Lily

Chapter Seventeen: Shelter

Every muscle in Lily's body ached as she swam. She knew she was safe this time, though, because she was still swimming with her tribe. She could see a strip of land up ahead and swam a bit faster in hope of shelter.

It took a long while, but she finally reached it when the sun just started to rise over the horizon. The land looked and smelled awfully familiar, however. The small waterfall, the pine trees.
Lily knew immediately that she was back in Wild Territory.

She wandered the familiar forests, beaches, and ponds. But why? she wondered. Wasn't it the Wild Tribe who wanted to attack us? Why is the Summer Tribe sheltering in their territory?
She'd just have to wait and see.
She wandered the forests of Wild Territory. She passed the locations she knew from last time she visited: Dark Silverbell Forest, Small Paws Pup Adoption, Rosebush Village, Glum Wilds, and even Spring Pond, where she had liked to sleep and rest during her previous visit, as it reminded her of home.
After being there for a while and lots of exploring, she realized that none of the wolves were attacking her. She was quite shocked.
Perhaps, she thought, it had to do with the Summer Tribe being with them. Maybe they were smarter than Lily thought. They knew that they shouldn't attack the Summer Tribe right in front of them, as this definitely could cause trouble.
Yet again, they did set their home on fire, or at least that's what Lily believed. But here, with the Summer Tribe and Wild Tribe alongside each other, no battles were happening, which was quite surprising. They had just tried to attack earlier- why weren't they attacking now? Were all Wild Tribe wolves bad?
These thoughts were stuck in Lily's head all day.

The area around the small waterfall danced with activity as wolves hung out and played in the water that late night. A majority of night had passed, but again, Lily woke up early again after sleeping in a huddle of bushes close to the activity, and the sun would rise soon. A few gray and black wolves- likely related- chilled by the water, and a blue and white one danced next to a brown one. Howls could be heard in the distance, crickets chirped loudly, and in the distance, and owl hooted. Lily couldn't really tell which wolves were from the Summer Tribe and which ones were from the Wild Tribe apart from scent, and it was hard when they all mingled with one another, but surprisingly, no one was attacked. Maybe the Wild Tribe really was smarter or stealthier than Lily thought.
Lily watched as a brown and red wolf talked to a large number of other wolves. It was about a quarter of the wolves in this area, but half of the Summer Tribe wolves in this area in general. Then, as she watched, they creeped away towards the rocky edge of the territory.
Lily decided to follow.

Lily followed the large group of wolves to the edge of the land where the rocky edges met the ocean, and watches as they began to wade into the water, then swim. She watched for a bit, then decided to follow them into the water. She was soon swimming after them again, not knowing where she was headed, but what she did know was that she was still with her tribe, so she wanted to see just what they were up to.