Melody

Chapter 1: Separation

 I lay on my side, pretending to be asleep just like the other wolves in our pack. It was the time when most of the wolves slowly drifted off into sleep, and the few who did not either gazed up at the wonderfully starry sky, or cuddled with the other wolves so that the resulting warmth helped them into sleep. The only ones who did not sleep were the Guards who were stationed near the end of our territory to- as the other pups and I had been told- keep watch for threats. Although, I was quite certain there's never been a threat in forever, other than once when two insufferably tall pine trees fell and broke the fences that marked our territory. Not like the Guards could have done much about it, in my opinion.

Each night, I woke up after making certain that the other wolves were asleep, and went through an elaborately planned route that I'd figured out to avoid getting the Guards' attention, to meet my best friend Poppy. We were not allowed to interact as we were from rival packs who were rivals for god-knows-what-reason, her being from the Northern Pack and me from the Southern Pack. I didn't know why there was such a strict separation, but we'd been brought up to ridicule the Northern Pack ever since we could understand speech. Poppy, however, was the friendliest wolf I knew, and so, I met up with her almost everyday.

As soon as I woke up, a fresh blow of chilly wind hit my face. Night times were generally very windy and cool in the Misty Mounts- the range in which the Southern and Northern Packs' territories lie- but it had been even cooler due to the transition to the winter season.

I shook off the feeling of annoyance and made my way through the secret passage. Since it wasn't maintained by any wolf pack, It was a rocky, uneven, low and un-cleaned area, and, along with my small size, came in handy while hiding from the Guards. The winds were relatively slower here, and a small stream flowed along the left of the passage. Tiny shrubs and a few pines emerged from near the stream, while the right side of the passage was mostly made up of large rocks and an occasional glimpse of a frog or lizard watching the passerby intently. It was probably a beautiful sight during the day, but at night, when there was no light except for the moon's, it wasn't so pleasing.

As I jumped and ducked and slid through the passage, I spotted a Guard eyeing this side, so I stopped behind a large boulder, and after his attention shifted, I continued along, just like I had done a million other times.

Poppy must have heard me approach before seeing me.

"Melody?", she asked.

"Hello, Popps!"

Poppy had inherited the Northern Pack's white-and-grey coloured fur. She was mostly covered with white, other than her tail and feet which were grey. Meanwhile, I was covered with black-and-grey fur, which wasn't exactly unique to our pack, although my mom had had about the same colour of fur.

We engaged ourselves in a game of tag, and another one of 'make-believe'. After a while, when we were sweating and panting, my eye caught a movement that appeared to be a crash-landing of some sort. I went to get a closer look at it, and what I found was quite unexpected.

An eagle had caught a fish after a speedy dive, but since the stream was quite thin, it had struck itself on a rocky edge beyond the stream. The beak was a bit mis-shaped, and one of the bird's sides had been pierced by the edge. Thankfully, it appeared to still be alive, though perhaps too weak to take a bite off the fish that was sloshing and trembling in its beak.

I turned to Poppy.

"Popps! Look what I found!", I shouted. Poppy didn't respond, so I asked again. After she didn't respond for a third and final time, I asked her if everything was alright, which was when she spoke finally, in a scared and trembling voice.

"M-melody, w-who's that behind you....?". I was perplexed.

"Behind me?", I asked, utterly confused. "Oh, don't be silly popps-"