The Pack

By WolfFang
wolffang@montrose.net
(c)Andrew Hoying 1996

Rrock woke just as the last rays of the bloody sunset washed away into the night, and left his den for a run through the forest. The diverse sounds of the Northern Canadian forests flooded through his ears; the crickets endlessly singing their song to the night, an owl hooting out the unanswerable question, “Who, who?” and the loons in a nearby lake sending out their constant eerie cry. The soft smells of the forest mixed together and created a pleasant and stimulating odor. The air around him was cool, and a light wind drifted through on its never-ending vigil. A near-full moon shown down from the cloudless night sky clearly lighting the leaf strewn path before him.

He came upon a small lake where the Pack often went to drink and hunt. As he slowly bent down to get a drink, a flock of loons took to the skies. Surprised, he looked up, and as he glanced back down, he eyed his reflection peering back at him in the water. The moonlight shown down on his reflection and waves rippled through it in an endless pattern. Two golden eyes stared back through him from his blonde-gray face. The distinct black line running down his nose always filled him with a since of pride, it was the mark of his position in the pack. He drew his ears forward, almost thoughtfully as he gazed at himself in the brilliant moonlit pond.

A distant howl suddenly shattered the peace as it echoed into infinity over the forests and plains. The serene, haunting call washed through Rrock, but instead of peace, bitter rage flowed through his lean and muscular body. The final echoes reverberated through him, and he became lost in a wave of memories, “It should have been me...”

...On a silent and cool spring night, nearly two months earlier, the Pack gradually gathered around the rock strewn meadow, their usual rendezvous. Their leader had gotten too old to be able to keep up with the Pack, and the previous night his eldest and strongest son, Rriky, had rid him of life in the natural, honor filled way of the wolves. Now, however, the Pack needed a new leader to come forward, one who had the strength and courage to lead them bravely into the future.

Two wolves stepped out into the center, the brothers Rradin and Rrock. Both where honorable, strong, healthy, and intelligent, prime virtues among the wolves, as well as being loyal and brave. A growl of approval mixed with expectation came from the pack, they all knew that either brother would make an excellent leader, but now they would have to fight for the position, and prove their greater prowess and worthiness.

Rrock and Rradin stared across the meadow at each other, and their muscles tensed in anticipation of the coming fight. Without warning Rradin leaped forward, and the fight began...

“Rrock, Rrock!” He snapped out of his memory to see his bitch, Rronda, staring at him, “Come on, Rradin has called, we must hurry to the Meadow.”

“I know, I know, I was just—thinking,” Rrock started slowly.

“Well, you can think later. Let’s get moving. You wouldn’t want your brother upset with you for being late.” They ran off in the direction of the Meadow, and memories of that night again flooded his mind...

...Swiftly jumping out of the way, Rrock spun around and bit at his brother's throat. He did not try to draw blood, or even injure him, as this was not the point and wolf fights rarely caused either of these calamities. Instead he was trying to get in a dominant position so that the outcome of the fight would be apparent.

As quickly as Rrock had sidestepped him, Rradin jumped out of the way and lashed out at his brother's nose with a forepaw. He just missed, but succeeded in causing his brother to regroup and lose valuable time...

“Rrock, snap out of it, we’re here,” whispered Rronda.

Rrock looked up and spied his brother standing on the tallest rock in the Meadow. Anger again flowed through him, for while staring at his brother he once more felt cheated out of the leadership of the Pack.

“My Pack,” Rradin growled, “trouble haunts our hunting grounds. A group of renegade wolves have invaded and may plan to take our lands from us completely. We can’t allow this to happen,” he cried out and the wolves growled with consent. “There is not enough food here for both packs. If they do not leave, we will all starve.

“I want to try and speak with them, out of honor. I hope that they will leave peacefully, for if they don’t leave by choice, we will have to force them out...”

As the speech went on, Rrock found his mind wandering. “Renegade wolves are often without honor, perhaps they would be willing to speak to me, even do me a favor—for a price, of course.” Nudging Rronda with his nose, he told her that he wouldn’t be in until late the next morning, for he wanted to go for a run after the meeting.

“Don’t you want me to go with you?” She whispered in his ear.

“No!” He growled, a little too sharply, “I want to be alone.”

Rradin’s speech was just coming to a close, “So for now let’s head back to the dens, but sleep lightly. I will have extra guards out for the next few nights. Try not to go out alone, unless it is absolutely necessary.”

“Rrock did you hear that?” Rronda asked him softly.

“I’ll be okay,” he growled back at her, “I can look out for myself.” With that he took off into the forest in search of the rogue pack. The constant pace caused his mind to wander...

...Rrock let out a fearsome growl and vaulted toward Rradin with a sudden blow. He hit him squarely in the side and they both fell down from the force of the impact. Just as Rrock recovered and went for his brother's neck, Rradin’s head turned...

What was that?” Rrock thought, for he’d heard a twig snap not far away. Then a low snarl came from the nearby trees, and he knew by the smell he’d found the recreant pack. Softly, as the other emerged from the trees, Rrock started, “I’ve come with a proposition, and I wish to present it to your leader.”

“I don’t even know your name, or what pack you’re from, why should I take you to our leader? You could be a spy or worse,” snapped the other wolf.

“I’m called Rrock, from the local pack. I’m not a spy, on this I give you my word and my honor,” Rrock growled back.

“Honor? A word we seldom use. However since it is a convention among your pack, I hope that I can trust you,” the wolf snarled at Rrock, then to himself, “but don’t think that I won’t be watching your tail.”

They went straight to a small meadow, even this rebel wolf seemed to have a sense of honor, and didn’t try to trick Rrock. Of course such action would probably have been futile as wolves rarely get lost, especially on their land.

In the center of the meadow, the wolf let out a long and eerily beautiful howl. Within minutes, the leader was standing before them. “I am called Sarr, why have you come to us, your self-declared enemies?”

“My name is Rrock. I’ve come with a proposition, but first let me explain why I am here. In the competition for leader of my Pack, my brother defeated me, unfairly, and I wish him removed, permanently. He is too loved by our pack to get any one there to do it, and I am unwilling to do it myself, as he is my brother. So I have come to you to ask for your help...”

“And what would we get out of it?” Rrall quickly barked.

“As the leader of my Pack, I could allow your pack to stay on our land. If I don’t become leader, my Pack will certainly rise up and drive you from this land.” Rrock slowly explained.

“Yes, true, very well. He’s coming here in two days, we’ll kill him then,” Rrall snarled with disdain.

“No!” Rrock barked loudly, the quieter, “No, wait till night, that night, he’ll expect treachery at the meeting. Talk to him then, convince him that you’ll leave, he’ll let his guard down. Then that night, send two wolves in to kill him.”

“Very clever Rrock, have you been thinking about this for very long?”

“No...I'd better go, my bitch will be expecting me.”

“Yes, of course, then go, we’ll be there in two nights. And if you could clear out any guards...”

“Of course. Honors to your pack.” With that, Rrock set off for his den. On his way, memories again penetrated his thoughts...

...The bite was sudden, the pain deep. Rradin had bitten the back of his neck, bringing him down without any honor. All wolves know that you don’t go for the back of the neck, as the nerves there are close to the surface, and a misplaced bite can send the victim into unconsciousness, or even paralysis. Any bite can cause intense pain throughout the wolf's body. The last thing Rrock saw as he faded into darkness was his brother standing over him, the winner, but at what cost...

How could he?” Rrock thought, “Not only had he always fought with honor in the past, but he is my brother. He knew he had lost, and then he turned around and did that. The coward!”

“Rrock? What are you doing up and about?” asked the guard, Rrick, “Didn’t you hear Rradin say that no one should go out of the dens?”

“I just needed to go for a run, Rrick, hey, I’m here right? You know that I can take care of myself.”

“Yeah, well Rradin wants to talk with you, so you’d better hurry to his den.”

“Sure, okay, do you know what about?”

“No, but I heard that it was important.”

“Oh, great,” Rrock growled sarcastically as he set off for Rradin’s den. “I wonder what this is all about. I don’t even know if I can face him, now that I know that he’ll be dead in a few days,” he thought.

As he entered Rradin’s den, he heard the familiar, deep growl of his brother, “Greetings Rrock. Where were you earlier tonight?”

“Just running, hey, I’m all right, I can take care of myself.”

“Yes, brother, but I don’t want to see you hurt. I don’t think you realize how much I care for you. I’d never let anything happen to you, why I’d sooner die...”

“Then why did you do what you did in our fight for leader?” Rrock exploded, “You knew I had won, and yet you cheated, cheated so that you could be leader. Ha, and you say that you care about me?”

Rradin started with a sigh, “I don’t know what to say. That’s the real reason I called you in here. Over The past few months that’s about all I’ve been thinking about, and I’m sure it’s the same for you.

“My whole life,” he continued, “I’ve wanted nothing other than to be leader, you know that. Ever since I was just a pup I’ve worked hard nearly every day to be prepared to lead the pack...”

“As have I,” Rrock interrupted.

“I know, and I truly believe that you would be just as good of a leader as I hopefully will be, if not better. It’s just that as I saw you standing over me, my emotions out ran my rational thought; I just acted, irrationally. I know that it was an honorless act, and I know that I could have seriously hurt you, but at the time I cared more for being leader than for you, my closest confidant, and brother. Unfortunately, I think that if I was in the same position I would do it again. I’m sorry.”

“I never thought about it that way, brother,” Rrock muttered softly.

“Well it’s late, the sun’s almost up, you better get back to your den, I’m sure Rronda’s upset.”

“Yeah, I’m sure,” Rrock laughed hollowly as he left.

I’m so stupid!” Rrock thought, “I do love my brother, I always have, and now he may be dead in just a few days. Those villains will never back down from our deal, and I can never tell anyone about it. Surely they’d kick me out of the Pack if they knew. And I certainly can’t tell my brother. Oh, what am I going to do?” With that thought, he sulked into his den, ears flat and tail drooped. Quickly he growled goodnight to Rronda, and went into a restless sleep.

As the sun’s dark rays just started bleeding over the landscape, Rrock woke up and went out for a morning run. Rronda, worried, asked if she could go along, but again he declined, “I just want to sit and think by myself.”

Throughout the morning, he brooded over what he was going to do. He wanted to be leader, yet he loved his brother. He had persuaded those murderers to kill his brother, and now he wanted to stop them. He couldn’t tell any one about it, and he didn’t think he could do anything by himself. Finally, getting hungry, he decided to go hunting, for the hunt has always taken his mind off his current problems.

Sniffing the air, he picked up the faint scent of a rabbit many feet away. Slowly stalking in the direction of the smell, he lowered his head and raised his hind legs to put himself in a better position to both smell the rabbit and to spring forward rapidly at it.

The rabbit somehow sensed him, and bounded off toward the safety of its hole. Scarcely a foot away, its life was suddenly wrenched out of it by a quick and painless bite through the throat.

Without delay, he devoured the small rabbit. During his meal, he had a sudden notion of how he could prevent the death of his brother. Perhaps if he went over to talk with his brother, he could pay close attention to anyone attempting to enter, and could warn his brother, so that they could fight off the rogue wolves with honor, and not be killed by a sudden strike.

That night, he went back to his den after watching, with a certain foreboding, the bloody sunset, and went swiftly to sleep speaking hardly a word to Rronda.

The subsequent day he took a walk with Rronda. A heavy silence fell between them for the first part of the walk, then Rronda began, “You’ve been extremely quiet these past few days, what’s been on your mind?”

“Oh, I’ve just been thinking more about my brother and me. I do love him, you know, even though he hurt my pride, and injured me both physically, and emotionally. I don’t want anything to happen to him, yet I have this horrible feeling something’s about to, and I’m a part of it.”

“It seems to me, that there’s something that you’re not telling me, I wish you wouldn’t keep things from me.”

Rrock continued on as if he didn’t even hear her, “And it seems like I’ve been spending less time with you too. I hope you know that I’ll always love you.”

“And I you, you know that.”

With that, they headed back for the dens, the forest was strangely silent other than the wind, which whistled powerfully through the tree’s.

That night, as the light drained away leaving darkness, Rrock went to his brother’s den. “Greetings brother, how’d the meeting go today?”

“I’m surprised to see you back so soon brother,” he began, ”actually it went really good, they’ve agreed to leave! I hope that this will stifle any confrontation. You know, sometimes talking can resolve difficulties easier than fighting.”

“Yeah, so true. Of course talking is one of the hardest things to do in some circumstances.”

“So, why did you come here, I have a feeling that it wasn’t because of the meeting.”

“Oh, I don’t know, I’ve sort of avoided the pack these last few months, so maybe you could catch me up.”

“Of course, really it’s been pretty quiet, after the Pack adjusted to me being leader. Oh, Rroland’s pup made his first kill the other week, which was exciting, but...”

“Quiet! Did you hear that?”

“Hear wha...”

“Shhh...”

Suddenly a fearsome snarl echoed through the den as two wolves leaped through the opening and straight at Rradin. He jumped out of the way nimbly, but was not fast enough, and the first wolf’s claws ripped deeply into his hind leg. The second wolf oriented on Rradin, but Rrock flew into him, and knocked him off course before he could attack. The first wolf, however, was still on his feet and nearly bit into Rradin’s tail, but he whipped around and slashed the wolf’s side. In the leap, Rrock nearly knocked himself out, but as he regained control, he saw that while Rradin was occupied with one of the wolves, the other was moving around to Rradin’s other side to get a good bite at his neck.

One of the wolves cried out in pain as he was knocked unconscious by Rradin, but the other wolf was already in the air, and Rrock could see that there was only one way that his brother would escape this attack alive. Rage contorted his sleek face, and clouded his senses. He leapt in front of his brother as the jaws of the murderous beast came together. Rrock swiftly barked out at his brother, “Brother, this is my fault. I sent for these murderous wolves in rage, and hate, can you please forgive me out of love? I now realize that I’ll love you forever broth...” Just as he finished, his neck was torn open, and the blazing dark red blood spilt across the floor of the den.

Rradin, seeing his brothers act of ultimate sacrifice, let his emotions get the best of him, and mercilessly he had killed the two beasts. They were the only wolves he had ever killed out of cold blood, and the only time any wolf of his Pack had taken another wolf’s life for any reason, other than age, in generations.

The blood of the three dead ran together in the den. Rradin loathed to see his brother, his beautiful brother, in any way associated with those two beasts, even though he had brought them here to kill him. As Rradin carried his brothers body out into the night, he let out the longest most beautiful howl of his life. In the howl was the song of life, and the life of Rrock. He was, after all, a true wolf, loyal, honest, full of honor, and faithful to the end.

As the golden dawn of the new day broke on the horizon, Rradin stared down at the lifeless body that was his brother, “I forgive you, and I will love you, forever.”