Wolves of the Elements| #1 The Lost Heir

Chapter 3 (the real one)

A terrible sickness has infected the wolves of the Sky Pack. The winged wolves who got infected coughed and hacked till blood came out of their mouths, and they grew so weak and drained that they could barely walk.
No one knew what had started this sickness, or how the winged wolves of the Sky Pack got it, all they knew is that they didn't want to get the sickness too. So they tried to keep their distance from the sick wolves, but that was getting harder and harder to do, because the sickness was spreading- and quickly.

Storm of course was oblivious to the fact that more and more of his wolves were getting sick with this sickness each passing day. That is until one winged wolf, one of the healers for the Sky Pack, decided to talk to Storm about the matter, his name was Breeze.

"A-Alpha Storm? Can I speak to you for a m-minute?" Asked Breeze one day, Breeze had a stuttering problem so whenever he spoke he stuttered a lot.

It was just after the noon day meal, and Storm was in his den, finishing the last of his meat, of what used to be a plump hare.

Storm raised his head and looked towards the cave entrance to where Breeze was waiting. "You may speak." Storm said,
"I -I mean privately.." Breeze said, glancing at Lightning and Cloud, who were play-fighting with each other. As usual, Freya and Mist weren't there, they were training in the hidden clearing.

"Then can this wait until later? I'm eating my lunch." Storm said, gesturing to the half-eaten rabbit carcass on the stone table in front of him.

Breeze shook his head no, "I-it's actually quite urgent s-sir.." he said. Storm sighed and muttered something under his breath, but stood up anyway and padded over to Breeze.
"So what did you want to talk about that was so 'important'? More important than my lunch." Storm growled, impatient.
Breeze flinched at Storm's tone, but he decided that it was now or never. He cleared his throat and started, "A-Alpha Storm," he began, "the s-sickness is g-getting worse and worse with each p-passing day, and the h-healer's den is p-packed full with the s-sick w-wolves. And we're r-running out of herbs to give t-them..not that they h-help with healing t-the sick wolves, t-they only numb the p-pain a little.." Breeze muttered the last part quietly to himself, "a-and us h-healers have to work d-day and night w-with no rest at a-all, b-because m-more and more sick w-wolves are l-lining up, and we can't h-help all of t-them!" Breeze said, "W-what do you s-suppose we d-do Alpha?" He asked and looked at the Sky Alpha, waiting for him to give his opinion.

But Storm looked confused, very confused. "Uhh..what sickness..?" He asked. Breeze looked at his Alpha, his mouth gaping open in shock. He opened and closed his mouth a few times before he could actually speak again, "y-y-you... don't know about th-the sickness..?" He asked slowly. Storm shook his head no.

Breeze started laughing like it was the funniest joke he had ever heard, "wow S-Storm, I never t-thought you were the t-type to make j-jokes!"

Storm looked at Breeze with a straight face, "that wasn't a joke." He said. Breeze stopped laughing immediately. "Wait- y-your not joking?!" Breeze said, astonished. Storm shook his head no again, "How bad is this sickness?" He asked."it can't be too bad. Because if it was then I would have known about it by now..right?" Storm said,

Breeze winced, "A-actually sir, it's really bad..t-this plague- this sickness- w-whatever you wanna c-call it.. it's already k-killed seventeen wolves of this p-pack, possibly m-more..." he said, "a-actually, it would be easier if I sh-showed you how bad it is...please f-follow me, Alpha Storm." Breeze Added quickly, before Storm could get a chance to speak.
Storm sighed, nodded and followed after Breeze in a daze. This sickness already killed seventeen of his wolves! How could this have happened?! And so quickly too..

As they neared the healers den, Storm could see the long lineup of winged wolves outside of it. And every few moments, one of the wolves in line coughed.
As they got closer, Storm saw that one of the wolves coughing, spit out blood.
Storm wrinkled his muzzle in disgust at the blood on the ground and walked around the wolf who coughed and the blood and went into the healers den.