Book 1. The long dark nights. RE-EDITING

26. Good morning Cave Dwellers. EDITED

Artos awoke the next morning. Well, thats good, cause if he didn't wake up, that would be bad.

Anywho, Melody and Maria weren't there. Artos looked around. The two females were nowhere to be found.

'Well, theres fine way to start the day off again. The same way it usually starts. Me alone. Right.' Artos thought.

He stood up and looked out over the pack. The only ones that were there was the older ones, some of the females, cubs, and a few strong males.

Well, this is what a pack should be. (I recently responded to a post by Rabbit__Stew on Twitter about wolf pack order. We have a complex system of order. Leader, military, common folk, rich folk, poor folk. Most the same social structure as human society.) There should be some more strong males left at camp to protect the.. More.. Vulnerable? Yeah. Thats it. To protect the more vulnerable members of the pack when the others go hunting or out on patrol.

But if they went out on a patrol or hunting trip, why didn't they get him? Maybe they thought he was tired and needed the rest. But they could have at least told him before they left.

He walked the trail down to the rest of the pack. He saw Melody playing with the other cubs. His aunt was over by the guards. Apparently, she was one of the ones who helped with pack security.

Well, she is his family. Theres no point in trying to avoid her. But he doesn't have to just go and talk to her. All this contemplating what to do is making him hungry. He looks around. There was a few of the ones he talked to the night before still in camp.

'Hey.' He thought 'Maybe Hinto just wants me to meet the rest of the pack. Thats probably why they didn't get me up before they left.'

Artos walked over to a group of wolves that looked about his age.

"Uh. Howdy." He said. Yeah. Good start.

One of them looked at him like he just ate her portion of moose or somethin.

"What d'you want?" She asked.

"Uh.. Just trying to meet the pack." Artos replied.

"Just stay the hell away from me." She said, then trotted off.

"Uh. Was it something I said?" Artos asked, confused about this whole thing.

"Nah. It wasn't you," One wolf said. He looked to be about five months old.
(A/N. You have to look at it like this. Wolves age faster than werewolves. In this case, Artos was a wolf who has shifting ability. He was nine months old when he shifted. That means his human age was about 17 or 18. This wolf cub, if he could shift, would be about 13 or 14. Its not to complicated to figure out, but I figured I'd put that in there.) "Rachel's usually like that."

"I've noticed that when I first got here, there were a few wolves looking at me like she was. Is there any specific reason?" Artos asked.

"Well." One of the wolves said. She was a bit hesitant. "Some think your going to.. Well..."

"Be like my father was before he left?" Artos knew this was probably it.

"Well.. Yeah." The she wolf said.

"I am like my father." Artos said. The other wolves there looked at each other. "But after he changed. Before he died, he changed into a better wolf than he was when he was here."

The others looked relieved, but in a subtle way. Artos could tell that though. He felt like he need to prove it to the pack though. They needed to see that he wasn't who they think he was.

"So. Where did everybody go this morning?" He asked.

"They went on hunting. We were assigned to protect the young ones here. I'm assuming thats why you didn't go? I'm Alex by the way." The first wolf said. He was mostly brown with streaks of black and white along his back.