Flamepaw's Destination

Chapter 12

            Flamepaw froze next to the others, shutting her eyes tightly. Was this the end? She stood proudly, awaiting the two-legs to kill her as they did Krait.

            Suddenly, however, one of the two-legs yowled, and Flamepaw reopened her eyes to find that a massive wolf had leapt onto one of the two-legs and had knocked him over. The other two-legs were shocked, and they turned their gaze away from the cats and instead scrambled to shoot the large wolf.

            They fired their fire-sticks poorly, while meanwhile Flamepaw and the others stood in utter confusion, curious as to why this wolf had saved their lives.

            Suddenly, one of the bullets hit the wolf's shoulder, and the wolf fell to the ground, moaning in pain. As soon as he hit the floor, Flamepaw watched in shock as small black puppy fled out of the bushes, running toward the fallen wolf.

            Her legs suddenly able to move again, Flamepaw too rushed over to the fallen wolf and found blood pouring out of his shoulder.

            "HE'S HURT!" Flamepaw shouted toward the others.

            "Hurt?" asked Dusty. Dusty clumsily ran toward the wolf, the others following behind him. As Dusty stared intently at the wolf, Flamepaw glanced around, noticing the two-legs were still present and seemed to have regained their senses.

            The small puppy leapt at one of the hunters and bit down on his foot, causing him to shriek. Meanwhile, the wolf slowly tried to make his way to his feet, but collapsed in failure. Flamepaw frowned, not wanting to witness the death of the wolf too.

            The two-leg finally managed to shake the puppy off, and he and the other two-legs at last ran away, leaving all of the animals alone. Flamepaw sighed in relief, though reality had seemed to hit her. Krait was dead, this wolf had saved their lives, and now he too was dying.

            The wolf managed to make his way to his feet, and this time, he stood firmly, despite the terrible wincing faces he was making. The young puppy rushed to his side and began helping him walk through the same bushes she had emerged.

            Flamepaw decided to follow alongside, despite the odd glances she was getting from the others. She trotted alongside the wolf and glanced up at him, noticing at how he towered over her.

            "Thank you for saving us," she told the wolf.

            "You're welcome," the wolf replied weakly.

            "You helped us, now we help you!" Dusty exclaimed, calling the others to walk alongside the wolf.

            They slowly made their way through the dense bushes that the wolf and dog had seemed to emerge from. As Flamepaw slowly made her way through, she gasped in surprise to see yet another black puppy identical to the other and a pure white wolf with five suckling pups pushed against her belly. They seemed to have just been born.

            "Are the pups okay?" the wolf asked the other desperately.

            "Lupin, you're hurt!" the white she-wolf exclaimed. He padded over to her side, and she immediately began licking his wounds with her soft pink tongue.

            "Your name is Lupin?" Flamepaw asked the tom.

            He nodded slowly.

            "Lupin, who are these cats?" the she-wolf asked oddly.

            "Lupin risked his life for them!" the puppy who had driven off the two-legs answered.