Aleu and Niju

Afternoon Upon the Sea

Aleu’s heart was racing as she paddled through the sun warmed waters. She could still feel a slight chill that made her body ache with the memory of the previous night. Seeing the lights in the sky, and being so close to the edge between this life and the next made it all seem like a vision that Aniu had designed. But her body still felt so drained.

“Yes! This is the remains of the ice bridge on the side of the new lands. These will take us straight there!” Aleu yipped in her excitement as she clambered aboard one floe, hopped to the next and so on.

Niju, still dubious about her certainty remained a few hops behind. Aleu fumbled over the crumbled bits of the floes that got stuck in her paw pads and had the occasional slip into the waters, but was insistent in her pace.

Niju thought about her utter hurry. He wondered if she was in a hurry to leave him with the pack or if she hurried because she had changed her mind and planned to take the reins as leader of the clan once more. Only a few days back they had been thrown together and he wondered if fate would still pity him when she was gone. If she was gone. Aniu may have very well planned for her to be thrown back into his path if she did choose to leave for home. The White Wolf seemed to be favoring that arrangement lately.

“There it is! Ohh, I can see it!” Aleu beamed as she stood on the edge of the icefloe. She noticed that the floes pretty much ended here and the remaining distance to the new lands would have to be swum. It didn’t deter her- she’d done the impossible already.  Although returning to Nome before the winter was also unfeasible, she figured.

Niju almost hadn’t noticed he caught up with her, until she started talking.

“I guess I’ll have to wait for next winter…” She took a slightly mournful look back complete with a perfect sigh. “I really don’t know what comes next, but I obviously can’t go back that way. I barely made it last time.”

So that predicament from last night hadn’t changed her mind. She still had her mind wrapped around the idea of going home. He supposed it was all for the better. Niju couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t one hundred percent damn sure ‘it was for the better’, though. This was supposed to be simple, and he forced himself not to question it. This made things simple.

“But you did make it, didn’t you?” He felt the need to barb her. For some reason irking her until she was reduced to the teenager he’d first met had an unusual rush to it. He needed to know he was on top.

Her eyes narrowed at his tone and she unglued her eyes from the horizon and turned to him. “Yes I did… However I have decided to stay until next winter. I never want to be reduced to a night like last night again.” She had spoken truly like an Alphess. His barb had backfired.

She’d sounded way too sure of herself and the world around her for Niju’s likes. Perhaps he should remind her of her inability to hunt.  However, he still needed her to hand his rightful power over first. He didn’t trust the inner huffy teen in her to not come out and spoil his chances and the clan’s survival out of spite. He knew how evil she had been to them, masquerading as a wise leader who had broken their trust…

He softened his glare. She’d helped him after all, so she couldn’t be totally irredeemable.

“So, I take it you’ll be with the clan until winter.” Niju waited for her to nod.

“Well, since you have been of such use to me thus far, I suppose I won’t make you the omega I was planning on making you.” He smugly smiled and jutted his chiseled chin out.

“Well,” She interjected on his smugness. “I guess it’s clearly not in my best interest to trust you with power until I leave then.” She laid out a slight to match his own.

At this he rankled. Oh.  The bitchy halfbreed was back. He knew she was trying to hide, but he always found her in the end with his words.

 “ You and I both know you were a pathetic excuse for a leader! Would you really endanger the clan you claim to love so? All your new friends?” His words dripped with bitter malcontent.  “If you can even call them that…” He spat darkly, not forgetting her comment about the distrust of her position that spread through the pack.

“At least I have friends.” Her own petty insult embarrassed her. Aleu felt her rage bubbling beneath the surface. He knew how to rile her so perfectly, she wondered if Aniu hadn’t planned for her to lose her mind right here and right now.

“Careful, Mutt. I almost ended you before Daddy stepped in. We’re on an icefloe again… Ironic.” He took predatory steps. “ Unlike you, I can do it again.” He added a remark about her inability to swim back to the old lands once again. He prided himself with that clever retort.

“I thought last night you were all about saving m-“ Just as she had taken a step forward to meet him in the middle the icefloe collapsed from beneath them with a resounding crack. Niju made a very discreditable yelp in surprise right along with Aleu’s and they both went tumbling into the depths once more.

They scrabbled their way to the surface and stared wide eyed at each other for a few moments whilst coughing and sputtering. Oh. That again. 

Niju finally found his words in response. “ Yes… Yes I was. You are essential in establishing me into my rightful position.”  Niju had less trouble saying it this time, he was getting used to admitting this to her. They’d been over it a few times.

Aleu couldn’t help but think ‘Yeah, your rightful position as an omega.’ But she got control of her emotion and kept her mouth gracefully shut.

As if he could read her thoughts he added, “As Alpha.” to his last statement. He wasn’t going to give her the chance to even attempt to jab at him.

As Aleu treaded water she rolled her eyes. So he was still playing that game. Oh well, she would let him. She had bigger fish to catch… Kinda.

“ Well I’m going to return to the clan, I didn’t come all this way to sit and argue with you in ice cold water.” Aleu turned her back on him and swam off.

Niju wasn’t happy with her superior tone. He was becoming less and less content with being stuck with her until winter. Maybe he should stop trying to redeem her in his mind until she actually transferred power over to him. At any rate, he really wanted to get out of this damn water, he really hated water. He blamed his father for that one. 

Aleu gave another quiet sigh as the landmass become larger and larger on the horizon. Yes, it wouldn’t be long now. She remembered how she and Papa used to swim for hours in the lake in the spring. She recalled his story of almost drowning in that lake when a bear attacked him. That was on his hero’s quest. If only he could hear about all she’d done now. She ached to tell him and blow him away with all her stories about how grown up his “baby” was now.

She swam on with a few fleeting glances back at Niju until he caught up with her. He apparently saw no reason she should be in the lead when the way forward was so clear now, so he began to push ahead. Aleu ignored his attempts to dominate. She would be the bigger wolf here.

Aleu and Niju

The New Lands

Just as the all too familiar feeling of fatigue set in, Aleu finally dragged herself to shore. She’d missed Niju’s first moments in his new home seeing as he was already catching his breath on the beach, having arrived before she did. She crawled out of the tide and onto the sand and brush covered part of the shore. Niju lay in the bushes next to her.

“So... We’ve made it.” He panted, a little more incredulous than he’d meant to sound. 

She stood and he made to stand too.

“Now I presume you will take me to the clan.” He tried not to sound like a pup giddy with the excitement of growing his first adult incisors.

“I’m going to find something to eat first.” Aleu avoided his gaze and turned to her surroundings instead.

Niju blinked. She. Was. Utterly. Intolerable.  “What?” He stated, dangerously quiet.

“I’ve done that journey twice with little to nothing to eat, I’m so hungry- I might go as crazy as Sumac if I don’t get something in my belly!” She added with a smile and began sniffing the ground.

Oh she’d get something in her belly alright… His teeth. She didn’t even give him a second glance and yet she attempted to joke with him about someone he’d once called a minio- friend. He meant friend. He guessed her attempt at a lighter mood meant she wanted something from him. He sure as hell wasn’t about to catch a deer for her.

But with a growling in his belly he couldn’t help but follow her to see what she might turn up.

She soon smelled a familiar food. It wasn’t much but it’d do. Clams. Digging with her paws she dug up a few buried in the sand. Her small but sturdy claws made quick practiced work of the shell and a gulp later it was on to the next clam. She disliked the wormy and slimy taste they provided, for she really had a taste for bigger game but it wasn’t like she could catch any for herself.

Niju watched in disgust from the sidelines. She was a disgrace to Aniu, reduced to eating such lowly pickings. Perhaps he’d hunt for himself