Hidden by the Mountain

Chapter 8, The Plan

Chapter 8, The Plan

Another moon and a half had passed and the pups were now about 16 weeks old. (4 months) Their milk teeth have been replaced and they now survive entirely off meat. Aatu was still about half the size of his siblings that were now only a few inches shorter than the smaller wolves in the Moonlight Shadows pack. On average the pups were two and a half feet at the shoulder, 135 pounds, and were four feet in length.

             Kamatz watched them wrestle together, all of them amazingly better than even Fravardin as far as he could tell. Then he looked over at his mate who was looking very proud of the pups. She still didn’t know about the rising danger.

             The white wolf sighed and left the den without a word. He saw a patrol walking along the edge of the forest, so far away it was impossible to tell how many there were, what their coat colors were, and even their size. By now they were extremely common, at least two every day. How Salena and the pups never saw them, he’ll probably never know.

             He went to the ledge overlooking the Moonlight Shadows pack and watched their activity. The alphas summoned the rest of the pack and they gathered around the rock. The alpha male stepped forward and viewed the pack.

             “My fellow pack members,” the alpha male began, “another moon has come and gone without traces of this rogue wolf and his family aside from carcasses scattered throughout the forest and scent trails that seem to disappear before they can be traced anywhere near a known den.”

             Kamatz could faintly hear many of the wolves growl in disgust and the alpha female continued her mate’s words, “As a result, we have decided to send wolves to search every single inch of this territory. This includes the coyote-infested forests, the dangerous bison ranges, and,” the wolf shuttered at the thought, “The frosted mountaintops.”

             Kamatz snorted in disgust. He hated them even more now that they stated how miserable his home supposedly was. Then he quickly realized the greater problem, the Moonlight Shadows pack was going to find them.

             He sighed. It was about time for him to tell Salena and the pups the awful truth. He slowly and shamefully padded into the den and called for them to listen to what he had to say.

             “Listen. This may be hard to hear, but the Moonlight Shadows pack knows we’re in there territory and are trying to pinpoint our exact location so that they can…‘drive us out’,” He said.

            Salena snorted with laughter, soon followed by the pups. She came closer to him and said, “Are you kidding? We’ve known about them for moons!”

             “Really?” Kamatz said in confusion.

             “Of course!” It was Ryker who replied this time.

             Kawthar stepped forward and announced, “I was exploring the area around the mountain a few moons ago with Aatu and we saw a group of wolves walk around the base of the mountain, muttering stuff about a rogue wolf that they scented around here.”

             “So what will we do?” Kamatz said sadly as he sat upon the ground. “We may be strong and powerful wolves, but not enough to fight 34 wolves.”

             “Oh really?” Aatu said with a smile before nodding to his sister, Kanai, and they hopped onto a large rock shelf on the side of the cave that he hadn’t noticed before.

             “We’ve come up with a plan to save ourselves from them!” Kanai said with a wide grin. She and Aatu then described their very intelligent plan that shocked Kamatz and Salena because of its complexity.