Naming Clay

Chapter Two

The thicket rustled as Quiet's dark tail tip vanished from view. Clay sat there, shocked to stillness, staring with his mouth agape like everyone else. Another laden silence stole over the three meer. I can't believe it, Clay's mind spun, he wouldn't actually- he can't be- he's not going to do it, is he?

Clay gulped as the moments passed and his groupmate didn't return.

It was again Suri who ventured to speak first. "Great, this is just great. Males and their egos," she mumbled under her breath before raising her voice. "Quiet! Wait, Quiet!" Then she was plunging back through the thicket. Clay didn't hesitate to go after her and Haywood again brought up the rear, though he seemed too stunned to add his own yells to Suri's.

"Quiet!" Suri emerged, shaking thorns and burs out of her fur. Clay popped up beside her, standing on his hindlegs to scan the area. There were no signs of Quiet. Only a couple of bickering ground squirrels and the grass beyond the No-End Path swaying.

"He's gone." Clay muttered, falling back onto his haunches, at a loss. "I can't believe he actually went."

Suri dropped down to all fours as well and rounded on him. "You're the one who dared him to do this, Clay! How could you be so stupid?"

He'd never seen her so angry and balked. "I didn't know-"

"Oh yes, you did!" Suri insisted and Clay found her ire much harder to bare than Quiet's had been. He lifted a paw and leaned away from her. "You never would've challenged him if you didn't think he'd do it!"

"No, really, I didn't mean-" His whiskers juddered he held them so tense.

"Are you trying to get him killed?" Suri commanded.

Clay swallowed and took a measured breath. "No, Suri, I promise you that wasn't my intention. I just..." He averted his gaze.

"You wanted to make him look foolish by giving him a challenge he'd have to refuse? You wanted to humiliate him as he humiliated you?"

"Yes," Clay answered quietly, the chastened feeling creeping up on him.

Suri's sigh was ragged. "I'm tired of your rivalry with Quiet. I am not a piece of ground to be fought over and won. I'm sorry that he has been cruel to you, but what you've done today was cruel as well. Your feud ends now, do you understand?"

Clay nodded glumly, scratching at the back of his head with a forepaw. Suri stalked to the other side of the thicket, her tail arched, and crouched at the edge of the branches. Not even the whining breeze rapping on the side of her snout deterred her from staring out at the No-End Path.

Clay slumped and settled in to wait, hoping that Quiet would realize how hopeless his task was and return to them soon. Despite all the taunting and bullying, Clay didn't want to see the other pup hurt. A soft nose nudged his shoulder and then Haywood's teeth began to nibble him. Clay relaxed under his friend's grooming. As the day wore on, he started to doze on and off. At one point he caught Suri's gaze and stood to approach her, but her glare hardened until he laid back down again. When Haywood finished grooming Clay, he moved on to run his teeth through her fur. Clay almost resented that Haywood was allowed near her, and he wasn't. He rested his head on his paws, even more lost than before.

Evening colored the sky red. A flock of birds streaked overhead too high to tell what they were. A vulture followed them, it's dark shape circling lazily above Dragon's Lair and leaving Clay with a pit of dread in his stomach. Haywood's head rested across his shoulders, bocking Clay's side from the quickly cooling air. Several paces away Suri shivered, her coarse fur fluffed. Clay edged to one side until Haywood's chin slipped from his shoulders to rest on the cool sand, but his friend didn't wake. Once free Clay stood and shook out his pelt.