Wolfquest Stories: Good Old Zion

Good Old Zion

Zion's pelt looked even more orange tinted in the light of dawn. He looked from the rocky hillside, to the u-shaped pool of water in front of him and then to his pack. His eyes focusing in on Vitani, a grey wolf that he had just recently to decided to appoint as leader hunter. He walked over to the young she-wolf. "Vitani," Zion said. "Gather up the rest of the hunters and go hunt at slough. I want to talk to this one alone." He looked over at Rakau, a male wolf with cobble brown fur and a scar on his nose.

Vitani looked at him resting on her haunches, her front paws neatly in front of her. Her ears perked after Zion spoke, he could hear Rakau humming to himself and starring at him from behind. Vitani nodded and went to the other hunters.

Zion walked over to Rakau once the other wolves had left. "You," he said. His yellow eyes piercing into Rakau's pine colored eyes. "Please tell me you do something other than play with dead plants all day." Zion gave him a cold glare he used to hide his true feelings.

It was his first day out of the den, Zion bit Mouse's tail and she squeaked, but her tail gave a lopsided wag when he let go. She let her jump on top of him, his sister's weight didn't bother him as he followed his mother outside of the den. "Don't let her go too far," his mother said eyeing Zion. He was the biggest out of all his siblings and now it was his responsibly to make sure Mouse didn't wander off. Then his brother Hawk ran into him and his mother huffed a laugh and closed her eyes. Zion played with Hawk for what to him only seemed like a few minutes. Then they both looked around and saw no sign of their sister. "Why won't she just play with us?" Hawk muttered as they walked around the den site.

"I don't know," Zion said. "I'm just glad Mom falls asleep quickly otherwise she'd probably tear one of my ears off."

Zion watched as Hawk walked behind the tree of their den site to see if she was hiding there. However, when he reappeared he just shrugged. Then Zion noticed a movement behind a rock several wolf lengths from where he was. "Mouse, you stupid fur ball," he said as he raced towards the rock. Zion smelled another wolf with her, a familiar scent that hovered outside the den when he was a newborn -but for whatever reason his mother growled whenever she could smell the scent coming closer to the den. Zion crept up to the rock, then his ears went flat in horror when he saw a large male wolf crouched over his sister. She coughed dark blue berries out of her mouth and a pool of blood began to flood over her teeth. Her eyes looked spiritless as she looked over at him and Zion squeaked.

Then the large wolf turned to look at him.

Zion now looked at those kinds of wolves with the same intense hatred he showed Rakau. If his pack hadn't outvoted him, Zion would've made sure he remained a loner.

"Of course, sir, I help the wounded, sick and young. I wouldn't try to be so useless sir. If you wish, I could join the hunts," Rakau said with a smile that made Zion's fur want to stand on its end, but he forced himself not to.

"Nonsense I've seen the way you play with those plants," Zion said. Remembering the odd way he would organize them as if it were a den site that need to be fixed up. His lips curled, "just come with me and guard the kill once they've finished hunting." I'm probably not going to be eating that carcass once that demon wolf has been around it, Zion thought, he'll probably just poison it with those plants he's so keen on collecting. Zion let a shiver run down he's spine as the large male wolf ran behind him. He thought the nightmares of the wolf who murdered his sister when forever stay in his pup hood -but ever since Rakau had joined the pack the nightmares had returned.

When they reached the rest of the pack, Zion could feel the tension rising as they looked at him. "Farther from the den site then I would've hoped," he heard Vitani say. "But wonderful hunting regardless." Zion listened as the young she-wolf let a howl escape her once the elk had been defeated.