ONE

Chapter 19 Taken by the Stars

     The world was fuzzy and gray and all coming back in an uproar of sounds and blurry shapes twisting in and out of her vision.
     She blinked once, and the sharp reality all came back.
     Six wolves, as she counted, were nipping at the heels of the horses and scattering the round-up crew.
    She was about to charge into the fray when she was stopped by the very welcoming sight of a handsome black wolf leaping at a rider.
     He had crystal blue eyes flecked with silver and gold. He turned and raced over, asking something like "Are you okay?" But her hearing was still so muffled.....
     "Come on Redeye lets get moving!" An energetic, reddish-brown wolf said eagerly, bouncing over.
     The rest of the group gathered around, scraping blood from their claws and teeth.
     Flurry backed up, sick and tired of being surrounded. "We're not going to hurt you." The previously noticed black wolf said soothingly.
     "Are you from the packs?" She asked nervously. The black male nodded. She let out a sigh of relief.
     "Good. I've been looking for you guys. Thank you for saving my tail there." She said gratefully.
     The springy red wolf hopped around her in bouncy circles. It made her head hurt just watching.
     "I'm Thorn, this is EagleEyes, Hope, Flint, Steel, Sparks, and this guy is Redeye." He sprang into the black wolf and nipped at his ear.
     "We picked him up awhile back. Memory loss. Doesn't know who he is."
     The black and white one, Flint, edged over to Flurry and whispered in her ear.
     "And I saw the way you were looking at him." He cackled.
     "All right, well, I guess you can come with us." Thorn said. The wolves stalked through a narrow passage between two abandoned buildings that could hardly be called an alley, and emerged on the outskirts of the tiny farming community.
     The hopped a decaying wooden fence and into an enormous field of some sort of grain.
     Flurry gingerly picked her way around the tender shoots, but the other plowed right through it. She barked lightly and then raced to catch up with a rainy-sky-gray wolf, Hope, who seemed the quietest.
     "So are you guys going to the West Mountains with the rest of the packs?"
     Thorn, overhearing her question with his keen and ever-searching ears, bounded over.
     "No way! We never run from danger! We're going to find Whitefang and kick Sky's-"
     "Enough, Thorn. Look." The black-gray wolf named Sparks was gazing upwards.
     It was no quite dark, and the heavens were sprawled in infinite blackness above them.
     And then suddenly, the night sky ripped open. The purple blackness was torn in to, leaving a darker, gaping... hole of inky dark.
     Quiet fell. Then; "This must be it. The rip Aaun told us about." The tawny golden female whispered.
     Redeye was also lifting his head to look upwards, a strange longing buried by sadness in his oddly crystalline eyes. Flurry padded over to Hope.
     "What's happening?" She asked quietly, somewhat afraid of the answer.
     "A hole has opened in the StarScape. Where StarPack is. There's only one wolf up there right now."
     Redeye paced back and forth.
     "Are you ready?" Hope asked Redeye and Thorn, a hush over her calm voice, a look in her eyes that held billion year old secrets inside such a young wolf.
     Flurry watched in apprehension, feeling like an intruder.
     Sparks walked to Thorn and Redeye and breathed a plume of blue fire into their paws.
     Flurry watched in wonder and awe as the two wolves galloped into the sky.
     EagleEyes nudged Sparks. "Epic magic, tiny one." Flurry smiled despite herself as Thorn and Redeye literally ran on air, racing for the hold on the sky.
     Then Thorn had a mid-step and went falling through the air.
     Hope screamed. Everyone was screaming. Sparks was sending up more of her fire but it just went out before it went too far.
     Flurry barked in panic and fear and watched as the group looked on helplessly as the screaming wolf fell to earth like a shooting star.