Love Will Take You Places

Moving away

It's been about 6 moons since PawStep had her pups, and now we are finally getting ready to keep moving. We wanted to wait until all of the pups were strong enough to walk beside us because we knew they would complain if we wouldn't let them. I gently woke up all of my pups. "PawStep wake up your two," I mumbled to her. She nodded and started bowing her two pups, while I went to go hunt for some food to eat before we left. After a minute I felt fur brushing beside me and could smell the sweet scent of MoonPad. I turned and looked at her and asked, "What do you wanna catch today?" she just shrugged in reply. Her and all of my other pups had become apprentices...well except for DreamPad, she got her apprentice name but she can't see to hunt or fight. I started running again becauseI could smelll the scent of a baby deer that had been left by itself. MoonPad could clearly smell it to cause she instantly started sprinting beside me. I stopped a few beat lengths away and held up my paw to stop MoonPad as well. "What are we supposed to do?" I asked her quietly. She thought for a moment then replied, "One of us would sneak up behind it and scare it, that way it would go running towards those bushes," she pointed towards the group of bushes in front of the fawn, "and one of us would be waiting for it and jump out and kill it." I nodded approvingly then whispered, "You go ahead and get into position behind it, give me about five minutes and then go." She nodded and we both started sneaking off to our positions.

After I got into position I started listening very closely for MoonPad. After a minute or two I heard her paw steps and her growling. I peeked out from the bushes and saw the fawn jolt up and start running straight towards me. Whenever it got close enough I leaped out of the bushes and landed square on its shoulders. My weight was to much for it hold and it collapsed under me. I held it down and when MoonPad ran up to me she asked, "Why aren't you killing it?" "I'm gonna give you the chance to kill it," after she hesitated I said, "go ahead, it'll be your first kill." She darted and bite down on the back of its neck snapping its upper spine. I dipped my head towards the fawn and mumbled, "Thank you for letting us use your life to help keep ours." When I leaned up and looked at MoonPad she was staring at me as though she had never done that before. She looked away and mumbled to herself but I managed to hear parts of it, "We.....do that....don't remember...," she looked up and asked, "Am I supposed to do that too?" I shook my head and said, "it's to late now it's already dead and also only one wolf has to say it anyone else around just needs to dip their head." She nodded a new sparkle of eagerness was in her eyes. I looked around to make sure nobody was around that could be eavesdropping on us, then I sat down, and turned towards MoonPad. Curiosity and worry sparked her day. I took the silence as a change to start asking the questions that had been burning in my mind since I had found MoonPad, "How did you get here and why don't you seem to trust anyone?" She started looking around frantically. "It's ok, I just wanna know," I paused for a moment then looked into her eyes and continued, "Even though you aren't my actual pup, I care for you as though you were, I fed you, cleaned you, cared for you, and I'm the only that knows about your wings. Your special, but that's not a bad thing, I think you're supposed to help me and my pack somehow, you're one of the best things that's happened to me.....Moon I love you." I could feel my eyes watering. Moon Looked surprised that I had told all of this to her. But the first thing she managed to whimper was, "Y-You know about my wings?" I nodded, "You don't think it's weird or scary that I'm a mutation?" I stood up and rubbed my cheek against hers and muttered, "It May be weird, but it's interesting, and that makes you great." "Thank you...," she mumbled. "You should tell the others, You don't have to but it's your choice if you want to or not," and after that I started dragging my deer across the ground back towards our makeshift camp.

After me and Moon had made it back to camp we all started eating and then I stood up and looked around. Everyone looked up at me with curiosity in their eyes, but I could see fear in Moon's eyes as if she expected me to tell her secret. I shook my head at her and relief clouded her gaze. I looked around and then howled, "I would like to propose a new rule for our pack! We are not the pack we were in the woods, we do not need to follow the same rules!" Everyone started howling in agreement. I stood up straighter, a way of dominance I remember my doing whenever he needed to look more leader like. I lifted my tail for silence and then continued, "I propose that we all suggest a new rule until we are satisfied with all of them," I looked at MoonLight and said, "You to first, what do you suggest?" I sat down and MoonLight started barking out his suggestion, "We should all have to stand guard at night at least once a week, and if you had a guard that night you can rest while everyone else hunts." I stood up beside him and shouted, "Whoever agreed with this rule stand up now!" everyone stood up in response. We all took turns saying what we suggested and here's the rules we decided on: Someone must always be on guard at night, You had to hunt food for everyone else before you could eat anything, It is aloud for one wolf to be mates with/ have pups with a wolf that is not apart of our pack, We will No longer have the end part of our names (except for the adult wolves who are used to it), a medicine wolf is aloud to have pups as long as they still treat as equally as everyone else, no wolf will ever be judged, Any wolf can join the pack as long as they prove their loyalty, Never attack your pack mates, and never go somewhere alone. After we decided on the rules I pulled all of the older wolves together. "What do you need?" PawStep asked. "We need to decide on someone to be the alpha. If we don't our pack is going to slowly spiral down as we compete for leadership." everyone nodded as they agreed. "But is it gonna be?" SkyCloud asked. "We're going to ask the pups, they will decide which wolf they want to be their leader, and we WILL NOT go against whoever wins." I said with a hint of dominance in my voice. Everyone nodded and I called over the younger ones. "What cha' need Mom?" Dream asked as she was being guided over to us by Tree. As the others sat down I looked at Storm and asked him to get enough sticks for him and everyone else, including the adults. Whenever he came back with the sticks a drew four circles with my claw. I put one line in the one me, two lines for MoonLight's circle, three in PawStep's, and none in SkyCloud's. "We are voting for which one of us," I pointed my tail at the others, "is going the alpha. This circle with no lines is for SkyCloud," I continued to explain who each circle was for. "Tree you go first and put a stick in whichever circle Dream wants to have hers in," he whispered to Dream and put two sticks in MoonLight's circle, "Moon, your turn," she happily hopped up and put a stick in my circle, "Violet," she put a stick in SkyCloud's circle. After all them put a stick in a circle I stood up and put a stick in MoonLight's circle, MoonLight put a stick in my circle, PawStep put a stick in MoonLight's circle, and SkyCloud voted for PawStep. I looked at the  sticks and then turned towards the setting sun and howled, "MoonLight is the new alpha of this pack, I hope SkyPack," the pack wolves go to after death, "Will approve of this choice, he will be visited tonight in his dreams to clarify his leadership!" I turned towards him, nuzzled him happily, and whispered, "Good job, I'm so proud of you. You earned this!" I licked his ear. He turned towards the others and barked, "We leave in the morning! Get rest and eat!" Moon stood up and looked at her adoptive father and asked, "May I speak?" he nodded. She took a deep breath and mumbled, "I'm sorry I never spoke up until now...but I've always been different, something I've never seen in a wolf before," when she paused curiosity sparked everyone's gaze, She spread open her wings and barked, "I've been this way for my whole life and hope you still think I can be apart of this pack even though I'm so much different," she looked around nervously. Storm hopped up and nuzzled her neck and then said, "We could never leave you Moon, just because you're special doesn't mean we wouldn't like you. We like you for you not for if you look different or not." Moon looked surprised and I could see her eyes light up in happiness. I looked proudly at Moon, and turned my head towards the others to see their expressions. They were all gentle in the way their eyes fell on her, but when I looked at Storm, it seemed if he wasn't just focusing on the fact of Moon opening up to us all. I could see him looking past her eyes and into her personality for the first time.

In the morning we woke up and instantly got up and left to find a better home. We walked for almost half the day before Dream had gotten out of familiar land and started stumbling. "We should stop and hunt," I mumbled into MoonLight's ear. He nodded and announced that we would be stopping for a little bit to hunt and rest. I went out towards the woods to get some time by myself. I had gotten a bit away before stopping and laying down to rest. But before I could doze off I heard a low snore. My head shot up and for the first time I smelt an unfamiliar wolf scent but the weird thing was that it was mixed with the smell of herbs. I stood up and followed the sent towards a small opening in the roots of an oak tree. I stuck my head in and saw a large she-wolf curled up under roots. I pulled my head out and let out a greeting bark. I could hear her start letting out a deep warning growl. I stepped back my fur bushing up. "I-I'm not here to hurt you! I just wanted to meet you! You smell of herbs and I wanted to know if you would join my pack because none of us know anything about herbs!" I said quickly. She stepped out and yipped, "Take me to them, I might just go with you."

I had made it back to our resting place and everyone's heads snapped around and stared at me. MoonLight stood and asked, "Why did you bring a...stranger here?" I stood up taller, faced my mate, and barked, "She smells of herbs so she must know something about herbs or know someone who does, and you can't argue because you know as well as I do that we need a medicine wolf," He looked at her asked, "What do you use for stomach ache?" "That's easy onion!" "What about when someone throws up?" "Psshhh, that's Acorn seeds, headache is pine sap, to help a queens milk come is yellow dandelion, to stop a queens milk is to mix white dandelion seed with tansy, and sunflower seeds for pain and to help someone sleep. Is that enough information for you?" He looked at her amazed then said, "one more thing, how do you bind a broken bone and stop blood?" "To stop blood you use either webs or moss, though webs is better. To bind a broken bone...you wrap it in large soft but sturdy leaves, I usually use leaves from a fig tree, and then you take two sticks and put them in a place where the bone is straight and then hold those together with webs." He nodded and said sounding sure of his choice, "You may join us if you wish, but we will not force you to do anything." I turned and looked at Dream and I could see her eyes sparkling with curiosity and excitement. "I'll have to think about it. Though I will travel with you for now and tell you my choice at dawn tomorrow," she said without reviling any emotion in her voice or eyes.

It has been a week since Dawn, that's the wolf we found, has joined us. Dream has started taking interest into herbs, maybe that's what she's meant to do. She can't fight or hunt because of her blindness, so maybe she was always meant to learn how to heal others. I was proud that she had finally found her place in the pack. Though I was surprised at how well Moon and Storm were getting along, they'd been a lot closer since Moon revealed her secret. I was also surprised at how well MoonLight and Dawn were getting along. Her red fur glowing in the sunlight, and I could see happiness and love in her eyes whenever she talked to MoonLight. I couldn't help but get jealous, but I would never let MoonLight know that. I was always trying to separate them and get MoonLight to notice me more, but every time I did he would growl at me and tell me I was "over reacting". I had a strong feeling in my gut that soon I would lose my mate, and that makes everything worse considering I was having his second litter of pups.

"MoonLight...p-please I need to talk to you!" I pause for a second and glared at Dawn, "ALONE!" "Fine,  whatever," he growled as I started walking towards some bushes. I sat down and waited for him. "This better be good, I'm still helping Dawn get used to being in a pack." I grimaced at the mention of her name. I growled, "Dawn, Dawn, DAWN! SHE'S ALL YOU EVER TALK ABOUT! WHAT WILL OUR NEW PUPS THINK WHENEVER THEIR FATHER IS WITH ANOTHER WOLF ALL THE TIME?!" His eyes grew wide at the mention of me having new pups. "Y-You're having pups?" he stammered. "Yes! You would've known earlier but you're never around me to say it!" After that I stood up and ran away; tears were welling up in my eyes and I couldn't get it out of my mind that my pups wouldn't have a father.