Hidden by the Mountain

Chapter 5, Raising Eleven Pups

Chapter 5

Raising Eleven Pups

           about a moon and a half later,  Kawthar ran to the entrance of the cave, soon followed by Aden and Luna. The others were tumbling around at the back of the cave. The pups were now about six and a half weeks old and loved exploring the areas of the mountain near the den which didn’t include the ridge overlooking the Moonlight Shadows Pack.

            All of the pups, except for Aatu, were abnormally large for their age. Kamatz and Salena had seen the pups of the alphas in the Moonlight Shadows Pack and even Kahoko and Bardolf’s pups and they were definitely at least less than half the size of Salena and Kamatz’s. As for Aatu, he seemed about the same size as the normal pups.

            The pups have never been more than fifty feet away from the den and therefore haven’t been off the mountain. Fortunately they were pretty occupied with the area near the den and the den itself. Suddenly, Senka ran up to Kamatz.

            “Can we go a little further from the den?” She asked in her high-pitched pup sound. Her blue eyes gleamed with curiosity when she said it.

            All of the other ten pups raced up to Kamatz as they waited for an answer from him. He looked over at Salena for an answer to see her nod.

            “Alright,” Kamatz began as all the pups started bouncing around in excitement, “but you have to be with either me or mom to go farther than you usually do.”

            Immediately all the pups raced out of the cave with Nadan and Kawthar in the lead and Kamatz bringing up the rear. He always thought that those two had the making of alphas. Kamatz quickly took the lead and led them around the mountaintop and even to the ridge overlooking the Moonlight Shadows pack.

            “Whoa!” Borvo and Aatu said at the same time while the others were held speechless by the beautiful view.

            “Who are they?” Luna asked as a few wolves from the Moonlight Shadows pack walked out of their dens and out into the clearing to play games like wrestling and tag.

            “They are the members of a different pack,” Salena said from behind them. Kawthar ran up to them and asked, “They are a pack too?”

            Kamatz left Salena to answer and tell a story about the packs of Crimson sun, which was what the packs called the valley that they lived, “Yes Kawthar. And throughout the valley there are dozens of different packs that all howl to each other on the night that a giant circle shines in the sky.”

            All eleven of the pups looked up into the sky that was dark with a bright moon shining high above and all of them smiled as they noticed it was the full moon.

            “Are they gonna howl tonight!?”  Aatu asked with excitement and curiosity.

            Both Salena and Kamatz nodded as all thirteen of the wolves settled down and looked into the valley below where the wolves were starting to gather. The pups wiggled in excitement as the alphas began the howl and hundreds of voices rang through the night from miles around in every direction.

            Soon all eleven of the pups were letting out little, short, and high-pitched howls in an attempt to join the adults. Kamatz and Salena laughed slightly before joining in and adding their own voices to the din. They were doing this for at least a couple hours before the other packs’ voices started to die down.

            Kamatz and Salena were, of course, wary of letting their voices be heard by the other packs. But luckily there were hundreds of other wolves howling as well.

            “It’s time for little pups to get to bed,” Salena said gently to the pups as they staggered to their feet. The family made the walk back to the den and the pups eagerly snuggled together and fell asleep. Kamatz and Salena went to the outside of the den and went back to the ledge.

            Kamatz relaxed and sat down on the ground. Salena sat next to him and licked his muzzle affectionately. “What’s on your mind?” Salena asked.

            “I don’t really know,” Kamatz replied honestly. “Although I suppose I should hunt so we can feed our pups and ourselves.”

            Salena nodded and pulled away from him reluctantly, “Alright. But be careful. I don’t know what I would do without you by my side.”

            Kamatz nodded and padded away. He quickly glanced behind himself at Salena. He loved the way her beautiful pelt shimmered in the silver moonlight. Just before she disappeared from view, he saw a silver tear flow down her snowy-white cheek.

            “Perhaps I should have asked her what was wrong,” Kamatz said to himself as he shook his head.

            He tried to push her from his mind so he could hunt for his family. The white wolf sniffed out a herd of elk. He quickly found a bull with a slight limp, the perfect target. It was big enough to provide a lot of food and injured enough to hunt down easily enough.

            Kamatz Slowly crept up to the herd and jumped onto the elk’s back. The creature seemed much weaker than Kamatz had first predicted, and it staggered under his weight before toppling to the ground. The wolf then sunk his teeth into the throat of the animal, killing it instantly.

            He sighed. “A few months ago I would’ve looked at this and been mad about having too much food. But now that I have about a dozen others to feed…it simply won’t be enough.”

            Then Kamatz thought for a moment before saying to himself once more, “The life of a wolf that has chosen the path I have.”

            He dragged the bull elk up the mountain to the den to find all of the pups and Salena curled up close to each other. Kamatz smiled and ate a small portion of the elk to get his strength up before curling up next to little Aatu and falling asleep.