Whom - A story without a name

New Fear

Toad opened his eyes tiredly. It was the middle of the night and as his eyes began to adjust to the darkness, he looked around. There was nothing on the bank near them, but as he directed his eyes to the forest he noticed a small figure in the treeline. It looked like a rabbit or hare, and as it realized it had been spotted it took off with a start into the trees. Toad sat up straighter and turned his gaze to the sky. A half moon hung high, thin, grey clouds creeping smokily through it's visage. It was foggy, cold. Toad shivered and slouched back down next to Lanky, who was mumbling almost inaudibly in his sleep, his arms folded across his chest as if he were upset. Toad listened curiously to try and decipher what he was saying. Most of it was nonsense. The few words he was able to catch were "What do you mean?" and "Please tell me,". Lanky sighed in  his sleep and turned onto his back, hugging himself tightly with his crossed arms. Toad slept lightly afterwards, wondering what exactly he might've been talking about.

- Uncountable Hours Later -

Starling woke first, feeling alone in that grey time before dawn. In all truth, she was alone. Her mother and father were dead, she had no siblings, and she hadn't seen another wolf in a very long time. To her, the forest seemed extremely empty without her family. With a deep chested sigh, she got to her feet and blinked away the tears that had been welling in her eyes. She looked down at Lanky and Toad, who were still fast asleep. It would be a while until they woke up, Starling guessed, so she loped off into the timber. 

Before she had joined up with Toad and Lanky, she had spent everyday guarding the Southward Forest and, more importantly, looking for other wolves. No matter how far she ran in a day, she never came upon any signs. As of now, she was running carefully, looking for tracks and smelling for scents. She overturned nothing, so she ran further on, towards the hill in the west. Her paws hit the ground in muted pats, reminiscent of her heartbeat. She was getting nowhere. 

Starling picked her way up onto a rock jutting diagonally from the ground and looked over the hills to the mountains standing kingly in the distance. They stirred something deep in her stomach, something recollective to nostalgia. She belonged in their frozen peaks where her ancestors would have resided rather than low in the river valley as a makeshift guardian. Many emotions twisted and coiled in her chest, so she released them in the only way she knew how, in  a low, mournful howl. She tilted her scarred muzzle to the mountains and pinned her ears back until they touched her neck. 

She was pained.

Her cry echoed up into the silent, snow capped mountains. With an aching in her heart, she waited for an answer, her ears held aloft. Nothing came back to her. She stared still in deluded vanity up at the mountains, hoping to everything that she would get some answer. She was answered by silence and a chilled breeze from the north. Starling turned in defeat and made her way down from the rough outcropping and began to lope back towards the river bank. Halfway back to the bank, she thought she heard a faint howl on the cold wind. She turned as fast as lightning, looking back the way she had come and howled again. 

Standing in anxious silence, Starling waited even longer than she had the first time. She heard no answer. All was quiet besides the creatures of the night finishing their rounds. So she went on back to the river bank, crushed by defeat. By the time she returned, the timber had come back to life entirely. Again, she thought she heard a howl from the west. It was faint, almost just an echo, but it bore a familiarity like she'd heard it before. She stared deep into the forest, but no amount of looking yielded any results. 

There was no one left for her besides the ones in need of protection. 

She trotted out of the forest's edge and further onto the bank where she was greeted by Toad.