Living With Rogues

2 : The Promised Hole

I crossed the waterfall quickly, so the bag and my fur doesn't get wet. We lived on the other side of it along with other rogues, around 50 in normal days and 150 in the winter. Down the mounting where we spent summer and up, where we spent winter, it was a perfect place to hide from packs that were hunting us down whenever the hell they felt like it.

The way down used to be unstable and rocky. I can't remember how many times I slipped, every single rogue that took this road definitely broke a bone in it. Until one time a pup almost died, only then everyone moved their lazy asses and stole some bricks from the packs to make what looks like... stairs after an earthquake. But I'm not complaining, it's better than the unstable stones that were there before. Though, the stairs weren't very fun at wolf form.

It was like a valley down here, big enough to run but not big enough to get lost. We called it The Promised Hole. I have no idea who came up with that name, but it was pretty accurate. We didn't have a 'leader' or any kind of authority figures in here, that doesn't work with rogues. Even if someone tried to boss around, they either get ignored or punched. The big decisions were mostly made by shouting "Aye" to someone on a table begging for their attention.

In the middle of the valley, there was one big tent for food, and another -a little smaller- was Adam's medical tent who was our doctor since 5 years, without him we would all probably rotten with infection or bleed to death or live the rest of our lives with twisted bones. He was banished from his old pack because he overdosed on someone and got him killed, on purpose. Well, perfect things do not exist. At least not in the promised hole.

Our so-called medical tent contained 9 beds, hundreds of bottles of alcohol that were used to clean wounds so it doesn't get infected, and some boxes of bandages someone raided from a swarm hospital. A tong for the bullets, a needle and threads. And a hammer, it is used to rebreak bones in case it healed in the wrong way. The ones that experienced it before said that it's a hell lot more painful than you can ever imagine. I didn't doubt it one bit.

The last big tent was used to store different things, clothes, food, firewood .. I think chickens used it to sleep too.

Around the big tents, there were smaller once of rogues. I shared with one of my cousins, Thunder and Zander. A failed attempt by uncle Mathew to make them sound like badasses.

Shifting back behind a tree, I wore my clothes and took out the knife and bracelet I raided. Not the best spoils but for my first lone raid, I was more proud than it's worth.

I unzipped the cover that worked as a door, stepping inside on the sound of snoring. I scanned the tent. Two camping beds. On one of them was Thunder, his legs hanging from the bed, one arm on his bare tanned packs while the other covering his eyes, his full lips slightly parted. He was the one snoring.

On the ground, was Zander. Laying on his stomach like a dead body on a pool of our clothes and other stuff. He was still wearing his shoes and clothes, which means he passed away drunk and will have a hangover when he wakes up.

I sat the knife and bracelet on a small table, and lay on my bed that was on the left side of Zander's bed. It made a low cracking sound although I tried to be as quiet as possible. Thunder stiffened on the noise

"Hi there sleeping beauty!"

He rubbed his deep-set green eyes, and passed his hand on his wavy raven hair "hm..How was it?"

"No causalities. Obviously."

He peered at Zan "I would've loved to come and watch but, I really had a shitty night"
Zander was a jughead who tended to go into fights, a lot. And when he gets drunk, it's a nightmare to babysit him.

"I know." I whispered putting my head on my pillow, that was stuffed with old shreds of clothes.

Pulling me closer to him he kissed my forehead "Happy birthday Rainbow. May you become the greatest raider of all time."

I smiled, letting the sleep take over my exhausted body on the steady beats of Thun's heart and the warmth of his body. My last thoughts were about my career in stealing the packs.

A blasting noise woke me from the peaceful sleep I was having. I opened my eyes and saw that I wasn't the only one who heard it. Zander was up on his feet examining what's around him, still half asleep.

I followed the boys out "What the hell was that!"

The camp was all up, people coming out of their tents. Some shifting to go check if we were being attacked. Others cursing for being awakened.

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