Wolv

21 - Fire

We raced through the shadows back to our rally point, slowing our pace for Nadie's sake. Spike had wandered his way back ahead of us, and was sitting in the moonlight, shaking his head back and forth when we finally reached our meeting place.

His ears perked up the moment we broke through the trees, and he stood up, his eyes now cleared.

"Is Kémé with you?" he asked, wagging his tail slowly. Hutch shook his head.

"No. Are you okay?"

Spike looked down at his paws and shut his eyes tightly. "Yeah, I guess." He turned away from us, shivering. "We should probably leave...right?"

Again Hutch shook his head. "Not without Kémé. Where did he go, Spike?"

Spike's shivers intensified, wracking his tiny frame. He mumbled a few incoherent words, then sat down again.

"What? Spike, answer me!"

Spike shut down once again, and began rambling quietly. "I don't know how he went, but he went away somehow and I don't think he's coming back..."

I turned around and looked at Nadie, sitting against a tree, nursing her bloodied arm. She caught me staring and rolled her eyes at me, an exhausted look plastered on her face. She winced as she tightened the bandage around her arm.

"I want to say goodbye to my mother," she whispered to me. I stepped closer, resting my muzzle on her free arm.

"Okay..." She stiffened at my voice ever so slightly, and I moved away. "Crap. I'm sorry."

"She lives just over there." She pointed at a house on the edge of the reserve, no more than two hundred metres away.

Hutch walked up to me, growling in frustration. "I can't get a word out of Spike. He's all freakin' locked up." Spike leaned up against a tree, his eyes slowly fluttering closed.

"Has anyone ever acted like this before?" I asked.

"The only other person to blatantly ignore rank is you." He cast an annoyed look Spike's way. "I pulled rank on him just now, and not even that was enough to get him to talk."

"Sound's like he got scared pretty good. Is it possible that--"

"No, its not possible that Kémé was killed," he growled, shaking his head with firm denial. "Besides, I'd say Spike is more confused than he is scared."

"So what do we do?"

Hutch snorted. "Wait until he wakes up, I guess." Spike had slumped down on the tree, and was snoring softly.

"Nadie wants to say goodbye to her family."

"We're not going back in there."

"Oh really?" Hutch looked at me confused, and I pointed to where Nadie had been sitting a moment ago. He snarled angrily and raked his claws along the granite beneath him.

"Why do you people have to make everything so bloody difficult!" he yelled, and began pacing around the clearing. If he could tear his hair out, that's what he would be doing.

"Hutch..."

"It's bad enough that we've lost Kémé, and now we've lost her, too. Again!"

"Hutch!"

"What?"

"I know where she went. I'll keep an eye on her." I darted into the shadows before Hutch could disagree, and I heard him howl loudly behind me. I knew he was only trying to keep everyone safe, but he was already spread too thin between looking after Spike, and now, Nadie. On top of that, his leader was missing. The guy was stressed, and I didn't want him to come down too hard on Nadie.