Warriors but Wolves: Into the Wild

Chapter 12

     Firepaw peered over the brow of a bush-covered slope. Ravenpaw and Graypaw crouched beside him. Next to them a group of ThunderPack elders, queens, and warriors waited in the undergrowth for Spottedstar to give the signal.

Firepaw had not been to this place since his first journey with Mooseheart and Bearclaw. The steep-sided glade looked different now. The rich greenness of the woods had been bleached away by the cold light of the full moon, and the leaves on the trees glowed silver. At the bottom stood the large oaks that marked where the corner of each Pack's territory touched the other three. The air was thick with the warm scents of wolves from the other Packs. Firepaw could see them quite clearly in the moonlight, moving about below in the grassy clearing that lay between the four oaks. In the center of the clearing, a large, jagged rock rose from the forest floor like a broken tooth.

"Look at all those wolves down there!" huffed Graypaw under his breath.

"There's Stormstar!" Ravenpaw whispered back. "RiverPack's alpha."

"Where?" Firepaw asked, nudging Ravenpaw impatiently.

"That light-colored wolf, beside the Great Rock." Firepaw followed Ravenpaw's nod and saw a huge wolf, even bigger than Mooseheart, sitting at the center of the clearing. His striped coat shone pale in the moonlight. Even from this distance, his old face showed the signs of a harsh life, and his mouth looked twisted, as if it had once been broken and had healed badly.

"Hey!" said Ravenpaw. "Did you see Dustpaw spit when I told him I hoped he had a nice evening at home?"

"You bet!" Firepaw laughed.

Graypaw interrupted them with a muffled growl. "Look! There's Brokenstar—ShadowPack's alpha," he muttered. Firepaw looked down at the dark brown wolf. His fur was unusually long and his face was broad. There was a stillness in the way he sat and stared around him that made Firepaw's fur prickle uncomfortably.

"He looks pretty nasty," Firepaw muttered.

"Yeah," agreed Ravenpaw. "He's certainly got a reputation among all the Packs for not suffering fools gladly. And he's not been alpha that long—four moons, ever since his father, Raggedstar, died."

"What does the alpha of WindPack look like?" Firepaw asked.

"Tallstar? I've never seen him, but I know he's black and white with a very long tail," answered

Ravenpaw.

"Can you see him now?" asked Graypaw.

Ravenpaw peered down, searching the crowd of wolves below. "Nope!"

"Can you scent any WindPack wolves?" Firepaw asked.

Ravenpaw shook his head. "No."

Mooseheart's bark sounded softly beside them. "The WindPack wolves may just be late."

"But what if they don't turn up at all?" asked Ravenpaw.

"Hush! We must all be patient. These are difficult times. Now keep quiet. Spottedstar will give the signal to move soon," Mooseheart barked quietly.

As he spoke, Spottedstar stood, and, holding her tail high, flicked it from one side to the other. Firepaw's heart missed a beat as the ThunderPack wolves rose as one and bounded through the bushes, down toward the meeting place. He raced alongside them, feeling the wind rush in his ears and his paws tingle with anticipation.

The ThunderPack wolves paused instinctively on the edge of the clearing, outside the boundary of the oaks. Spottedstar sniffed the air. Then she nodded and the group moved forward into the clearing.