Survivors The Path Of The Pack: Thunder's Journey

Chapter 19

The Sun Dog was starting to peek out again. Thunder was relieved that Sweet had allowed her punishment to be pushed back to the next day so she could wait for Twitch. The dogs sat in groups or alone in the wide space of their camp now that the storm had gone. Thunder had reluctantly watched a few of the hunters leave to their duties as Sweet had ordered another hunting patrol so they'd have enough for prey share.

"And how did his leg get hurt?" Dart asked in a sharp whine.

Thunder blinked a few times as she came back to reality. She and Breeze had been retelling the story of their rescue to everyone else since Bella wanted to stay with Scramble and Mickey was off on the hunting patrol.

It's something to take my mind off of the wait for the other rescue team to come back, Thunder thought as she turned back to her friends.

Dart waited eagerly for Thunder so she could hear the story, Chase leaned against Thunder, just as interested as Dart in what had happened with Scramble, and Ruff, though not officially Thunder's friend, had been curious as to what happened as well.

"When I caught him after he'd jumped up, he ended up scratching himself badly on a branch. It was growing in the hole," Thunder answered, rolling onto her side.

"Interesting," Ruff said softly, scratching her black ear.

"Yeah," Chase barked, "and how's your own wound healing?"

Thunder looked down at her stomach to see that only a bit of fur was lost in place of her gash. It wasn't bleeding at all anymore.

"It's fine, it just hurts when I stretch," Thunder growled, licking the furless spot on her belly. She turned back to the other dogs, "Where is Sunshine? I bet Daisy knows, but she's with the 'still-gone' rescue team. I haven't seen her in ages."

Dart sniffled, "I don't know. I hadn't even seen her before the meeting Sweet had called."

Thunder tilted her head, trying to think of where the little Maltese dog could've gone, but she stopped as loud paw steps made their way into her ears. Thunder turned her head to see Lucky, looking down-hearted, and the rest of his team coming through the forest.

"Finally, your back!"

Thunder came to her paws as Sweet trotted happily to her mate. She could see he was tired. His fur was soaked and a little muddy. The rest of the dogs looked the same.

"Yeah, we took cover when the storm started up," Lucky explained, "are the pups fine?"

"Mhm, and our first rescue team found Scramble," Sweet said, glancing at Thunder.

Thunder smiled a little as Lucky came up to her, dropping to his tail. He started to look relieved, "Arrow and Storm, thank you for your help. You can go about the rest of your day. Daisy, get some rest, I know you're tired from last night. And Twitch-"

"Twitch can stay!" Thunder said quickly. Twitch's floppy ears flicked in surprise. He was a large Spaniel mix with red fur and black patches.

And Bella wasn't lying about him being three-legged, Thunder thought, staring at the stub where his missing arm was supposed to be.

"Sorry, I meant, Third Dog," Thunder said quickly, remembering what Bella had told her about the Spaniel mix.

Twitch shrugged and sat beside Lucky, "I'm not tired. Go on, tell us your story."

Thunder nodded, falling to her rump, "Well, after searching for a while, Breeze found Scramble. He'd gone into this hole. When I got him out, he'd scratched his leg horribly on a branch that was growing, and... Alpha thinks we'll have to...chew it off."