The Wolf

Prologue

The sun slowly descended down the horizon as long purple shadows were casted all around the terrain. The excited pups had already all retreated back into their den, tired, as the moon rose chasing the sun away. The mountains faraway has been doomed in a pinkish glow from the sun, then stained purple in the shadows. The sky was casted in different shades and hues of colours,  pink, red, orange, purple, blue and gold, all mixed together like a large water-colour palette. Aquafur, who was the alpha of his pack, knew this was an important night. He slowly made his way up onto the edge of a hill, as the last of the wolves padded back into their dens to have a good night's rest.

Ashfire yawned as a loud thrilling howl rose into the dark sky, waking him from his slumber. He flicked his ears toward the noise, wandering whether there had been a fight, maybe it was  a victory howl. However, who dares to defy the alpha of his position? Ashfire felt a glow of hot red ember from his hide as he rolled up onto his paws. Whatever the howl it was about, it was important. Stretching his coiled muscles, he trotted out of his den, with Jadeclaws following suit. As he went out of his den, he realised all the others had been awake too, and all exiting their dens. Then his jaws dropped when he realised that the howl had came from Aquafur. Ashfire glanced around to see plenty of annoyed faces, all yawning and stretching. 

From beside him, Jadeclaws snapped at the pack, pulling his lips back in a snarl, and saying the exact words Ashfire wanted to say, "Who dares to defy the alpha of his position?" His words were like knives, scalding and drawing hot blood.  Upon hearing his words, most of the pack dropped their heads, their ears and neck flattened, their gaze lowered, in submission to Aquafur.

              Aquafur stood on the edge of a hill, his fur ruffling in the slight breeze as he watched members of his pack emerge from their dens.  "We have gathered here as I have an important announcement to make, today is the last day of the 12 months, the day when our ancestors sacrificed for our pack, our future, the day of the great battle! However, a single cub has been born today, Starfrost , cub of Moondreams!" Aquafur roared, flashing his fangs. Thunderlight gasped, Moondreams is Aquafur's mate, that means a new heir has been born. The pregnant luna (mate of alpha) has finally given birth. The other wolves seemed unusually quiet, their tails tucked between their legs, all glancing up. He looked up too, and saw that the moon was extremely bright tonight. "I would also like to take this chance to remind all wolf cubs below the age of 2 months is to stay in greenhills and not to run into the forest." Aquafur reminded, scanning the pack below for misbehaving cubs. Just before Aquafur dismissed them, for a fleeting second, Thunderlight managed catch a glimspe of Moondream's black fur as she slunk away into the shadows.

 And so, the story starts when this cub named Starfrost is born, the key to the world of wonder.