Upon Winter's End

Chapter Two

Cross blinked open his eyes slowly, the bright sunlight greeting him happily. Cross grumbled a bit and snuggled back into the black wolf's sun warm fur.
"Nightmare-" A wolf started to speak but cut themself off. Cross lifted his head to see another black wolf who had blue-grey stripes zig-zagging across their fur, carelessly placed in random areas. "Who are you?" They asked, confusion written on their features, before Cross had a chance to respond Nightmare lifted his head sleepily.
"W-what's going on?" Nightmare asked groggily before blinking a few times and focusing his eyes.
"It's time to get up," They paused. "Who is that?" They questioned.
"Oh, this is Cross," Nightmare said, wrapping his tail around Cross. The other wolf just smirked a bit at this.
"Well anyways, you're on hunting duty today. Maybe you and your new friend could go together?" They said, holding back a smile.
"Um, sure, let's go Cross," Nightmare said, unaware of what the other was suggesting. Nightmare stood up and headed towards the entrance of the camp, Cross following close behind him. As they walked Cross felt his hunger grow as he could smell small animals darting across the cold tundra.
"So, let's go this way," Nightmare said as he changed their course slightly. Cross sniffed the air before he quickly got into a hunter's crouch, he inched forward to see a small, thin rabbit sniffing around under a few frost coated leaves. In one swift movement Cross' paws came down upon the small animal's neck and with a sickening crack the creature was dead on the frozen forest floor. Cross looked up to see a slightly shocked Nightmare.
"Was that good?" Cross asked.
"Y-yeah!" Nightmare said quickly. "I didn't even smell that! Geez I'm getting old already," Nightmare said with a small laugh. "Let's see if we can find anymore," Nightmare suggested.

The pair entered the stone hollow, Cross held his thin rabbit in his jaws while Nightmare had managed to catch a plump mouse.
"Here, this way Cross," Nightmare said gesturing to the nursery with his tail, his voice slightly muffled by the prey in his jaws. Nightmare walked through a opening in the stone walls of the camp, almost hidden by the hanging moss that dangled over it. Cross followed Nightmare in to find a large circular dark cave, three wolves laid on the mostly moss and feather covered floor. Two were cuddled up to each other chatting casually about things, while the other female wolf was curled around her one almost apprentice age sleeping pup.
"Oh, hello Nightmare!" The small, plump, cheery white wolf covered in black splotches spoke, his odd colored eyes shining brightly.
"Hi Ink, hi again Error," Nightmare said as he dropped the mouse near the two.
"Don't others need this?" Ink asked poking at the plump mouse with his claw.
"Inky it's fine," Error said. Cross' mouth had started to water from the rabbit still hanging loosely from his jaws. Cross quickly dropped the rabbit as to not just eat it whole, after all this wasn't his clan and others needed to eat before him. Cross turned to head out of the cave but was called back by the white wolf.
"Come here, aren't you hungry?" Ink asked ready to push the remaining third of the mouse to him.
"O-oh no thank you, I'm fine," Cross said quickly, with faked happiness in his eyes.
"Alright dearie, suit yourself," Ink said as Cross left the large cave, shielding his eyes from the blinding sun.
"Cross, why didn't you take it?" Nightmare wondered as he rushed to catch up to the other.
"This is your clan, everyone else here comes before me," Cross said as he laid down on the warm stone ground.
"Haven't you looked at yourself?" Cross seemed slightly confused at this. "I can see almost all of your ribs! You need to eat something!" Nightmare fretted, flinging one of his front paws toward Cross.
"Oh, well I don't think anyone will mind, I can wait until tomorrow," Cross shrugged, not seeming to care about his own well being.
"Cross I am not going to let you starve, I'll find something for you to eat," Nightmare said as he turned to head out of the camp.
"Wait! Nightmare you don't have to!" Cross said as he stood up but immediately he fell back down to the ground, his legs to weak to support him anymore.
"You're too weak! You need food more than anyone else!" Nightmare said as he turned and stormed off.
"Well he's determined," A small sandy wolf plopped down beside Cross who was left basically stranded in the center of the camp. "He must really like you," She smirked. "I don't think he'd be that insistent unless it was someone in his family," She explained. "So, what your name skinny?" She asked rather informally.
"I'm Cross, what's your name?" Cross replied, his voice steady.
"Pfff I'm not telling you," She said as she stood up and walked off, Cross was alone again and tried to get up. He managed and wobbled over to the medicine den, he wasn't sure why but he just wanted to talk to someone and Geno seemed like a fine wolf.
"Hello?" Cross asked into the large den.
"One second please!" Geno's meek voice came from a tunnel that went off the main den. "Oh! Hello Cross, what's up?" Geno smiled as he sat down near Cross.
"Nothing, Nightmare just left and I wanted to talk to someone," Cross said earning a small laugh from Geno.
"So you wanted to talk to me? The boring, old healer wolf?" Geno laughed as he closed his remaining eye. Geno's other eye was just an empty hole surrounded by claw marks and scarred over tissue.
"Well, you looked pretty interesting," Cross said, pointing to Geno's empty eye socket.
"Oh this little thing? Well that's an interesting story," Geno said as he began to tell his tale.

Nightmare padded into the camp, two rabbits dangling from his jaws, he placed one down on the fresh kill pile. Nightmare's ears twitched as he picked up Cross' voice, quickly heading towards him. Nightmare poked his head in to see Cross wide eyed and gawking as Geno told him stories about how he got his scars before he was a healer wolf.
"Hey Cross, I got something for you," Nightmare said as he dropped the rabbit at Cross' paws.
"O-oh! Thanks Nightmare," Cross said as he quickly ate the rabbit in a few hungry bites.
"Wow, you were hungry!" Geno remarked.
"Well, you do look like a twig," Nightmare commented.
"Well it's not my fault I couldn't catch anything!" Cross huffed. "But do we have any more?" Nightmare and Geno laughed at Cross' question.