started to glow, and then Aleu heard singing.

She turned around.

Muru, the tiny field mouse, was standing behind her.

“Hey Muru,” Aleu said.

“Hello Aleu,” Muru said.

“Why are you here?” Aleu asked. “Is something wrong?”

“Not yet,” Muru said, climbing up on the crystals, and pushing them into place, causing the light to split into individual beams of color.

Aleu watched as the cave paintings seemed to come alive, moving.

There was a picture of an island and of another land, which she could only guess was Alaska.

The ice flows materialized again, just as they had before, forming a bridge from the island to Alaska.

The caribou ran across it.

“Not again,” Aleu thought.

It had been hard enough to get the clan to follow her last time, much less again.

Then the ice flows disappeared again.

“Well,” Aleu thought, “at least that explains why we haven’t been able to find food.”

Then the ice bridge formed again, and the paintings of the wolves moved to cross it.

She was about to turn away and speak to Muru, when screams reached her ears.

She looked at the paintings to see the ice bridge collapse, and the wolves that were on it disappear.

There were a few of the wolves that had stayed on the island, and they laid down.

Soon the ice flows aligned again and the wolves crossed safely.

“Hmm,” Aleu thought, “wonder what that means?”

She turned to speak to Muru, but Muru wasn’t there.

She heard his voice though.

“Please heed this warning Aleu.”

Abruptly Aleu awoke.

“That was strange,” she said to no one.

She got up and decided to go to the ocean side and see….

She almost fell over when she saw what was there.

Through the early morning fog, she could see the ice flows.

“Home!” She thought.

Then she remembered her dream.

“Better not,” She thought.

She turned, walked back down to the small cave that the clan was staying in for now, laid down, and promptly fell back asleep.

Aleu was awakened in the morning by someone shaking her.

She opened her eyes.

She hadn’t been able to get much sleep because of that dang dream; she’d had it several more times that night.

“Aleu guess what?!” A young wolf named Heamer said.

“What?” Aleu said groggily.

“The ice flows are back, and we can go home!”

Aleu yawned and stood up.

“Heamer, you’ve got to listen to me,” she said, “we will go home, but not yet.”

“What?” Heamer asked, “why?”

“Because I’ve had… dreams, terrible dreams of what will happen if we do.”

“But, it’s been almost a whole year since they came, what if they don’t come again.”

“They will,” Aleu said.

“How do you know?” Heamer asked.

“I… I don’t know, somehow…. I just know.”

She got serious again.

“Heamer, you’ve got to promise me that you won’t go out there on those ice flows.”

“But…” Heamer started.

“Promise?” Aleu said.

Heamer sighed.

“Okay”

He paused.

“Look, I’m going to go look for Kimer, okay?”

Aleu smiled.

“Okay, but don’t go too far!” She yelled as the young wolf ran away.

Aleu thought of how she’d come to know Heamer.

During a bear attack, his father was killed.

His mother wasn’t part of this clan, so this left the young wolf all alone. He wasn’t more than two months old then, and he needed someone to care for him.

Aleu hadn’t exactly adopted him, but pretty close. He spent almost all of his time with her, or his friends.

Aleu stood up and walked out of the cave to see several wolves standing outside talking.

“… we should leave immediately.” One of them said.

“Yes,” said another.

“I knew there was something wrong when we couldn’t find food as easily as before.”

Aleu walked over to them.

“Hey Aleu,” the leader said.

“Hello,” she said.

“I couldn’t help but hear you talking, and I don’t mean to eavesdrop…”

One of the wolves, a gray one, interrupted her.

“Our great leader, eavesdrop… never.”

They all laughed, and then Aleu continued.

“Were you talking about the ice flows?”

“Yes,” said the orange one, “isn’t it wonderful, we can finally go home, the great Aniu is watching over us.”

“Guys,” Aleu said, “I’ve been having these dreams, and they say we should stay here a little longer.”

“What?” The three of them said.

“My dreams say that if we go out on the ice this time we will fall through.”

“Then why are they here?” The black one asked.

“I… I don’t know,” Aleu hung her head, “just stay off of them for now, okay?”

“They all nodded, but Aleu noticed that the black one seemed a little hesitant, and was looking at her strangely

“Come on guys,” she said, “let’s form up the pack, we’ve got a long hunt planned for today.”

“Will do Aleu.” The orange one said.

He and the gray one ran away, to where most of the pack was getting up now.

The black one stayed.

“Julious,” Aleu said, “do you have something to say?”

Julious shook his head.

“No Aleu,” he said.

He stared at her for a few seconds, then ran toward his comrades.

“Wonder what that was about?” She thought.

Then she ran down to where her pack was waiting.

Aleu was tired.

The clan had been out hunting all day, and hadn’t come up with anything.

“Maybe Julious and his friends are right.” She thought.

She crept into the interior of the cave,

Heamer was already asleep against the wall.

Aleu smiled, then she yawned and laid down beside him, soon she was asleep.

Aleu had the same dream but this time at the end, a white wolf appeared in the cave.

“Muru doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” The wolf said in a somewhat dark voice.

“Is this Aniu?” Aleu thought.

She bowed her head to the floor, just in case.

“Stand up my child,” the wolf said.

Aleu looked up at her.

“It is safe,” the wolf said, “you must only believe, and it will be so.”

“Really?” Aleu asked.

“It would be so great to see mom and dad again,” she thought, “I really miss them.”

The wolf nodded its head.

Aleu started to walk away, when suddenly a brown blur shot by her face and flew at the white wolf.

Muru landed on the wolf’s nose and bit it.

The wolf yelped in pain.

Muru bit again, and the white wolf tried to knock Muru off.

“Muru!” Aleu yelled, “What are you doing, this is… well I think this Aniu!”

Muru was finally knocked off of the wolf and hit the wall.

He climbed to his feet.

“This is not the great Aniu, it is only a trick.”

He turned to the wolf.

“Show yourself!” he screamed.

The white wolf suddenly wavered, and disappeared.

Aleu thought she was going to be sick.

The wolf had been black at some point, probably before it had been burned.

It had only tufts of hair on its body now, and the skin that showed through was a sickly white.

White foam dripped from the wolf’s muzzle, and his eyes were red.

The wolf screamed and then ran toward Aleu.

Aleu was frozen, as the horrific wolf bore down on her, paralyzed by fear.

Muru calmly stepped in front of her, and held out his paws.

The wolf seemed to hit an invisible wall, as it folded up on the air and fell to the cave floor.

“Your powers will not stop me,” the wolf said.

“You will not harm this one.” Muru said.

“I’ll catch her when you’re not around, and then the chosen one will be mine.”

“Chosen one?” Aleu thought.

Muru threw his paws in the air and the wolf was hurled away from them, into the darkness surrounding the cave.

“Aleu heard a yelp, and then silence.

“What was that?” Aleu asked.

Muru sighed.

“Come here Aleu, I keep forgetting that you were not raised as I was when I was small.”

Aleu walked over to the pile of crystals in the room.

Muru ran up and sat on the rocks that the crystals were sitting on, so he could be at eye level with her.

“Aleu,” Muru started, “Nava started your training in the things that I am about to tell you, and it was meant for him to get further along with this than he did, but Shade snuck in and changed things.”

Who is Shade?” Aleu asked.

“Shade is a wolf who was part of the same clan as the great Aniu, in fact, it is he that denied her, her physical self.”

“You mean he killed her?” Aleu asked.

Muru nodded.

“Shade himself was killed soon after, but not before he stranded Aniu’s clan on this island. There was little Aniu could do for them, and she was forced to watch them starve, for there was no food on the island then.”

Muru paused, as if wondering how much he should tell Aleu.

“The great Aniu started to make the ice flows come together then, to provide food for her stranded clan.

At first, it