sighed.

“I called this meeting because of a breech in the south perimeter.

The Uniea are advancing up the river, and that will lead them straight here.”

He paused.

“We can’t have that.”

“No,” Timbre said, “I’ll get right on it.”

“Actually Timbre…”

Shadow turned to Talkeet.

“… I was thinking that Talkeet could handle this one.”

Talkeet nodded.

“Take your unit, and intercept those wolves, ambush them, something, I don’t care how, just make sure that they don’t reach this cave.”

“Alright,” Talkeet said.

“Anything else happen today that I need to know about?” Shadow asked.

Talkeet felt a… a rage… growing inside him.

“Yeah!” He yelled, “I lost about twenty of my troops, including a very good friend, but I guess their deaths don’t matter in the grand scheme of things do they!?”

“Talkeet…” Dash started.

Shadow looked shocked.

“Listen to me….” Shadow started.

“No,” Talkeet yelled, “you listen to me, all of you!”

The four wolves looked incredibly surprised at this outburst.

“I know that all four of you lost people as well, but… but no one said anything, why!?”

They al looked one to another.

“Be… because this is war son.” Dash said slowly.

“So that makes it all alright?!”

Talkeet looked… mad.

“Why don’t you go tell James’s mother, who has lost her ENTIRE family to this thing called war, go tell her that her son dying is no biggie, because there’s a war going on! I’m sure that would make her feel a whole freakin lot better!”

“Son,” Dash said, “it’s not that we don’t care, it’s just… like I said, this is war, and… and like it or not, we’re going to lose people, friends.”

“That’s not acceptable to me!” Talkeet said. “It’s… it’s not.”

Silence filled the chamber.

Talkeet finally sighed, and looked back up at Shadow.

“I’m going to the river. They won’t get through.”

Talkeet turned and walked out of the chamber.

Shadow, Timbre, and Lightning looked at Dash, questioningly.

Dash shrugged.

Talkeet stood on a ledge overlooking the river.

His unit had found a cave that looked down on the river, and had taken up post there, waiting for the Uniea.

Talkeet sighed.

He looked behind him, and saw a wolf named Bullet, standing guard.

“What’s he doing here?” Talkeet thought. “He has a family, a mate, and seven kids, how could he put himself in danger?”

Leadership was bearing down hard on Talkeet.

Every wolf that he lost he felt responsible for, as if he’d let them down.

He sighed again.

“I hate this war.” He said aloud.

He silently vowed to do whatever was necessary to end this slaughter.

If that meant that he had to fight, had to kill… then so be it.

“But after this I’m through,” Talkeet thought. “I’ll never again fight, not after this is resolved, or at least, not as a lieutenant.”

Talkeet looked up at the stars.

They were so beautiful, as was the aura borealis that lit up the night sky.

“So odd,” Talkeet thought, “that such beauty could overlook such… ugliness.”

Talkeet thought about the morning to come.

It would be a bloody one to be sure.

These particular Uniea were very good, and had proceeded, unhampered, through the first two lines of defense.

Dash and half of his unit were about six miles upstream, nearer to the cave, in case Talkeet was unable to stop them,

The other half went with Lightning, to raid the patrols that the Uniea had started outside the cave.

Timbre had taken his group, and made a bold offensive, and was even now, mired in the depths of battle, had been for two days.

Talkeet turned, and walked back toward the cave.

“Bullet, you know the watch schedule?” Talkeet asked.

“Yes sir.” Bullet said.

Talkeet nodded.

“Keep an eye out.”

“Yes sir.”

Talkeet walked into the cave.

Then he heard Bullet’s warning.

“ATTACKER’S…..”

The voice was cut off, and Talkeet turned to see Bullet on the ground, a jagged slash in his throat.

The Uniea wolf that had killed him, stepped forward, grinning.

They were everywhere.

“WAKE UP, ATTACK!” Talkeet yelled.

The wolves, drilled for such an event, were up and fending off their attackers in minutes, as they swarmed into the cave.

Talkeet fought through the wolves, killing many of them, but for every one that he took down, two more seemed to appear.

The cave floor was soon slick.

Talkeet snapped at, and caught one of the attackers by the neck.

He heard the bones in the wolf’s neck snap as he threw it sideways.

He dropped the dead wolf to the ground.

Talkeet saw the leader then, in the back.

“Coward!” Talkeet thought.

He leapt over the fighting wolves in front of him, and landed in front of the leader.

The wolf smiled.

“Well, well, well,” the wolf said. “Lieutenant Talkeet, heard a lot about you.”

“That was quite a drive, it ends, now.” Talkeet said.

“We’ll see.” The other wolf said.

He leapt at Talkeet, and Talkeet ducked, as the wolf sailed over him.

He turned, just as the wolf barreled into him.

The two fell to the ground, and rolled toward the edge of the bluff.

Finally, Talkeet got away from him, and stood up.

Both of them were covered in small wounds.

Talkeet had clipped the wolf pretty good in the face, and the wolf had gotten Talkeet’s shoulder pretty good.

The wolf laughed.

“You know, if you look at it, we Uniea aren’t that different from you.”

“What?” Talkeet asked.

“You should come fight for us, with your help, we could win this war.”

“Never!” Talkeet said. “I won’t stop until every last one of you are dead.”

“Why?” The wolf asked. “Do you even know why you’re fighting?”

“You tried to kill Aleu.” Talkeet said, rage growing inside of him.

“Maybe it’s time for a change in leadership.” The wolf said.

“Talkeet yelled.

“Enough of this, you die, now!”

Then he leapt at the wolf, and soon they were again locked in combat.

Around them, the battle was raging as well.

Losses were heavy on both sides, and the survivors were tiring.

Some of the Uniea began to advance, past the cave.

Talkeet paused as he saw five wolves sneaking around the back of his unit.

They’d be slaughtered.

Talkeet stopped fighting.

“Look behind you, Enemy to the rear!”

The wolves turned, and Talkeet saw them begin to fight the flanking movement down.

The Uniea leader took this distraction as an opening, and spun around, kicking Talkeet in the face.

Talkeet hit the ground, and rolled off the bluff.

It was thirty feet to the ground.

Talkeet landed on his back, on top of a large boulder.

He laid there for a moment, before he slid off of it into the shallow water below.

The wolf ran down the side of the hill beside the bluff, and down to where Talkeet lay.

He didn’t move.

The wolf knelt down beside him, and was pleased to see the young wolf’s chest rise and fall.

Talkeet was alive.,

One of the wolves troops ran down the hill, and over to his leader.

“We have routed the Talbourne, and are pursuing them as they retreat into the woods.

“Good,” The leader said, “very good, I’ll continue on with them, you go tell Daie that we have a prisoner.”

Chapter Three

Shadow and Lightning were talking, when the wolf walked in.

“Can I help you?” Lightning asked.

“Actually…. I need to speak to Shadow… alone.” The wolf said.

Lightning looked at Shadow, and he nodded his head.

Lightning left the chamber.

“What is it?” Shadow asked.

The wolf had tears in his eyes, as he began.

“The… the Uniea attacked us, at our post, on the river….”

“And?” Shadow asked.

“Talkeet…”

“Oh no.” Shadow said.

The wolf nodded.

We saw him, he warned all of us, cause… well, we were sleeping.”

We started to repel the attack, and I lost sight of him in the middle of it, but… but then I saw him, he was fighting the leader of the Uniea attack force. It… it was pretty even, they were both hurt.”

Shadow sighed.

“Go on.”

The wolf sighed.

Well, I… I saw him again, as he warned us of a group of the Uniea were coming up behind us.

The wolf paused.

“I… I guess that he lost his concentration… or… or something, because the wolf knocked him off of the bluff.

It was a thirty foot drop to the river, and the water was very shallow.:

Shadow hung his head.

“Did you see him?” Shadow asked.

“No,” the wolf said, “We retreated, because they were just killing us, literally. We fell back to Dash’s position, where their charge was finally stopped, but… but I didn’t see Talkeet again.”

“Does Dash know?”

The wolf shook his