The Wolves of the Light- An Old, Garbage Fanfiction

Ch.6: The Escape

RiverClaw was right; it took us three moons to finish digging the pit. It was too deep to jump or climb out of, and while we were working on it, we had to make a few ledges so we ourselves would not get trapped. We filled them in with packed earth when we were done. We covered the pit in branches, starting by laying the longest branches as supports and proceeding to fill in the open spaces with more branches, sticks, twigs, pinecones, dirt, and grass. River had told me to rub my scent into a pile of earthy material so that it would seem like my scent crossed the pit.

Finally it was ready, it was approaching moonhigh and I was anxiously pawing the ground near my hunting tree. River will be here soon, I repeated to myself. I was about to give her a look around the cave. We had fully worked out our revised plan. It was the same plan as before except I was going to lay the scent trail tonight, and afterwards come back with RiverClaw to wait for them to leave. Then I would go to her hollow and meet her there, after which we would proceed down the river.

I was yet again going through the plan in my head when River quietly stepped into the clearing. I cast a glance at my cave. River nodded, signaling that she was ready. Perhaps she too was afraid, but she didn't show it. Not even a trace of FearSmell was coming off of her. Silently I lead her to the entrance of the cave. We gazed in getting a quick look of the entire cave. Pine and Spring were sleeping with their backs toward us near the fire. All I could feel was sheer nervous excitement, in a bad way. I quickly led her in. I pointed with my nose to their pile of herbs, then I moved to the small pile of skins and pelts, and finally the stash of dried meat in the corner. I looked back at her and she nodded and swung her head back at the entrance of the cave. Suddenly, the tension and anticipation for the worst was gone, only to be replaced by a quiet, calm darkness. In the night, everything seemed a deep blue, and black figures of trees and plants seemed to danced in the breeze. I gazed over at RiverClaw, who was looking at the dense surrounding forest. Out of nowhere I felt an urge so powerful even my instincts of survival couldn't have combated it. I padded up to RiverClaw and whispered, "I am FireEye." Somehow I knew it was true. Our eyes met and she nodded.

'"RiverEar." Was all she said before she disappeared into the forest.

I sighed, as a peaceful feeling of understanding crept through me. Understanding of what, I could not tell you. I heaved myself to my feet and began laying the scent trail. I ran at the pace I would use if I was going to travel for a long distance quickly so that it would seem authentic. Finally I reached the pit. I climbed the nearby tree and traveled about aimlessly until I found an exceptionally wide branch. I laid down and drifted to sleep with thoughts of freedom dancing in my mind.

I awoke a few ticks before dawn and stretched my tired muscles. I jumped from branch to branch until I reached the river, and I jumped down and swam across. I saw RiverClaw coming and gave a brief hello. "I was just at the cave. They were asleep then but I suspect that they may be awake and on your trail now." She said.

"Lets get going if we're going to make this plan work then. Im going to gather together a pile of your herbs and supplies before you get back. Don't take too long, I want to get out of here as soon as possible. Meet me back here in no more than a quarter of a tick. Please hurry we don't have much time." I said. My axiety was building and I couldn't help imagining Pine and Spring around every tree or bush. My eyes were continually darting around searching for anything that might betray their presence. RiverEar gave a curt nod and sprang into the forest, her tail flowing freely behind her.

I hurried to her home and started gathering any supplies. I knew that what I gathered would be the bulk of what we would be taking on our journey, and I wanted to be as prepared as possible. I quickly rummaged through her stash of herbs, roots, and fungi. I had limited knowledge of the medicinal properties of some of the items there, but I knew enough to find the essentials that I knew Pine and Spring didn't have. I dragged them into a neat pile in the center of her home. I added some dried rabbit meat, cobwebs and strips of animal fur, and a small, bowl shaped rock to the pile. I searched around and found a large, elk-stomach satchel.

You see, we cant exactly make things as humans do, physical limitations is all. Humans think they're so smart just because they have the advantage of possible thumbs. Anyway, we have to use the body parts of animals and objects we find to essentially replicate the things that humans have made. So, in order to make a bag, we have to use something already in a pouch form, whether that is human rubbish or prey stomachs.

Anyway, I stuffed the items into the stomach as best I could and managed to fit everything in. All of this took roughly ten minutes. My tail and legs were quivering rapidly. Adrenaline was coursing through my veins like salmon during spawning season. I kept kneading the ground and glancing up at the sky, eager to get on my way. After what seemed like moons, River finally met me at her hollow. Her mouth stuffed with herbs, and an elk-stomach satchel swinging from her neck. She dropped both onto the ground and started stuffing the herbs into the bag at a brisk pace. "I didn't see them, but I caught their scent. They were heading in the correct direction, and by now they are probably in the pit doing their best to scramble back out again. Lets go, just in case our plan didn't work out quite right. Can you even imagine what they would do to us?" she said.

I stepped into the river, its icy coolness sending a tingling shock up my leg. "I don't want to imagine." I said. She shimmied the bag back onto her neck and joined me in the river.

Our progress was agonizingly slow. With the current pushing against us and the sharp rocks scratching our paws, it was like trying to walk through chest-high snow without being able to spread your toes to walk above it. I couldn't help but occasionally look behind me to check and see if Pine and Spring didn't fall into the pit and were following us instead.

As we drew farther and farther away, my anxiousness fell away into a quiet calm. River and I didn't talk to each other, we didn't really want to. I glanced over to see River standing rigidly, intently staring down into the water. Suddenly, she dove straight into the water only to surface with a wriggling fish. "Fancy a quick snack, or shall we stop for the night?" RiverEar asked. I looked at the sky. The sun was nearly below the horizon making the usually blue sky dance with reds, pinks, oranges, and yellows. It was beautiful, breathtaking in fact. "Let's stop. I'll catch a few more fish, one is hardly enough food for a pup!" I said.

"Let you catch all the fish? And let you have all the fun? Have you gone crazy, I am catching some fish too?" She retorted playfully as she splashed me with water.

"Hey, you're going to scare away all of the fish! If you want to catch some, be my guest. Less work for me, but I do have to say, I bet I can catch more than you." I teased back.

"Is that a challenge? Is that a challenge? Oh, you have no idea what you're up against. What do you think I ate living so close to the river? Ready? 123 go!" she said, finishing the last sentence quickly. I whipped to attention and stared frozen into the water. Soon black outlines of juicy fish started to swim around my paws. Wait for it, wait for it!, I thought. I pounced onto a fat trout and pulled it out of the water, proudly trotting over to the bank and setting onto the ground. Almost exactly after that, RiverEar pulled one out of the river as well and set it on the ground near mine. "One." We both said in unison. I dashed back to the water with River at my shoulder. Quickly our piles filled up until we had twenty three total and were thoroughly exhausted. We flopped down next to our piles and counted them up.

"Ha ha, Twelve! In your face FireEye, I beat you!" She cheered. I rolled my eyes playfully and absently bit into a fish. Its meat was glorious! I had always been forced to eat only the worst bits of meat if I was lucky; otherwise I had to fill up on insects and repulsive carrion. This meat however, was juicy and delicious. RiverEar obviously noticed my excitement and said, "Wait until you taste real meat. Then this will seem like nothing."

We ate and ate until we couldn't even eat a single speck more. There was plenty of fish and plenty of room in our stomachs. We laid down to rest, completely opposite from when we started the day, from the agonizing, nervous morning, to the carefree, full-of-meat night. I dreamed of nothing in particular. All I know was that it was the best evening I had ever experienced in my life.