‘Hehe, Balto, I think its kicking!’ said Jenna, a husky, to Balto, a half wolf half husky. ‘I can feel our new puppy kicking. It’s probably a really strong one too!’

Balto smiled. He was happy, as this was going to be his third child.

Jenna had found out she was pregnant a few months before, and she was very excited, as the baby would be ready to be born because her stomach looked like a football was inside it, for now, anyway.

Balto chuckled. ‘Yes, I think our new puppy will be very strong. Probably stronger than me!’

‘Don’t brag, Balto, you love yourself too much.’

‘Well I like giving myself credit, its nice to give yourself credit once in a while or most of the time cos it keeps up your confidence.’

‘Alright, Balto.’ Jenna put a paw on her stomach, where the new puppy was already growing.

‘I wonder, will it be female or a good old lad to help me keep that wretched old goff-troddle Jeema on his paws?’ Balto wondered.

‘I don’t know, I hope it’s a girl. And don’t badmouth your good old grandpa, Balto,’ Jenna giggled.

Balto shrugged.

Jeema was Balto’s grandpa, as Jenna said, but he was really very grumpy and was always trying to take all the hunted food that Balto went out to fetch for himself.

Balto hated him very much and hope he died a horrible painful death, when it came to the situation. He knew that he was a tad harsh with Jeema, but, its just family hates so it couldn’t really come to the conclusion of Balto killing him himself!

They were all in a pack, of course, followed by about twenty other wolves, so everybody had to share.

Just then, Jenna groaned.

‘Oh damn!’ Balto put his paws on his ears in panic. ‘Whats wrong?’

She gave another groan.

‘Our puppy is coming,’ Jenna smiled softly, and took deep, deep breaths, preparing for the birth…

It was about an hour later that their new puppy was born.

It was a female, but there was something quite odd about her.

She had black fur, and sapphire blue eyes.

Balto had never known or seen any wolves with black fur, let alone sapphire blue eyes…

And his mother, Aniu, had once told him that if you ever saw a black wolf, it meant bad news if it got mad.

‘What kind of bad news?’ Balto had asked.

‘Death.’

Jenna wasn’t really that bothered about it, as she never realised that her new puppy was unusual, and had never heard of The Curse Of The Black Wolf…

Later, as the new puppy, Lynetta, was being fed by her mother with fresh milk, Balto just stared.

His new child was truly beautiful, but he still found her odd.

‘Jenna…’ Balto started.

‘Yes?’ Jenna replied. ‘Oh, isn’t she lovely, Balto! And she has black fur and blue eyes. She is so unique.’

Lynetta yelped happily.

‘Yes, she is…’ Balto said uneasily. ‘But…did you ever hear about The Curse Of The Black Wolf?’

‘No… What about it?’ Jenna asked.

‘Well, I love Lynetta and all and I think that she truly is beautiful, but my mother once told me that if there is ever a black wolf, it meant death in the pack it belongs in…’

‘…I don’t understand… Are you saying our new puppy is going to cause death?!’ Jenna was shocked and not happy that Balto was saying those kinds of things.

‘No, I’m not promising anything, but I’m just saying…’

A few weeks later, Lynetta was a bouncy, growing puppy and nothing bad had happened...

She loved chasing birds and always played with the other puppies.

It seemed that Jenna was the only one in the pack who didn’t know about the curse at first, as all the other mothers of the pups had not let Lynetta play with them at times, because of the so called curse.

Lynetta didn’t even know that her black fur and blue eyes were bad news, because nobody had ever even told her, not even Balto or Jenna.

Jenna and Balto loved her with all the love in the world, but they were still aware of the curse…

Lynetta was out chasing a bird on her own one morning, because none of the other pups had come to play with her. She was out in the woods, running around the trees after the bird, stomping on every flower that came in her path.

‘You can’t catch me!’ the bird chirped.

‘Yes, I can!’ Lynetta squealed with delight.

But soon, Lynetta started to get tired, and eventually settled down.

‘Alright, you win,’ she giggled, taking deep breaths.

The bird perched on a branch.

‘Hehe, I guess you’re just too slow,’ the bird laughed mockingly.

‘I am not slow! I just got tired.’ Lynetta was not in the mood for arguments.

‘Yes you are. You’re a slow poke,’ said the bird, still laughing.

‘Am not,’ this time, Lynetta was getting really angry.

‘Are too!’

‘Am not.’

‘Are too!’

‘AM NOT!!!!’ Lynetta got so mad that her eyes turned red.

Just then, the bird started to gag. It seemed to be suffocating…

‘Wha?’ Lynetta was worried. ‘Are you okay, birdie?’

Now, the bird was coughing and spluttering and gagging for air, and then it fell off the branch and into the bush below.

There was silence.

‘…Birdie?’ Lynetta waited for a reply.

But there was no answer. There wasn’t even a rustle with the friction of the bird’s wings against the leaves in the bush.

Lynetta ran over and searched for the bird in the bushes.

When she found him, he wasn’t breathing, his eyes were wide open and his pupils were so big and so full of darkness that it almost covered up his whole lifeless irises.

The bird was dead.

Lynetta yelped with fear and ran back home.

When she got to their cave, she crept over to her mother and cried into her fur.

‘What’s wrong?’ Jenna asked.

Lynetta sniffed and looked up at her mother with big, sad eyes.

‘Mommy…a bird… died… I don’t know… if it was… me…’ Lynetta sobbed.

‘Aww… don’t feel bad, honey, we eat those guys.’

‘No, I mean, we were playing, he was my friend…’

‘Oh… tell me how it happened, sweetie.’

‘Well…’ Lynetta sniffed. ‘I was playing in the forest when there was this bird, so we were playing tag and I was running after him for a WHOLE FIVE MINUTES and then I got, like, really tired. So then I slowed down and admitted defeat and then the bird was teasing me and saying ‘You’re too slow’ and stuff and I said ‘Am not’ and he said ‘You’re a slow poke’ and I said ‘Am not’ and this went on for about a minute and he got me so mad and I could feel my eyes going red, I was so angry… and then…’

A tear trickled down Lynetta’s face.

‘Go on, honey…’ Jenna soothed.

‘… and then it started suffocating and gagging and couldn’t breathe, and dropped off the tree… and died.’

‘How did that happen?’ Jenna gulped.

‘I don’t know… It seemed to just start when I got mad…’

And then Jenna realised something awful.

The curse.