The Son of Artemis and Fenrir

Chapter 2 - The Camp

I slowly woke up. Feeling the crisp winter air on my ears, I turned to see my sister Luna slowly waking up, her head yawning on my lap. It had been roughly seven winters ago I had been given a family, somewhere to belong. I am thankful for the opportunity my mum had given me. I am thankful for the home I now have. I am thankful for the kindness of my siblings. Though, for some reason they physically grew at a much faster rate than me.

Whilst I was thinking this Luna had fully woken up, and upon seeing an opportunity to catch me off guard, started licking at my face. I giggled, "That is so gross Luna" I said as I slowly stood up. "Evening Brother" She replied giddily. We then slowly, trying to make no noise, made our way out of the sleeping cave. The formation of the cave was wonderful, it had multiple sub caves and loads of room. I followed Luna close to the opening of the cave. "The sky is so large. So full of stars" Luna stated as we sat to watch the moon fully rise. "That it is Luna" I replied as she placed her head on my shoulder.

For some reason unlike the rest of our siblings, Luna's fur was almost the same shade as our mothers. The rest of our sibling's coats were either black or a variation of brown and grey. Growing up with my family, it became apparent that I did not grow fur as consistently nor as quickly as they did. Instead over the winters, my legs have grown a relatively thick layer of fur on them. The fur I grew was almost the colour of spruce bark, matching my hair. I was thankful that I grew enough fur to keep me warm.

Mine and Luna's heads both shot up, our ears twitching as we heard something approaching. "Little ones, why are you up so early?" We turned to see our mother walking towards us. Luna nudged me. "We could not sleep. I wanted to watch the moon rise." Luna said as she hung her head low. Mum then turned to look at me, "and why are you out, Stephen?" She calmly asked. "Because I did not know where Luna was going. I wanted to make sure she was okay" I replied. She just sat there as if considering the legitimacy of our answers. She then turned to look us both in the eyes "If what you say is true. Then what you both say is justifiable. Either way it is time to wake everyone else up. We are burning moonlight." She said as she made her way back into the sleeping cave.

It has been tough on our mum the last four winters. Both of her sisters died within the first three years of me being here. That meant all responsibility for the pack fell upon our mother. She put up a brave face, but I could tell the pressure and stress were slowly gnawing away at her. Being responsible for almost a hundred wolves was not an easy task. But she had earned everyone's respect. We all trusted her to do what was right.

As I looked over the sleepy valley a small light had caught my eye. It seemed to be moving from the edge of the valley towards the middle where a larger light was. It did not seem right. It felt out of place. "Luna, what are those lights?" I asked as we were about to head back deeper. Luna looked puzzled. "I dunno. They don't seem right though. They...They..." She started. "They seem unnatural as if they do not belong" I finished. My curiosity was now spiked. What were those lights? What did they mean? Were they a good omen or a bad one?

As we entered into the more communal, more open chamber of the cave I noticed a lot of my siblings who shared the den with me. In total there were five or six of us in that particular den. There was Me, Luna, Fang, Echo and Twitch. Occasionally our Mum would join us in our den. Out of the whole pack, we were the youngest litter. That meant, on the rare occasions it would happen, we would be picked on by the older wolves. We mainly just kept out of everyone else's way. When the pack went out in groups to hunt, we were usually left behind. When this happened, for whatever bizarre reason, mum left me in charge.

Once we had all gathered into our respective groups, we sat quietly and waited. After about five-ish minutes mum walked onto the pedestal. "Good evening everybody. Tonight we will be doing something a little bit different. Two groups will still be going hunting but me and another group will be doing a bit of long range reconnaissance. This will be to prepare ourselves for a closer inspection tomorrow night." She calmly said before stepping off of the pedestal. She then briskly made her way over to where we were sat.