Ash: The Wolves of the World's End

Chapter 15

The sky was turning a dark shade of grey that Gale knew meant snow, and a lot of it. But if Samson willed him to search for the wolves, that was what he would do. It had taken half an hour to pick up their trail, heading for the mountains. He summoned the rest of the pack with a high pitched howl.

     Samson lead the others directly to him, and Gale suddenly felt his intimidation, choking him like the humans’ ropes of their sleds. Sure, when they had hatched their plans to escape, Gale had been happy to leave, but was living in fear of Samson any better than the humans. He thought back to the night they had found him outside their camp, starving, and he knew that he should have killed him then. Samson was out of his control now, like a renegade dog.

     “I want you and Piper to track them down, “ Samson said after he inspected the scent. Gale might have looked similar to the wolf, but the wolf was much bigger than him. He nodded in approval. “Don’t let me down, beta.” Barking to Piper, he bounded off down the trail.

     The trail remained intact for a decent ways down, but soon, even his and Piper’s noses searched in vain for the scent. Piper stood around his height, with her smooth striped brown and white fur and blue eyes. Scanning the terrain, he saw that they had strayed a good distance from the pack’s boundaries. Standing in front of them was a short ravine cutting through the rocks that gradually weaved its way back uphill. The rocks and mud were enough to keep anyone from making it up easily, and the snow was covering the track and the scent by the second.  We don’t even know if they came this way! Gale was ready to call them dead and return. “Hang on, “ called Piper, nuzzling the ground with her muzzle, looking for a scent. “They made it up the ravine. What should we do now?” Snow was beginning to build up around them, and the wind cut into Gale’s fur. He had made up his mind. “Mark the area. Samson can wait until after this storm if he wants any wolves.”