and children listen to hear sleigh bells in the snow.
The last verse echoed in my thoughts briefly that night as I lay there with the pups all nestled together in a row. Somewhere far off in the skies, as I was laying my head down for my winter rest, I heard sleigh bells from the town below and a choir singing of a little drummer boy. The snow continued to fall around us as I hoped for the spring to come; it would be good to welcome the sun.
I awoke the next morning and sang this song for my missing mate.
“Come home, baby, come home; I’m here and I’m all alone.
These days are long and I need you by my side, so come home, baby, come home.
The words won’t wait forever, but we could stay here together.
Lead me not to stray, but come home today, please, baby, come home.
I remember all the things we used to do.
I remember all the hunts I’ve been on with you, ooh.
Reach me through the stars and some day, no matter how far,
I will find you again.
So come home, baby, come home.
I’m waiting by the den all alone.
So reach into the night, speak my name and I’ll give flight.
Come running to your side, my love.
So come home, baby, come home.”
And then I smiled at the sky.
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