Red's Remix

The Pack

     "Let's go, we're losing daylight," said Ice Claw.

         Red nodded and followed him through the trees, over bushes and logs, and under branches. She wondered how anything could do this, then realized that she was doing it too. She dodged a tall tree, then stopped at a clearing, panting. In it stood 6 wolves, five crowding around one, who seemed to be bigger than the others. "We have been expecting you, Scarred Russet." Suddenly, she was aware of her wolf-like form and her fur bristled. She didn't want this. She just wanted to bring some cookies to her grandmother.

     "And why did you return, Ice Claw," asked the wolf in the center of the group. Ice Claw dipped his head. "I was giving Scarred Russet a proper presentation of the pack."

     The wolf in the middle snarled. "Traitor! You dare to come back, after stealing our young and giving them to strangers? You don't deserve to live in this Pack, you deserve to be slaughtered! You're lucky that I let you live as a rouge in the wild, you should not have returned!"

     Ice Claw hung his head low. "I will go, Shade Howler. I will do what is right. Goodbye, Pack." He took a few paces forward, looked back longingly, then in one motion, jumped over a tree stump and disappeared through the bracken. Shade Howler was still growling, "I never want to see his mangy, flea ridden face again."

     Red, still confused, decided she wanted to leave. "Does anyone know how to get to the village? I really should go, I don't think I'm supposed to be here."

     Shade Howler sniffed at her muzzle. "Oh, you're supposed to be here. White Storm, put her with the hunters, don't let her out." This got her nervous, but she didn't fight back. Clearly she was important for some reason, and she didn't think they would risk hurting her.

     There was another wolf in the hole in the earth that they put her in. "Hello! I'm Maple Frost, and I'm guessing you are Scarred Russet?"

     "Yes, and nice to meet you. Can I ask some questions about this place? And about my...wolf..f-form?"

     "Of course!" Maple Frost stared at her expectantly.

     "So why does everyone here know me? And why am I not allowed to go back?"

     "Well, you know Ice Claw? He was stealing from villages. So then one of the mayors demanded that to make up for the stealing, he had to bring one of our pups to him. So Ice took you and gave you to him, and you were supposed to grow up to fight a lion. But some lady, your grandmother, bought you and made you half human. You had to wear the cloak so that no one would see your wolf ears and steal you back to make you fight a lion.

     But our Pack leader, Shade Howler, didn't like that you were taken from your Pack to be raised as a human. So Ice was banished from the Pack."

    "So why didn't my parents tell me all this?"

     "Scar...this may surprise you...but the humans aren't your parents. Your mother is dead and your father...is Ice."