her out.”

A thought occurred to Talkeet then.

“Wait, if you’re not bad, then why were Rayne and the other’s treated the way they were, that was horrid.”

Daie sighed.

“Yes, that it was. That was the doing of my former head of my fighting force, and he is no more.”

“What?” Talkeet asked.

“I had him banished, such conduct is completely distasteful, not to mention wrong.”

Talkeet’s resolve faltered a bit.

“So, what do you say?” Daie asked.

Talkeet had to admit that Daie’s words made sense, though he didn’t want them to, they did.

“But could I do it?” Talkeet thought. “Could I really kill Aleu?”

Talkeet shook his head.

“No, I… I can’t do that. I may not agree with everything she does, or even most of it, but she’s family, and I can’t kill family, not to mention friends.”

Daie sighed.

“Very well, you are free to go.”

“What?” Talkeet asked.

“I told you, you weren’t a prisoner, you’ve listened to me, and made your decision. You’re free to go.” Daie said, as he turned and walked away.

Talkeet started to walk toward the exit to the cave, but was stopped by Daie’s voice.

“I understand that it is a hard decision to make, go back, just keep what I’ve said in mind. I know you see the truth in my words.”

Daie then walked away.

“Your words do make sense, but…”

Talkeet turned, and ran from the cave.

Chapter 4

Rayne’s eyes fluttered open.

Everything was blurry, but she could make out three wolves standing over her.

“I think she’s coming around.” One of them said.

His voice echoed in her head.

She was dizzy.

“Rayne?” The voice said

“Oh I hope she’s okay,” said another voice, this one female.

Rayne groaned.

“Rayne?” The first voice said again.

Rayne closed her eyes, and opened them again.

The dizziness started to fade.

“Rayne?” The first voice said again.

This time, it didn’t echo, but came in crisp and clear, as her vision snapped back to normal.

“Rayne!” June said, “I thought you were a gonner!”

Rayne groaned again.

“Ow, my… my head hurts…”

“Yeah well it looks like you got beat up pretty bad.” Lightning said, stepping forward.

“Who did this to you?” Shadow asked.

Dash helped her stand up.

“I don’t…” Her voice trailed off, as the memory of what had happened hit her like a freight train.

“The Uniea….” She said, “and…. and TALKEET!”

She turned around, lost her balance, and fell back to the snow covered ground.

“Take it easy.” Dash said, helping her up again.

“Where’s Talkeet?!” She said, panic filling her voice. “Wasn’t he here?!

Shadow sighed, and turned to his friends, Dash and Lightning, as Rayne collapsed into tears on June’s shoulder.

“I guess he’s a prisoner again.”

Dash and Lightning nodded.

“It’s alright,” Shadow said, a little louder. “We’ll just have to mount a rescue effort.”

“Shadow,” Dash said, “you know as well as I do that we haven’t been able to get near the…”

Shadow cut him off.

“Rayne, it looks like you could use some rest. Why don’t you go to your chambers, and I’ll come by later to check on you.”

Rayne nodded, and started to walk towards the cave.

Shadow turned to June.

“June, go with her, make sure she gets there.”

June also nodded, and ran to catch up with Rayne.

Shadow turned back to his friends.

“I know Dash,” Shadow said, “but I didn’t want to say that in front of the girls.”

He sighed.

“What I said was true though, we’ve got to do everything we can to punch through that line and force our way to that cave.”

Dash nodded.

“Dash,” Shadow said, “I want you to lead the attack, you’ll be taking the fourth unit.”

“Alright.” Dash said.

Shadow turned to Lightning.

“Lightning I want you to take the first and third units and provide security here.”

“Expecting an attack?” Lightning asked.

Shadow sighed.

“If Talkeet is indeed a prisoner of the Uniea, well, he helped me plan Aleu’s security…. If he talks… she could be in grave danger.”

Lightning nodded.

“Don’t worry about Talkeet.” Dash said. “He won’t talk, he’ll take care of himself first.”

Shadow put his paw on his friend’s shoulder.

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that my friend.”

The three of them turned and began to walk back to the cave.

Talkeet was walking through the woods.

He was confused.

What Daie had told him couldn’t be true, could it?”

“Aleu couldn’t have killed the messengers, not messengers of peace, could she?” Talkeet thought. “It has to be a trick, after all, Daie is the enemy. Why would he tell me the truth?It can’t be Aleu, I know her better than that, don’t I?”

Possibly more confused than ever, Talkeet made his way through the woods.

His mind screamed thousands of questions at him, but he had no answers.

He quickened his pace.

The thing that worried him about this, was that Daie had let him, a Lieutenant of an enemy pack, go, he just walked right out.

“Why would he do that?” Talkeet thought.

He was running now.

He’d find the answers to all of his questions soon.

“Oh Snow,” Talkeet thought, “what am I going to do?”

Silence.

“Snow?”

There was no answer from his friend.

It was the following day, and Dash was giving his report to Shadow.

“Please tell me we’re getting somewhere on this.” Shadow said.

Dash sighed.

“Shadow, if anything, we’re losing ground. These Uniea are tough.”

Shadow sighed as well.

“I’m pulling you and your troops back here. Have them fall back to the cave.”

“What?!” Dash said. “What about Talkeet?”

“Dash…” Shadow said, “I… I don’t know how to tell you this… my sources in the Uniea…”

Shadow paused.

“Talkeet isn’t there.”

“What?” Dash said slowly. “If he’s not there, then where is…..”

Dash thought about it.

“Oh no….” he said.

Shadow hung his head.

“They don’t know if he’s…. if he’s alive or not…. but he was there, spent the night there in fact, but then…. then he just… disappeared, no one in the pack knows where he is.”

Dash sighed.

“Talkeet knew the risks….”

He looked back up at Shadow.

“Thank you for telling me.”

Shadow nodded.

“I’m sorry.”

Shadow turned and walked away.

A flood of a thousand emotions ran through Dash.

“Talkeet, dead?” he thought.

It didn’t seem possible.

Dash sat down.

“How am I going to tell June?” Dash thought.

Dash heard something behind him then.

He turned…

“TALKEET!”

Dash ran over, and as he was a little over zealous in his attempt to get to his son, ran into Talkeet and knocked him to the ground.

Talkeet stood up.

“Hey dad.”

Dash grinned.

“I knew you’d get away.”

Talkeet smiled.

“So how’d you do it?” Dash asked.

Talkeet hesitated.

“I should keep the fact that Daie let me go a secret.” He thought.

“I escaped.” Talkeet said.

Shadow slid to a stop behind them.

“Hey, I saw you walk up. I’m glad you’re alright.”

Talkeet nodded.

“Thank you Shadow.”

“I’m going to go inform Aleu of the changes.”

Shadow turned and ran toward the cave.

Talkeet and Dash started to walk toward the cave.

When they got inside, Talkeet led Dash to a dark portion of the cave, where they could talk alone.

“Dad…” Talkeet said.

Dash could hear the troubled tone in Talkeet’s voice.

“What’s up son?”

Talkeet sighed and walked away from his father, walking toward the edge of the shelf.

He looked out over the main chamber for a moment, then turned back to Dash.

“You ever think we might be on the wrong side?”

Dash was completely taken aback by this.

“What? Talkeet… what makes you say that?”

Talkeet sighed.

“I mean, you ever think that maybe what we’re fighting for would be better achieved with the Uniea?”

Dash shook his head, puzzled at this apparent change of heart within Talkeet.

“No, Aleu’s always been good to us, and the Uniea are terrible.”

Talkeet sighed.

“Dad, have you ever met them?”

Dash paused, then shook his head.

“Dad, when I was there, Daie told me something that bothered me deeply.”

He paused.

“He told me that he had sent messengers of peace to this cave, and that