The Wolves of River's Edge

Prologue 4: Tornado

Four pups ran around Dust's paws, almost making him trip on his way to the watering hole. Peak stepped on his tail, instinctively, Dust snapped around, nearly missing Peak's snout. Cliff yelped as Peak knocked into him, sending Cliff into the watering hole. Dust dragged his son out of the water and into the sunlight. Cliff shook himself, sending water droplets onto the dry stone. Their home, in the southern part of the East Pack, not far from the South Pack's border, was on a rocky outcrop. Not much grew there, and those that did died after a day, Blizzard gave each family their own "living space", as he called it, Dust and his family were assigned the small mountain. If Blizzard knew how unsafe the cliffs were, he didn't care. The pups were constantly falling of ledges and stepping on sharp pebbles, piercing their pads. But there was food and water, enough to supply a family, they couldn't complain about space either. Honeytail appeared behind Cliff, Peak, and Tornado, carrying a plump mouse.

"Boys, back to the den," she said to the pups. "It's past your bed time."

"How can you even tell what time it is?" Peak asked, shuffling his way towards the den.

"I tell time by the moon and the stars, you'll learn when your older." She answered vaguely. Honeytail lay the mouse next to Dust's paws and motioned with her tail for him to eat it. He bit a chunk out of the mouse and pushed over to Honeytail, who ate her share of the rodent.

"Can I come out? I have a question." A small voice came from the cave.

"Sure," Honeytail answered. "What's on your mind?"

A gray and brown pup bounded out of the den.

"Well, I was wondering... if you could tell me why storms exist." Tornado said.

Honeytail gave Tornado a puzzled look. "To start off, the great wolves in the sky make the storms... to play with the wolves down here on earth," She started. "The storms are created to make it so our lives aren't so easy, to give us challenges, I believe."

"And every wolf has to live through these storms, both literally and metaphorically," Dust added.

"The natural storms are made by Culonae, the Wind Wolf. She and her three pups, Relane, Kayir, and Sundara, travel the world creating hurricanes, thunder clouds, lightning, rain, and strong winds." Honeytail continued. "There are also Natural Disaster Wolves, who go around the world creating natural disasters, but..." She trailed off. Tornado obviously wasn't interested in all the Wolf Spirits. His head was tilted, his eyes half closed, as if he had fallen asleep. Which in fact, he might have. Dust remarked.

"Thank you for the very educational, and sort of boring lesson in what I already know." Tornado muttered as he crept back towards the cave. "I'll ask again tomorrow, when you can give me a real answer." Tornado continued. "Also, can I have, like, a sister or a girlfriend, 'cause Mom is the only girl I've ever met."

Dust and Honeytail exchanged puzzled glances.

Wow. I scare myself with my old stories. We're just trying to get a feel for the characters here. This stuff honestly has so little to do with the story.