female. In other words, I'm on equal ground with you, so you can't order me around like that," she replied. 

"You're the only female!" Mayak snapped back.

"Mayak, being the only female here makes her an alpha by default," Atka said, "Besides, she probably should know about… them at some point," Mayak thought the advice of his beta over and realized that he was right. However, Aniu could tell that he did not like the idea of straying from his path.

"Alright, we'll go take a look, but stay close. I don't want any of us to fall prey to them," he replied and the group set off. Aniu was curious about what they meant by 'them', and how they could fall prey to anything else. After all, they were wolves, the apex of life in these lands. They stopped at the top of a hill and looked at the scene beneath them. It was like nothing she had ever seen before; there was a creature walking on two legs in an area that had been cleared of trees to make a camp. The trees had been cut and arranged to form a cabin, which seemed to be this creature's den. Aniu was amazed at this new sight, but the others weren't. Mayak was even growling at them, and it wasn't just a defensive growl; it was a deep growl full of hatred towards this new creature.

"It's amazing. What is it?" she asked.

"It's called a human and they are probably the most dangerous things in the world!" growled Mayak.

She looked at the human and was a little confused as to what he meant. It didn't have large teeth or sharp claws. It was taller than them, but it wasn't very bulky. Compared to something like a bear or a deer, it was downright small, "It doesn't look very dangerous," she said.

"You don't know what they're capable of," said Atka.

"We weren't always a small pack you know," continued Mayak, "We used to be part of a large pack, almost two dozen strong, but then their kind came. We tried to escape them, but they came after us with their cruel devices. They hunted us down one by one and the four of us were the only ones to get away." 

"What cruel devices?" she asked.

"Look over there. See that thing that looks like a thick stick?" Faro said. She looked at where he had indicated and saw, leaning up against a tree, a long stick. One end was wood, but the other end was made of some grey, shiny material. It certainly wasn't like any stick she had seen before.

"That thing does look strange, but I don't see how it could harm us," she said.

"We don't know how it kills either," Atka replied, "All we know is that the humans point it at their prey and it makes an extremely loud noise, like thunder. Once that bang goes off, whatever they pointed it at is killed with a hole blown into their side. That was the fate of many of our packmates when they came."

"What's more, they didn't hunt us for food or defense. They just killed for the fun of it," Salin continued, "They are ruthless monsters with no regard for life."

Aniu wondered how humans could have harnessed such a power, but she wouldn't have to wait long before witnessing it firsthand. A stray wolverine, possibly attracted by the same smells that attracted her came wandering in. It was just sniffing about, but when the human spotted it, he picked up his weapon and pointed it at the wolverine. Just as Atka had said, there was a boom like thunder and the wolverine was blasted back, a hole the size of her paw in its side.

"How… how could he? It was just looking around. It didn't hurt anyone or steal anything," Aniu said, shocked with what she had witnessed. The fact that the wolverine had been killed in cold blood was one thing, but the fact that it had been done at a distance and with so little effort was another.

"No, it didn't do anything, but he doesn't care. Instead of chasing it away, he murdered it," said Faro, "Humans see themselves as higher than everything else."

"They also have this idea that wolves are monstrous animals that need to be wiped out, but we have done nothing to them. They are the ones who are the monsters!" said Atka.

Aniu's first impression of humans was scary to say the least, as she was terrified of these creatures and their power. She was about to run off, but she heard the sound of barking. It was similar to a wolf's bark, but had its own distinct tone. She looked to where the sound was coming from and it was then that she saw her first dogs. At first, she thought that they were wolves, but they seemed smaller, and they were under the service of another human, pulling what she would later learn to know as a sled.

"Are those…… wolves?" she asked.

"No, they are mere dogs," said Mayak, "That is another part of the humans I despise. They enslave some creatures for their hard labor. The dogs pull their supplies across the snow for them and they always tie them so that they cannot escape. While dogs do resemble us, they are nothing like us. They submit to the human's will without a second thought and they have been tainted by their hatred as well. They, like their masters, would attack us without a second thought. That is why we must never associate with them. They are almost as dangerous as the humans themselves!"

"Let's go," said Salin, "Those dogs might smell us. We don't want the humans to get us too."

The others turned to leave, but Aniu stayed a little longer, watching them all with curiosity. After the human had stopped, she watched as he rubbed the dogs behind their ears and showed them a lot of affection. The dogs returned this attention with their own gestures of affection, licking the human's hands and jumping up to lick his face. Shortly after stopping, the human got out some fish for them to eat. Mayak had made it sound like the humans were brutal taskmasters, but he was treating them so kindly, and the dogs seemed to love the human's company too. Then one dog – a male with a brown coat and pale white underside - turned and looked right at her. He was the one in the front, so she surmised that he was something like the group's alpha. Aniu ducked back behind the hill, but she didn't hear the dog bark out at her. She peeked back over the edge and saw that this dog was regarding her with curiosity, tilting his head to the side. He didn't show any signs of aggression towards her presence; in fact, he appeared as curious about her as she was of him. She only stayed for a few more moments before turning to follow her pack. As she walked, the memory of that brief encounter burned itself into her mind, "If that dog didn't react to me, then are they really as bad as Mayak made them out to be?"

----------------------------

The memories of her first encounter with humans would remain fresh in Aniu's mind for many days. She wanted to know why that one dog had acted contrary to how Mayak said they would, but Mayak would have nothing of it. He hated them so much that he wanted to stay as far as possible from them. Aniu had once tried sneaking away to see them, but Mayak quickly caught her and forced her to turn back. She tried to protest, but Mayak looked as though he was about to lose it at any second. Fortunately, Atka arrived at the scene and was able to diffuse the situation.

"You really should be more careful around him," Atka cautioned, "Mayak is not one you should cross."

"I only wanted to take a second look at them," she replied, "Why does Mayak always get overly dramatic anytime dogs are mentioned?"

"He had a particularly nasty run-in with them and that's all I'm going to say for now," he replied, "Look, I don't know what you think you saw there, but trust me on this one Aniu. Dogs are not something you should take lightly. A few members of our old pack fell when they were swarmed by half a dozen of them," Aniu took his words of advice and decided to keep her distance from the dogs from now on. 

A few days after her first human sighting, the caribou had started to move their herd towards better grazing. They would have to follow them in order to ensure that there was enough prey to hunt, but there was a catch. The day the caribou had moved off, a storm blew in, with the driving snow and howling winds making it difficult to track them. Aniu tried to stay with the others, but the snow was falling so thickly that she could barely see the tip of her nose.

"How are we going to find the caribou in this storm?" she shouted. 

"I don't know Aniu," Mayak replied, "They could be in anywhere in this and we wouldn't know it until we walked right into one."

"Maybe we should split up?" suggested Faro, "It would increase the chances that one of us would find them."

"How would we get back together? It's way too easy to get lost in a storm!" Salin put in.

"We'll use our howls. If you find anything or get into trouble, howl and we'll come to find you," Mayak suggested and everyone nodded in agreement.

Each one of them went off in a different direction in order to widen their search. While traveling alone in a storm is very risky, splitting up would allow the pack to cover more ground and increase the chances of success. Aniu went along her path, fighting the wind, driving snow and poor visibility, "Ugh, Mayak was right. At this point I won't find anything unless I