“And I think your just coming to get treated now”

Dio saw a female wolf come up to him. “You must be this war veteran Dio that aleu was talking to me about?” she said. Dio nodded. “Well let’s have a look at you” she spoke in such a slow, calm, caring voice. He rolled back so she could have a good look at him. She started running her paws over his body and he started whining in pain. “I'm sorry, this part usually does hurt”

“d-don’t worry. W-with what I've b-been through, t-this is n-nothing”

She ran her paw across him a few more times before she said. “Well I don’ think you’ve broken anything. There are possible sprains on your right front and left hind legs, but there’s no way I can confirm that. Now all I’m going to do is clean your wounds up”

She started slowly licking his left hind leg. He tensed ready for the pain. “Don’t worry, I’ll be gentle” she said. She slowly started licking his leg and slowly he managed to relax. He laid back and started murring as the pain slowly went away. “Ok I’ve cleaned you all up everywhere apart from your crotch. I’ll leave you to do that”

“No, it ok, I don’t mind” Dio said. Then smiled and winked.

The wolf rolled her eyes “nice try” she said.  “You’re free to go if you want. Just take it slow and easy for a few days”

Dio slowly rose. He was able to put weight on all 4 feet now. “Thanks” he said then started to walk. He was still kinda limping. But he was walking better than he was. He met up with aleu. “I’m a bit better now” he said.

“Good” aleu said.

“Just a few days and I should be back to normal”

“Well just take it easy for now. We’ll look after you”

“Aleu please. I don’t want any charity”

“Please I insist” she said.

Dio sighed. “Allright, but why are you helping me so much?”

“I’m just helping you get back on your feet is all” Aleu Said.

Dio remained quiet for a minute before he softly said. “Thank you”

“Great, now relax for a while. I'm gonna go catch us a caribou I’ll let you share mine” Dio felt honoured. He got to share the alpha’s caribou. Before he could even say thank you she said. “Cya” and walked off.

He didn’t feel like talking to anyone, so he wandered around and found his own little spot in the sun. He cleaned up his crotch like the wolf that fixed him up suggested. Then laid down and rested until Aleu returned.

She and her hunting party returned with 3 caribou’s. Everyone started to crowd around the kills. Dio tried to force his way through but his injuries prevented him from putting up a decent fight for food. He suddenly saw aleu in the corner of his eye and she signalled for him to come to her. He walked over to her and her kill. No one was crowding around this one. “Take what you want then bring it with you back to my den” she said.

Aleu started tearing chunks of meat off it. Dio copied her. He pulled as much as he could into his mouth, which was considerably more than aleu since he was much bigger than her. Then he followed her back up to the alpha’s den.

“Why we eating up here?” asked Dio, Even though his voice was heavily muffled because of the food in it.

Aleu sat down and dropped her dinner. “Because I wanna get to know you a bit better and down there seems awfully noisy” she said.

Dio took position next to her and dropped his dinner. “Well fair enough, whaddya wanna know?” Dio asked.

“Well…nothing really, just wanted to chat” Aleu said.

“What about?” Dio said as he started eating.

“Tell me one of your war stories” Aleu said.

“Hmmm….ok I've got a good one. It goes like this”

Later into the story

“So I sent a couple of wolves down to cut em off on the west side. Then the rest of us attacked straight down the middle of their defences, slicing the pack in 2. With that, moral crippled and from there the enemy pack started dropping like flies” Dio said.

“Wow” Aleu said. “You did all that?”

“Yep” Dio replied. “there was also a time where we got pinned on the edge of a cliff and one of the enemy wolves tried to dive tackle me…all I did was roll out the way, like this” Dio was getting a bit carried away with himself. He tried to replicate the roll he did in that situation a long time ago, but he forgot about his injuries. When he rolled he landed on his scars. He whined in pain and he suddenly remembered his wounds. He landed awkwardly next to Aleu.

He groaned as he sat upright then looked at aleu. They both stared at each other for a few seconds then they laughed. When the laughter had died down suddenly an awkward silence began. It wasn’t helping the awkwardness by the fact that they’re so close together. Dio started to finish off his dinner as a way of trying to hide his blush. Aleu quickly did the same.

When they had finished eating the sun was lower down and it shone right into the den. It made aleu’s fur stand out. ‘She is so beautiful…wait did I really just think that!?’ Dio shook his head then stood up and stretched. “Thanks for the dinner aleu. I’ll best be getting some rest”

“Oh ok. There’s a bunch of free dens down the southern end of our territory. Pick whatever one you want”

Dio nodded then began to walk. Aleu watched him limp out of her den. ‘He is one strange figure…actually I can think of lots of words to describe him. Big, brave, strong, handsome, intelligent- wait did I really just think handsome!?’ she shook her head then laid down.

3 days later

Dio had a similar procedure every day. He would walk around, talk to others in the pack, then for dinner he would go eat with aleu up in her den. His wounds had healed up quite well now. They still left permanent scars all over his body, but he was good to go.

He met up with aleu in the morning. “Morning aleu” he started jumping around. “Look I'm all better”

“I can see. It means it’s about time I asked you”

“Ask me what?”

Aleu took a deep breath. “Dio…considering whether or not you pass the initiation, would you like to join my pack?”

This was unexpected news for Dio. He wasn’t expected to be taken in like a new member of the family. “Uh…yeah I guess. But what's the initiation?”

“Walk with me” aleu said. The 2 of them walked side by side and talked. “For your test you will have to take out a small rouge wolf pack situated north of here. Last time we checked they were about 8 in size”

“On my own!?” Dio exclaimed.

Aleu giggled. “No silly you’ll have some backup…although that is also part of your test”

“Whaddya mean it’s also part of my test?”

“Well…these wolves your gonna be working with…there not exactly the smartest wolves in the pack. In fact, they’re probably the dumbest”

Dio started to understand what she meant. “…right” he said slowly.

“Here they are now” she took him over to them. “Allright Dio this is Nuk, Yak and Sumac. They will be assisting you in the attack. Remember your going to be outnumbered 2 to 1 so pick your strategy wisely. Not that I need to be saying such things to a war veteran” she grinned. “Whether you pass or fail or not will be based on what happens. If anyone of your pack mates dies, you fail. That is all that’s required of you” she started walking off. “Good luck”

Dio turned to his team. “Well let’s get going” he said.

“Well aleu told me that this rouge pack is based north, so…” he was hoping that they’d pick up on the direction. He wanted to know how smart they were.

“Which ways that?” asked Sumac.

‘Ok so they can’t figure it out. Not a problem, I’ll just point them in the right direction…literally’ he looked into the sky. “Well if the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, then north is?” It wasn’t difficult to figure out.

They looked around the sky then looked at each other. It was silent for a few seconds before they all said. “That way!” and pointed in random directions at the same time. Amazingly none of them got it right.

Dio sighed and placed his paw on his face. “It’s that way you idiots!” he pointed north.

“Ohhh” they all said at the same time.

“Right everyone follow me” Dio said as he started to walk.

They wondered into the forest. “Keep low” Dio whispered. “And be quiet”

“Got it Dio” Nuk said.

“What!” Sumac more or less shouted.

“Shut up!” Dio said in a loud whisper. “And stay hidden” he added.

“Easy for you to say, your pretty much pitch black. All you’ve gotta do is stay where the shadows go” Yak said.

Dio looked at him. “How do ya think I'm so good at this?”

They approached a river. “Hey I just figured out how you’re so good at this Dio. You stay in the shadows so you’re pretty much invisible”

Dio sighed and placed his paw on his face. He was amazed that Yak had only just