Ash: The Wolves of the World's End

Chapter 2

The sound of a raven's cawing in the distance woke him.

     Ash shook his fur, sending tiny ice crystals flying. His legs burned and ached as he forced himself onto his toes. Pausing, he checked Selena. Her breath rose and fell contentedly, and she no longer shivered. He hated to have to leave her alone, but something else was calling him.

     He had to hunt.

     The air was frigid as it sped through his nose, but Ash could still pick up the scent of a rabbit further inland. Silently, he stole into the night. Keeping his ears high, he heard the telltale sound of a tiny heart beating.

     The rabbit was in another clearing up ahead, and Ash crouched behind a tree at the edge of the tree line. Although his eyes could barely make out its shape among the grass, he could tell it could sense a predator.

     Snap, Snap. The rabbit's big feet crunched in the frosty blades of grass. Any time now, he thought, arching his back, ready to pounce.

     Now! He shot through the air like a hawk diving at its prey. The rabbit was a bolt of lightning as it leaped for safety, but Ash was faster, pinning it to the ground. He bared his teeth in a snarl of victory, then quickly snapped its neck with his jaws. Grinning at the sweet taste of blood, he retraced his way back to his clearing.

     "You've been busy, haven't you?" Selena commented as he returned. He dropped his prize at her feet. "Go ahead and start eating. You look famished."

     She growled softly. "I can hunt my own food." Her voice may have been proud, but Ash could smell her hunger ebbing around her, eating away at her pride. Eventually, her hunger won over her, and she stooped down to eat.

     Ash patiently waited until she had finished her share to dive in on the meat. It had a sweet flavor with plenty of sinew. While he gorged himself, Selena left to wash the blood from her muzzle in the bay. Soon after he finished, he joined her.

     "What now?" Selena sat by the edge of the shoreline. The sun was feebly attempting to rise in the east, but her eyes were trained on the cliffs they had just left.

     "I don't really know, " he admitted, sitting down beside her on his haunches. "Probably we'll have to head north and find a new pack."

     "Assuming we don't get killed first."

     "By the humans, or the other packs?"

     "It doesn't matter." Ash heard her heart pump faster, and could smell her frustration around her like an aura. "The reason our pack first populated that island was to avoid both of them! And now what? If you hadn't been so blunt-"

     "Stop it!" He lept to his paws, his fangs inches from her face. "It's not just my fault we were exiled. You had to have an eye for Shadow, and when Luna realized it, she went berserk."

     She hesitated at his mentioning Shadow's name. Then she lunged at him, catching him by surprise and knocking him off his paws and onto his back.

     He expectantly waited for her to maul him. Ash had been in this situation many times with both Shadow and Nightclaw, the alpha and beta males. It wasn't out of weakness those times, it was just part of life; it showed that you trusted them with your life. But this he never saw coming.

     Selena reached down and nipped him affectionately on the muzzle. "I never would have done that to Shadow, " she whispered in his ear.

     She paced off towards the woods, and as Ash stood back up, he smelled something in her aura that had changed. He was just glad she didn't maul him.

 ---

     Ash had never liked open water too much.

     The south side of the water didn't seem half as big now, because this side just stretched out and out and...

     Snap out of it, he thought.

     The island was plentiful, Ash had to agree, but as the two of them headed north, away from home, he knew it wouldn't be enough. They would starve the coming winter months away if they couldn't find a way to the mainland.

     Selena's wet fur glistened in the dim sunlight as she led the way into the water. Ash followed suit, trying to stay with her. The water still felt freezing to him after a couple of minutes.

     "Keep up Ash! " she laughed. "Frozen your tail off yet?"

     He groaned, making a mental note to get back at her once they got across.

     They had almost reached the shoreline at dusk. A gust of icy wind struck up as Ash pulled himself out of the water and shook the sea out of his fur. He gazed out at the harsh landscape ahead of them, and took a deep breath through his nose.

     The mainland smelled so much more different from home. Sure, he could tell there were deer and elk like on the islands, but in this case, he could smell the vastness of the open land himself, stretching on forever.

     "Ash, take a look." Selena pointer her muzzle skyward, and Ash followed her gaze to see a large flock of ravens fly overhead, their beating wings and incessant cawing like a tidal wave of noise. Her eyes followed them north. "They never flocked like that back on the island. At least, I never saw so many at once."

     THe discordant howl of a pack sounded, and Ash understood at once. "Some pack must have took down a kill. It would have to be big for that many birds to come." He started after them.

     "What do you think you're doing? They'll smell us coming within a mile."

     "I know. But we need food. We'll just have to wait on the outskirts until they leave, and if we don't leave now, the ravens will take it all."

     "If we're not careful, we'll be food for the ravens!"

     He smiled. "You said 'we'."

     She hesitated for a moment. "Fine, but you can take front. And since they probably already know we're here- " She howled a message into the night. Ash recognized it as an enrollment howl, used by lone wolves looking for a pack.

     "Nice, but unnecessary, " he commented. "Let's go."

 [NT1]