The Journey Around The World, In Order To Save Spring

In Which I Become Even Balder

Sometime the next day, they passed through Cheyenne. Or were currently passing through it. Amaruq had asked for them to walk through the merchant street. He had a surprise in store, so he left the other two to their own devices. They had a look around at the merchandise for sale. Clothes, tools, toys and stuff. Even bought a few things that caught their eye. Taggak was mostly just wanting to pass through and get to Denver quickly, but he had to admit that there were some things he did fancy. Amaruq came back and he wanted to speak with Atsuguk. "Hey, Atsuguk. I know you're hungry, since you didn't eat yesterday, so I got you this," he said as he revealed two containers of sweet foods from behind his back.

"They're chocolate chip cookies and cheesecake," he said. He remembered them from back in Yellowknife, as he alone had bought them that day. "Woah, they look so good! I don't know what to say!" The youngest wolf said as he accepted the packages from his teammate, his friend. "Thank you." "Awh, it was nothing," the other brushed it off with a wave of his hand. Taggak could only smile at the exchange. He wished he had a friend like that when he was a teenager. "Hey, let's bust this joint," Amaruq thumbed towards a picnic bench so they walked towards it. In the middle of the merchant street, however, he saw something interesting.

"Hey, look," he pointed to a stand. Well, technically he was pointing to one of the items sat upon it. It was a stone statue of a curvy  woman with knee-length hair. "Hmm? Interested?" The merchant selling them asked. He was a scrawny-looking man, with unkempt tawny fur. The other two were curious too, showed by Atsuguk with his open mouth and Taggak with his raised eyebrow. "That looks exactly like our statue!" Atsuguk mentioned. "Hmm... curious. I didn't know these city folk believed in Asiaq as well," Taggak mused. "Ah, so you are men of culture I see," the merchant said. "This lovely statue of Asiaq is a reasonable price," he tried to sell them. "No, thank you," Amaruq dissuaded politely, and the trio went on their way to the picnic table.

They sat down and watched as the youngest of them opened the containers. His stomach grumbled as he regarded the confectioneries. He said his prayers and prepared to eat the cake slice before being stopped by Amaruq. "Wait. Don't forget your fork. Don't want to get your paws dirty, am I right?" he said. Atsuguk accepted the utensil from him and dug into his meal. "It's good, isn't it? I bought the cookies n' cream one 'cause it looked good." "Mhmm," Atsuguk agreed through his mouthful of cake. After he was done with it, he opened the jar of cookies and took one before pushing it towards his friends. "Huh? Oh no, we don't need it," Amaruq said as Taggak just looked surprised.

"It's fine, really! You guys take some. I don't think I can finish the whole jar alone anyway," Atsuguk said, smiling. The other two relented and they ate the cookies together. They were really sweet and crunchy. Why is it that only the South get all these delicious foods? How unfair. After they were done and Atsuguk was full, they continued their journey to Denver, which shouldn't be far off now. Colorado is right next to Wyoming, after all.

Once they were at the settlement, they decided to retire to a hotel that night. On a chair, Amaruq contemplated on the naming of towns. Regina was named after Queen Victoria and Denver was named after James Denver, a governor, Amaruq thought. The people in charge of town-naming didn't seem very creative. He then had a thought about how every animal in the world is non-sapient except for wolves. Hmm? That was peculiar. The horses, the sabre-tooth tiger, the armadillos, the giant sloths. None of them were bipedal or spoke a language. Only wolves did.

"Hey," he turned from the window to face the other two. "Do you guys ever wonder why all the animals are dumb except for us wolves?" He asked. Atsuguk rubbed his chin, then shrugged, "Nope." Taggak was thinking for a bit before saying, "There is a legend about it." "A legend? Let's hear it," Amaruq urged. "Well, legend says that the world already existed once before, and that it was destroyed. The only survivor was a single wolf, because he was the most pure of all souls of the world. The magic of the moon and Rebirth Mountain saw his good and let him have child without a woman. Those children went out and spawned the intelligent wolves of the world, and then all of the normal canines, felines, vulpines, birds and reptiles, everything," he said, "and the world would be safe so long as the original species - the wolf - was in harmony with the moon, magic and mountain," he said, "If they weren't, then, the gift of life would be taken again, and the world would be frozen."

Amaruq pondered on this new juicy info. "So, do you think that what's happening up North is because of the legend?" Atsuguk asked. "Not sure. If you believe the legend, then it could be," the black wolf answered. They all lapsed back into silence. Amaruq turned back to the window and was suprised when he saw a woman being threatened by some masked men. He gasped and bolted through the door and outside the room before bounding down the stairs. The other two were alarmed and hurried after him. When they arrived in the alley, the woman's purse was already in the hands of the robbers.

Before attacking, Amaruq decided to use his wolf form again. He was tired of people always mention his lack of fur. He pressed the correct button and turned the dial until it showed a silhouette like before, and pressed down on it. Taggak and Atsuguk waited for Amaruq to do his thing before everything went dark. "Hey, who blocked the moon-" Atsuguk asked, looking up before gasping. There, towering over the buildings, was a white and red humanoid giant. "Why are you guys so small?" The giant asked. "Wait... Amaruq?" Atsuguk asked. "Yeah, it's me," he said before looking around him. "You guys aren't small. I'm the one who's big!" He realised. "You're not just big. You're way big!" Atsuguk corrected him.

Amaruq had to agree. He felt as if he could touch the sky. He couldn't, of course, but still. He tried to manoeuvre around to get to the bad guys, which meant his teammates had to dodge his giant stomping feet. "Hey! Watch it!" Taggak yelled. "Sorry," he apologised. "Ugh! Screw this!" One of the robbers yelled before all of them ran away. Taggak saw his chance, readied his bow and shot. The arrow hit the purse, pinning it to the alley wall. The robbers ignored it and escaped. Atsuguk went to retrieve the purse and came back to hand it to the lady. "Here," he said. "Thank you," she said back. Taggak just hummed while the other two said, "You're welcome."

"So.... are you gonna be like that forever or something?" Atsuguk asked the giant. "No. But I'm gonna need a few minutes before I time out," he said. They were silent until the youngest asked again, "You know, I never thought there was a way for you to be even balder." Amaruq scowled at that. It was true, this form had no hair on his body at all. Just hard metallic red and white skin. After some time and the giant was back to normal, they invited the lady back to their room for the night. She accepted their offer, because, truthfully, she didn't have anywhere to go to.

"So, what was their deal?" Amaruq asked, trying to make some small talk. The lady seemed to debate with herself for a bit before sighing. "It's the usual racist stuff. They think that just because they're grey, they can step all over dires like me. Those are the normal people. Then there's the robbers and thieves who target dires for kicks." Amaruq had never heard of racism before this, but he didn't think it sounded good. "Wait, you're a dire?" He asked. She nodded, and he saw it now. She was reasonably well-built compared to the other females he's seen in towns. "I was orphaned here in Denver when I was a cub. Don't remember my parents. Left the orphanage when I was 18. You know the gist," she said somewhat calmly. "Harsh," the youngest remarked.

Amaruq looked to Taggak. He knew how Taggak was also an orphan. Been one since Amaruq could remember. Their pack didn't have an orphanage, though, seeing as there's only 20+ members. But it was fine. The alpha had taken in Taggak, kind of like a mentor. And sometimes when Inuksuk couldn't take care of him, being a busy alpha and all, Tukkuttok would do so. So he grew up just fine, and even had two people who were kinda like younger cousins to him. Inuksuk's nephew and Tukkuttok's own son.

"Oh, how rude of me, I haven't even introduced myself," the lady said. "The name's Uki Yura. My friends call me Uki. If I had any," she joked. The others didn't really laugh. "Well, I'm Amaruq," he gestured to himself, "and this is Atsuguk and Taggak." At the mention of his name, the blue-eyed boy raised his hand, "Hey." While Taggak merely grunted. "Not much of a talker, are ya?" She asked him, which was met with more silence. "Ehh, he's just shy around strangers. We've known him since we were born and he's pretty chill," Atsuguk told her. Uki could only nod at that and yawned.

"We should all get some sleep," Amaruq said. "You can use the couch," Atsuguk told the lady. The three males went to the beds. There were only two of them. "Hmm. Looks like one of us will have to share with Amaruq," the youngest said. Taggak immediately dropped onto his bed with his body spread. "Welp. It seems that you're sleepin' with me tonight," Atsuguk turned to Amaruq. "Please don't say it like that," he said in reply. The trio then got comfy and slept their way through the night. Amaruq dreamt of being big and going to Rebirth Mountain to fix things. It was closer to their tribe than the secret temple, after all.