1

Growing Up

Over the autumn the pups grew rapidly dispite the lack of food. These seemed to be the strongest generation yet. Targ was almost fully grown, closely followed by Tooth, who was more reckless than ever, and Fox had longer legs, perfect for running. Buck, on the other hand, was smaller than the others. Partly because of less food, but mostly to his emotions. Hatrid, anger, guilt, dispair was all he ever felt.
 Nila was similar. She had accepted that her sister's death was her fault. But she was angry at the world, for the attack of the terrier in August had weakened her stride, and that retched slave canfa had torn her face across both her eyes, blinding her for all eternity. How she was suviving, no-one knew, but she was. Her running may have been slow, but she was all muscle and knew how to fight. In the moment of the attack she had dropped the rediculous idea of letting herself die, there was no sense in that. Instead she had ripped that mutt into pieces, sending it away with snapped tendons, a nose that was only half there, and a set of neat claw rakings under the belly. She grinned evily at the thought of the pain that dog had suffered.
 Latch had almost settled his differences with Kach. They were now almost friends. Akila had colapsed after running to tell Lei of the squirrels' rumor of the lone wolf pup, and was being taken care of by Latch. After all, they were brother and sister, and he felt strongly that it was his responsability alone to care for her. When Difa had remarked about what a nice couple thay made she recieved a cuffing.
 Lei was still in the habbit of eating dandylions. The loss of her youngest made her loose the will to hunt. Kach did all the work now. But fatherhood was getting to him. Too much work. If he wasn't hunting, he was playing, if he wasn't doing those things he was sleeping with them to keep the pups warm. He was at the end of his tether with Lei. He'd got over Fal's death, why couldn't she?

 It was mid September. The nights were getting longer again, and there was more food. There were more squirrels than ever, giving the wolves a chance to hunt again, instead of scavenging for human scraps. Tooth drooled at the thought of a freshly killled squirrel, tasting it's warm blood. Whenever he went into this day dream Nila would shove him and tell him to stop being gross.
 Since Fal's death Buck separated himself from the other pups. He decided that he didn't want to be near Nila anymore, because it was of her actions that his new friend was slaughtered by a slave canfa. But she didn't seem to get the message.
 Finally, one day, he snapped.
 "Hey, Buck! Wanna go to the lake?"
 "No." he replied quietly.
 "What is with you? You never want to do anything anymore! You're so selfish!" she snorted.
 That was it. He jumped at her, barking furiously. "I'm selfish?!" he snarled, "I'm not the one who got my sister killed because I was jealous of her! Yes, Nila. I know why you did it. You were afraid that your little sister would get too close to me, so you got rid of the competition!"
 "Are you acusing me of trying to get her killed?" she exploded.
 "No! You never meant her to be torn appart, just get lost and teach her a lesson. But your plan went wrong. You practicly led her into the jaws of a killer!" he shouted.
 Nila was in tears now. "I never want to see you again!" she sobbed, and ran straight past Lei who had come to see what the commotion was.
 Buck put in the last words of the conversation. "You can't see anyway!"

2

The Hunt

Soon the pups were going to be big enough to start fending for themselves. It was high time they learned to hunt. With the lower animals starting to gather food for winter there were plenty of chances in an hour to grab-and-go a rodent. Latch was making his way to tell the pups of their first hunt, and he felt as if he was being watched.
 On the border of the great lawn he looked at the youngsters play for a moment, then made his move.
 Nila lifted her head and smelt the air. "Uncle Latch!" she cried with glee as she bounded towards the scent, the others following.
 "Hey, now! Steady on!" cried Latch as he was jumped on at all angles. He gently pushed them off him and stood up. "I have some good news. You're going on your first hunt."
 "YES!" shouted Tooth.
 They all turned to look at him.
 "Sorry," he blushed, "got a bit excited there."
 "What're gonna hunt? A seal from the invisible human caves? Or a giant rabbit? Eh? Ole buddy, ole chum, ole pal, eh, eh, eh?" blathered Targ. His enthusiasim for hunting hadn't been noticed before. Then again he was to be pack leader when he was older and needed to set an example to the lower ranking pups.
 "No." Latch replied bluntly. He was growing impatient. Surely he wasn't this annoying as a pup? "No, we're going to learn about tracking squirrels."
 "Nawwwwwwwwwwwww!" groaned the youngsters. Quirrels were B-O-R-I-N-G!

Kach, Latch and Toma and the children crept through the dense trees, trying to make as little sound as posible. It wasn't easy. There were twigs everywhere that cracked when stepped on, and the leaves that covered them rustled when they picked up their paws. Sixteen pairs of paws creating rustling, snapping noises all through the pitch-blackness. A light layer of fluffy, weightless cloud had been spread across the sky, blocking out the constalation of Canis Major, or, as it was known to all of wolf-kind, the star marks of Agali. The moon was beginning to yawn into a waxing gibbous, giving a faint amount of light onto the ground below.
 Kach stopped. He thought he saw, no. He couldn't have.
 A grey wolf.
 "No. It's a trick of the light." he said, then carried on walking through the shrubs. But he was sure. There were no other wolves living in the park, or at least he knew of none.
 "There." Latch whispered, tossing his muzzle towards an oak tree. Two squirrels were sat nibbling away at acorns. Tooth growled slowly and started to aproach, but Toma put a paw in his way.
 "No." he said softly "We will catch one and then you can have a go."
 Kach had already hidden himself behind a fallen log and Latch was sneaking, a white shadow, to the right of the pups. Their hackles rose and Toma made the pounce.
 The rodents, seeing the movement in the corner of their watchful eyes, made a dash for it. Latch sprang from his post, catching on in midair as it attempted to escape. The second, however, missed the Alpha's snapping jaws by a centimeter, and as a flash of lightning, broke for the thick trees.

The wolf sniffed the ground. It was hard and smooth, but had the rough texture. Stone. She trotted to the fountain. It was stone too, and the water, usually free for the taking, was iced over. She licked it, trying to pull the moisture out from the very matter, but with little success. Smelling the air, she breathed in the icy wind, blowing South to East. She was in the perfect postition, downwind, hidden from site, and ready. Ready to taste blood. It's warmth and irony savor. It was almost time, the moon was at it's highest in it's arced route across the sky.

Kach was determined to get that squirrel. Dispite the calls of his pack, he followed the rodent at it's heels. It was a daring race, the squirrel, driven and guided to certain doom by the persuing wolf, broke onto the great lawn. Kach, not backing away an inch, scrambled after it. Then it hit him. A ghost that fell from the moon itself. The grey monster leapt on him, a weight made out of solid gold, pressing him into the ground. It growled, snarling, sending a hurricane of fear through Kach's body, shaking him throughout. He was pinned. Then it, the Thing, came close to his ear.
 "Take this warning. Fear us, fear the Shadows, on your life, on you family, on your blood." Then it sprang, high into the air, and disappeared. Or at least it seemed, as the Shadow sprinted, harder and stronger than any living thing. Then it faded into the moonlight.
 Like a ghost.

Kach waited. His chest and back hurt. He couldn't breath. The Shadow was heavy, far heavier than his own dark spy. It had pressed him into the hard, frozen ground, pinning his head so that he could not turn it. Now, as he lifted his snout into the crisp night, his neck began to hurt too.
 "Curse, them." he snarled, staggering to his feet. They shook terribly. Now he was up, he could feel the refreshening air flowing into his lungs. He panted. The squirrel was no where to be seen, and he was still recovering from the chase. The last few minites had been tough, and he had nothing to show for it.

3

Mad

It was almost daybreak by the time the Alpha had hobbled back to his den. Lei was wide-eyed and alert, waiting for her mate's safe return. If she had lost him, then what? All she knew was that the water was deep under the ice. Although she was freezing she was panting, her fear growing with every second. The light of the sun was beginnning to stream down the hole to the underground cave. Suddenly a black and brown face appeared.
 "Kach." she sighed from releif as he settled down. "Where in the Bronze Canfa's name were you?"
 "I had a run-in with," he stopped.
 "What?"
 "With a shadow."
 Lei looked at him curiously. A shadow? He was out of breath, injured even, how could a shadow do this to him?
 "What sort of shadow?" she prompted.
 "A ghost."
 A ghost. A ghost, had he lost it?! Maybe the loss of Fal was geting to him, too. But