eyes. Chase held her gaze, and was astonished to find herself plunging into the bright blue pools of Taya’s eyes. In them was love for Copper, triumph over killing Steele, and an almost-desperate pleading for Chase to forgive and accept her.
The staring showdown between Chase and Taya continued at length. With measured tones, Taya said, “Chase, I heard what you said to Ava. And I was wondering…could you and I be friends, too?”
Chase could feel Copper praying for her compliance. Breaking the stare, she looked down at Taya’s right paw. It was faintly red and its fur was spiked with Steele’s dried blood.
Suddenly Chase realized she didn’t hate Taya anymore. She felt the last shadow dissolve inside her heart, and for the first time she smiled at Taya. “We’re going to be more than friends. We’re going to be family. Taya, my brother loves you. And after how far you went to show you aren’t like Steele, how could I hate you?”
Taya smiled back, her eyes shining like the Aurora. “Thank you, Chase. Thank you!”
Chase was shocked to see a tear like a diamond chip slide down Taya’s cheek, and even more shocked when Taya seemed to consider something, and then leaped forward and engulfed her in a grateful embrace.
“Thank you, Chase,” Taya whispered, “You have no idea how much this means to me and Copper.”
“Uh, actually, I think I have a pretty good picture of it,” Chase joked nervously. Slowly, carefully, she hugged Taya back. This was so strange: she was hugging Steele’s daughter? No, she shouldn’t think of Taya that way. Taya was her brother’s love, a member of the family. Someone she would learn to love like a sister.
Ketch laughed. “Group hug!” He padded up and put a paw on Chase’s shoulder. Copper laughed, too, and joined the group.
Held by her brother, her sister-in-law, and her future mate, Chase realized she had won more than one battle that day.
Dusty silently trudged back to Robin’s grave with Kira at his side and his two pups lagging behind. They came upon it as if it were sacred ground, hushed and treading lightly. From the outside it looked simply like a clump of three pine trees standing just beyond the entrance of the cave of the Anvil Creek pack. But there was a small gap between two of the three trees, and through it you could see the body of a gray pup with a red chest, curled up as if she were sleeping.
Dusty swallowed, and a sick feeling rose in his stomach. He looked away, but immediately found that that was much worse than looking. He glanced back, and pain like a dull nail hacked away at his heart. Robin looked so much like she was sleeping that he wanted to run in there and yell and shake her awake; at the same time he couldn’t bear the thought of touching her. Kira had arranged her in that sleeping position, perhaps with wishful thinking.
They had thought about burying her, but the thought of trapping Robin under clods of dirt and snow and worms made Dusty shudder so hard he shook. The branches around and overhead would protect her from snow and sun. Dusty thought he liked the idea of her lasting.
The heavy silence was agony. Kira leaned against Dusty. Her tears had stopped, but her dull eyes stared so hard at her dead daughter, with so much lost hope, that Dusty wanted to snap her out of it. He held himself back, and brushed his chin across the top of her head. Kira gulped and choked out a sob. “Robin.”
“I know,” Dusty said, determined to keep his voice from catching. It did, anyway, and he could feel his barriers breaking down one after the other.
Kira buried her face in his fur, and the words were muffled as she burst out, “What will we do without her?”
The wind seemed to stop blowing. The very tundra held its breath.
Dusty barely kissed the delicate skin of Kira’s ear. “I don’t know,” he muttered, and all his fear and anger and uncertainty and tortured agony spilled out into his blood and roared through his veins. It screamed through his whole body and shot into his brain, exploding into pain that was the worst and best thing Dusty had ever felt. He was snapped back to the outside world, though, when suddenly Silver charged into his sister’s tomb.
Kira gasped, “Silver!”
Silver raced up to Robin and stopped short, glaring at her. “You were always Mom and Dusty’s favorite! Even now, when you’re dead, you’re still their favorite! Why did you have to die? Why couldn’t you run fast enough? It’s not fair! We were going to have an adventure, and then go home, happy. But you ruined it! You never fought back, and you had to die! Now everything’s ruined, and it’s all your fault! I hate you!” He kicked her, throwing her onto her back.
Dusty could only stand, shocked. But Kira was shaking with indignation. She sprang in and slapped her son. “Don’t touch her!” she shrieked, “Don’t you dare touch her!” Silver crumbled into quiet sobs.
Gail wound her paws around Dusty’s leg, clinging desperately. She looked like she was lost. She yelled, “Stop it!” at her mother once, and then hid her face in Dusty’s fur, mumbling through gritted teeth.
Dusty watched this scene as if he were an outsider, but the pain rumbling up from his heart reminded him that this was his family. He couldn’t take it.
He howled, the bittersweet note hanging over everything. It stilled his heart, it stilled his soul, it stilled the feud among his family. The howl let out some of the heartache and made some of his emotions fade so he could think clearly again.
Dusty lowered his head and looked at his family. Kira averted her eyes and carefully nudged Robin back into the sleeping position. Then she kissed where her slaps had hit on Silver’s face and drew her to him, cradling him wordlessly. Silver mumbled apologies.
Gail unwound herself from Dusty’s leg and padded into the tomb. She quietly trotted up to her sister and looked down at her, trying to comprehend seeing death face to face. Gail recoiled a step, but her voice was steady when she whispered, “I love you, Robin…I’ll miss you.” She ducked her head and pedaled quickly backwards, collapsing against her mother as the tears began to trickle down.
Kira hugged her tight, and then looked from her dead daughter to her two remaining children and seemed to come to a decision. She sat up straight, gave one loud sniff, wiped her eyes fiercely with her tail, and stood up. Mother and children stepped out of the tomb, and Dusty joined them as he hugged each one of the pups and gently kissed Kira. He knew what decision Kira had made and he had decided, too: they would remember the past, but live for the future. They would remember Robin, but they wouldn’t let the death of one child ruin their time with the children remaining. They were broken, but they would mend. They were still a family.
Dusty, Kira, Silver, and Gail faced the battlefield, and all four gasped.
As if summoned by Dusty’s earlier howl, a gigantic cloud as white as starlight appeared across the gold sky over the battlefield. It swirled and curled as if stirred by foaming ocean tides, and from amid the surging whorls and eddies came a face: a white, serene, wolf face.
“Aniu?” Dusty mumbled, and he wondered what Balto was thinking of this.
Aniu’s face emerged from the cloud, and she smiled down at them, her eyes the same hue as the sunset sky. Dusty could only gape in awe, his heart pounding wildly. He wasn’t the only one seeing this, was he?
The cloud around Aniu whipped into shapes, and Dusty’s throat tightened as he realized there were faces in the clouds. Faces of all those dead in the battle.
A rush of hope struck him hard. He peered desperately into the cloud, and was rewarded by a pup’s small face and shy gaze. “Robin,” he whispered reverently just as Kira screamed, “Robin!”
All around the field shouts rang out as others saw loved ones now gone.
“Mom!” Cheyenne cried when she saw Kiowa’s face hovering in the heavens.
“Matt,” Ketch called out softly.
“Mother?” Balto cried in amazement.
Aniu smiled at her son, and raised her head in a silent howl, but Dusty heard it in his heart as clearly as if she had voiced the call.
The cloud began to fade, breaking off into smaller and smaller pieces until the last puff drifted off and dissolved against the sky. There was an awed stillness as everyone turned to others to be sure they were not the only witnesses of this momentous event. Dusty, however continued to look up at the sky. Aside from his awe and puzzlement, he had noticed Steele had not been among the dead. Perhaps Steele had gone to a place where he could not return for a moment on the clouds, a dark, wicked place where Dusty was sure he would feel right at home.
Dusty narrowed his eyes and pressed his mouth tight thoughtfully as he stared at the corpse of his father’s enemy out on the field. Steele’s body lay as still and limp as the other corpses…
Suddenly his heart stopped beating when he saw Steele twitch, and then rise. His head lifted, and he turned until his cold gaze met Dusty’s. Dusty couldn’t breathe. His eyes were locked on Steele, and inside he was screaming…
Dusty blinked. Steele lay on the muddy ground, his back to Dusty, his body unmoving. Dusty closed his eyes, and then opened them wide. Steele lay as dead as ever. Dusty took several deep breaths. He must have imagined it; he might never fully accept that Steele was dead. His family had been hunted for so long.
To take his mind off Steele, Dusty wondered if Aniu had been the one to summon the other dead for a final farewell. She had always had a commanding, almost ethereal air about her. He cracked a smile and felt such a stab of heartache for his grandmother he almost groaned aloud.
“That was some strange happenings.”
A familiar voice rang in Dusty’s ears. He whipped around to see a brown wolf standing only a few paces behind him. The wolf regarded him coolly for a second, and then jumped back in surprise. “Dusty?”
Dusty stared, blinking hard to, once again, make sure he was seeing right. “Brenner? Brenner, what are you doing
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WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
I cried with them, and laughed with
them, and nothing is better than this!
I hope you have a successful career as a writer.