Not Alone Anymore

Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

Collin didn't quite know what to do with his hands, which all of the sudden felt as if they were trying to be as obnoxious as possible. So many times before he had attended meetings with people of much higher rank than this female, and never once did he have to hold down one hand with the other. And yet there he was, focusing on what fingers were moving on his left hand instead of focusing on what the wild child next to him was laying out for him.

They were about twenty minutes into their "walk-and-talk", as she so casually called it- as if she expected him to know what that was. Maybe humans did them all of the time. He doubted it, though, if they spent so much of their disillusioned lives clustering indoors and fighting to get away from the nature they were gifted. They were moving surprisingly quickly for a walk dedicated to talking, as it required a lot of harsh breathing to climb their way up such a steep mountain side. But he wasn't one to judge. He felt like he was one to follow, at the moment.

He looked over at her grabbing onto a twisted root to haul herself up and over a small crest, and she laboured out, "Well then, what do you think, oh wise and seasoned wolf? Because I've been working on this for a while, and that's gotta be the best course of action for the first stage." She hefted herself onto the lip of the jutting cliff, and smirked down at it, like she had just won a personal argument with the dirt mound. He launched himself up and over, just without all the triumph.

"First stage?" He questioned, not very eager to know what else she had come up with.

"Yeah, first stage. If all my plans consisted of simply hosting an annual meeting of the alphas- and leaders" she coughed purposely- "then I might as well give up on my heroic journey of peace."

They rustled through some thick bushes- Salix Alaxensis, he recalled- and found a narrow animal trail that wasn't as covered in mud as the trail they started out on. Multiple higher branches surrounding the trail were broken and trampled due to the large fauna that traversed through these woods. Mabel ran her fingers over a deep gouge in a tree from a bear thrashing it.

"Oh look!" Mabel almost squealed, "A bear was filing its nails!" She turned to him as if he would squeal right back at her.

He did not.

But he did reply, "So, step one is hosting a meeting to sort out all of our stances on whatever issues we have been dealing with, and to boost morale by asking each other for advice and wisdom on how to handle it."

She nodded as she examined the bear claw markings. "Yes. You have to get all of the alphas, no matter how hard-headed they are, to let their guards down and feel as though they are needed and are able to help. All alphas ever want is to be needed and get praised for their minimal effort."

"Is that what you have found to be true about me?" He asked, genuinely curious.

She leaned away from the destroyed tree bark to look at him, and shot back, "Why would I? You're not an alpha, are you, leader?" She leaned back into the tree to lift small pieces of bark from the marks.

He wasn't sure if that meant he was good or bad in her eyes, but that wasn't what this meeting was about- if you could even call this a meeting.

She pulled a chunk of fur from out of the bark and lifted it to his eyes. "Once they feel they have been of use, successfully helping a problem being solved, that's when we strike stage two." She enunciated the last two words, finishing with a puff, and blowing the tuft of bear fur into his face.

He swatted it away and kept walking on the path the bear had most likely made yesterday, if the smell of the fur was anything to go by.

"And stage two would be...?"