Chapters of a Life: Trainee (Complete)

7

"While you were choosing your armies, two of your packmates were sent off with the first wolf you chose. They are your goal. Bo, you and your army will hunt Gorm, while Ewan, you and your army will hunt Heather."

'No, no, no, no this can't be happening', I thought. I wanted her with me now she is in danger. 'SHI...' I looked up to see Papa giving me a hard look. 'OK, panic later!!!'

"The area from the gardens to the river to the lake and to this training ground will be the area of the hunt. There will be no blood drawn but you may spar, there will be Sentinels and Elders in the area to ensure any sparring is fair and the loser returns here. The battle ends when one of the hostages is found or the hostage is the last member of the army. Does everyone understand?" We all nodded, ready to gather up and strategize. "You will be given to the count of 20 to make a plan. GO." We rushed to the far tree, speaking softly as to not alert Ewan's army.

"Did anyone see who took Heather?" I asked.

"I did", said Alastar, smiling "It was Stan."

Now I understood why he was smiling, Stan had a distinctive scent one that even as a human I could track. "Wait, who else went with them? There are several others missing"

"10"

"Everyone track out and meet up at the lake, use the calls we created last spring." Last Spring Uncle Sten took all the unshifted with some of the younger pack members out on a scouting trip. He said he wanted to see how many Elk, Moose, Deer, Bison had survived the winter and what other predators had. He broke us up into groups, sent us off into different areas of the territory, and told us to count what we saw. Oh and we had to do it without alerting anything or anybody around. Atsadi had taught Heather, Alastar, and myself to mimic the birds around us and to use it as a sort of language, just as his people did. It worked great, we won then and we would win now.

"1"

We took off like a bat out of the cave.

It wasn't long before I began to hear the calls of my army. Alerting me to the fact that false scent trails had been laid out. I too had fallen for several of the false leads. Then it dawned on me the trails all missed one area. Calling for a gathering I moved toward the lake. Unfortunately for our army there were only two of us who made it, Neilina- a young wolf who was older and not too friendly- showed and me. "Did you see what happened to the others", I asked.

"Alastar was being beaten by two of Ewan's thugs, Elder Balandin watched and laughed". She replied.

I was spitting mad and ready for some revenge. "Well, I say it's time to send some of their's to the den." We smiled together ready to even the odds. She and I were not close but she could shift and was a fair fighter even in her wolf skin.

Turns out she paid attention to scent camouflage, we rolled in the pines and covered ourselves in the mud. They couldn't scent us but we could scent them. The first two we found were easy marks. They were gone in one hit apiece, the sentinel throwing them over their shoulders and packing them out. Two down six to go. One by one we moved closer to Heather. It took two of us to take down Knud, we did it with no blood and stayed within the rules. Yet we had not seen Heather nor Gorm. Just when I was thinking we had lost I scented Heather's lilac perfume. One problem, standing between us and her was Ewan and Elder Balandin. No one else appeared to be around and they were torturing her, she was bruised and her top was torn. Not thinking I moved to storm on there, luckily for me, Neilina stopped me and reminded me we needed a plan. Taking a deep breath, I called out. Using the call of the whippoorwill I alerted my friends that help was needed. Instantly Heather relaxed, 'HUH OH', I thought we are going to get caught. Heather knew someone was here and she was going to alert them. Just when I was sure it was not going to work she began to sob. Loud and long, making the males mad. "This is why females should not hold power", Elder Balandin says, "They are too weak and fragile". He says with a mean smile.