quickly, "But I know you're not lying. Why would you?"
 His father let out a long, heavy sigh. "I have no idea. To them, if it appears impossible it must be impossible. That's what seperates an Alpha from a Beta. We see things differently. If we kept all of our natural habbits the pack would not have suvived this long. To try something new, however impossible it seems, is the leaders job, because that very thing, as no matter how unlogical, could help the pack and ultimately save lives."

5

Killer

The five bundles of fur were all shivering, it was a freezing moring with a deep fog. The wet cave, wreaking of rotting leaves and ice, offered little protection to the pups. All she could do was sit tight and keep them warm. The sun was now up and it was not safe for a Canfa to be out, let alone five new-borns.
 She hadn't yet counted the genders, so she checked to pass the time.
 No. She had miscounted. She checked again. Maybe she was wrong? But deep, deep down she knew she was not.
 Five girls, they were all females.
 He would be furious, he wanted at least one boy. There wasn't a single male. What would he do? Would he spare them? They could try again.
 Then again, he probably wouldn't look himself, he wasn't that mentally strong. If she gave them all boys' names he might be fooled.
 Or not.
 He wasn't.

The oldest was a dark brown pup with red eyes, and she named him Morrer. Apart from a white diamond on his forehead, Morrer was pure brown. The next oldest was a black coated pup, as dark as the depths of the deepest ocean. Typhoon, he was called, or Ty. Next was one the spitting image of it's mother, light grey with black eartips. They too had red eyes. There were two more, both creamy-truffle, specked with white. Only one of them was moving. She licked it sadly, but the pup made no response.
 The new-borns were shivering. This was no place to be resting. The leaves gave little warmth and were damp from the leaking floor. She tried to keep them off the stone as best as she could, creating an arc around them, all the time worrying herself sick about what the evening would bring.

She jumped awake at the sound of scurrying in the entrance. This was it, it could end up happy or sad. One or the other, no inbetween. She prayed and prayed that it would be happy, not sad. She had carried these puppies for two months, and she was the one who gave birth to them. What right did anyone else have to harm them? They would have to get through her first.
 He appeared through the gap in the wall, grinning, with the slightest hint of evil in his gaze.
 "Hello, Sweet." he said slyly, standing firm on all four paws. He knew something was up, and she knew he knew something was up. She lowered her head and whined.
 "What's up?" he asked mockingly, stretching his head to her own level. "We should be happy, with the sons you have given me."
 "Yes." she replied wearily. She shifted herself to reveal the four live pups, and the dead one that was seperate from the group.
 "What's wrong with this little chap?" he asked, knowing all too well what was wrong. He was toying with her emotions, seeing how far he could push her.
 "He's dead." she spat, looking away, not daring to catch a glimse of the smirk that overpowered his face, a bellowing hurricane, laughing evily at her misfortune.
 "Oh dear." he said sarcasticly. "You should have taken better care of him. He might have suvived. Who knows what he could have accoplished in his lifetime."
 The words, a sharp and harsh jagged knife, tore through her. What was worse, he knew she was lying about the gender.
 She introduced the others to him. "The oldest, Morrer, then Ty, Gale... and I haven't named the youngest, I thought you would like to do that."
 "Caluk."
 Her face was washed over with horror. Caluk, the demon? Or did he mean after difa (sundown)? But the pup was nothing like the darkness. Caluk was rumored to be truffle, with patches of either black or white. The black represented death and the white represented disease. Caluk Disease. No, not that name. There was an old legend that a wolf with that name would bring a curse to the world, disease and famin, one that none would escape.
 She tried desperately to shake the thought free from her mind, but it was etched in, engraved, the words on a tombstone, dooming the very existance of all life.
 "She will be called Caluk, and her sisters shall follow her and me through all that is to come. You, on the other hand, well, I should leave you dead with droopy over there." he snarled, lapping up the sweet, sweet taste of fear that poured from all over her body. She was terrified. "But I'm not going to do that."
 He turned to the crack in the wall, then stopped. He moved his head slightly to the left so that he could just about see her in the coner of his eye.
 "Instead," he whispered," I'm going to do THIS!"
 He roared, spinning around on the spot, and grabbed poor little Typhoon by the neck. The pup squeaked for mercy, but it was too late.
 All of this had happened in less than a second. The mother shot up in an attempt to retrive her baby. But too late. All she could do was stand in the way of their father. "You, you..." she stammered, still trembling "YOU MURDERER!" she exploded.
 He gave her a quick slash across the face. "Don't ever pull a stunt like that on me again. I still stand by what I said about Caluk, she will lead us, and you will treat Morrer and Gale like sons. Tell them they are boys. They will believe their mother, not me." He turned to go, then paused. "And if you ever tell any of them what just happened, I'll have you by the throat."

He was gone. She was alone with the pups. Morrer, Gale and...
 She shuddered.
 Caluk. It wasn't even a girl's name. Then again, neither was Morrer and Gale. Morrer meant dirty, and Gale was similar to Storm, or Blizzard. Besides it was just a stupid story, sprouted from superstition and fairy-tales to scare the little ones into behaving. Nothing would happen, it was impossible.
 Wasn't it?

6

Thoughts and Feelings

While all of this was happening, Nila was busy mulling over her life. She had begun to separate herself from the other pack members, hunting alone, sleeping in her own den and sitting appart at meetings. She was almost a year old and had a mind of her own, she could easily take care of herself dispite her disability. She had been weakened visually but her other senses had improved dramaticly, she could smell and hear better than any other wolf in the pack, but no-one knew of her talents. Or of the secret deep in her heart.
 "Oh, Buck," she said to herself,"Why do you resent me?" It was true that she liked her own company, with the exception of Buck. Whenever she felt him near her she tried to speak to him, but nothing would come out, and when it did she would either screw it all up or he would walk off and ignor her. What was she to do?
 Her sister was dead. Her fault? How could she have known what was to happen? She was harmed too, with a toll of her eyesight. Fal was long gone, why were he and mum still mourning. She was her sister, no-one took into account her feelings.
 As all of these thoughts tumbled through her head, Nila was strolling around the Great Meadow. Attacked by a Shadow indeed! Her dad was worse than the rest of them, completely loopy. A fat, boring mum and a tell-tale dad, a brother who was always busy and another one who never spoke. Whoever came up with 'happy-families'?

"Fox, come 'ere!" Targ whispered. It was four o'clock and the rest of the pack were at the meeting. Fox didn't move for a moment, then yawned, stretching his back legs, and met his elder brother at the entrance of the den. His eyes were droopy and his words were slurred.
 "What?" he groaned.
 "I've been looking around the park," Targ intoned, trying as best he could to get the word to stay in his little brother's head instead of pooping out of his other ear. "There are signs of some large animals up north. Dad isn't crazy. There's droppings, carcases and more. I don't know how many there are, but they're hanging around the rocky outcrops above. They'll ahve a god view of the parkland from there, I think they're spying on us."
 Fox was suddenly awake. Large animals? Well he knew there were such things as bears, two in the captive, but how did they get to the north of the park without being spotted? "We should ask dad what he saw again."
 Targ shook his head and replied,"And get in trouble for interupting the meeting? No chance."
 "Look, we're gonna' get in trouble anyway for no attending, so I suggest we move now. We could spark it up again and get everyone talking. If these, creatures, are spying on us, we need to know what they are and what they want."
 Targ couldn't argue with that.

The two brothers crept up slowly from under the bridge. Nobody appeared to be looking. They emerged fro the darkness-
 "Targ! Fox! Where've you been?"
 Dang.
 It was strange because although Lei had startled them, they weren't told off there and then. Tooth and Kach were on the rocks taking the spotlight. Something was going on.
 Toma noticed them .He called them quietly, "Have you two seen your sister?"
 The boys shook their heads. Toma sighed. "I wish she was here now for all our sakes. Everyone needs to know about this, including her. If you can't see them you can smell them."
 "Smell who?"