“No… No… Aaaah!” Rallan cried out as he suddenly bolted upright, muscles tensed as if he’d been in combat. His gold and brown eyes scanned left and right for his enemy, but she was gone; she had never been there… Rallan sighed heavily and relaxed himself, sitting down once again. He felt a paw on his shoulder and yelped in surprise, falling backward and staring up at the upside-down face of Krystal as he lay on his back. She giggled lightly and flashed him a sweet smile.

“Sorry about that Rallan! I saw you were having a nightmare and I couldn’t help but wake you up…” Krystal explained in a calm tone of voice, “And it looks like I scared you, too!”

“You didn’t scare me Krystal… You just- startled me, is all… I’d forgotten you were here…” Rallan said in his defense. Krystal laughed once again, grinning humorously down at him.

“Startled, eh?” Krystal asked, “So is that why you yelped like a puppy and fell onto your back?”

“Hey, I did not yelp like a puppy!”

“You’re still lying on your back…”

Rallan stared back at her for a moment before he got back up to his paws quickly. He cleared his throat as if nothing had happened and looked back at Krystal, giving her that same good-humored look.

“What’re you talking about? I’m not lying on my back!” he responded, smirking teasingly.

“Oh, so when I was looking down at you, you were sitting upright? I don’t think so…” Krystal retaliated. Rallan chuckled and opened his muzzle to respond to her statement, but froze, his black nose twitching slightly. His head suddenly glanced up the river, a serious look on his face. Krystal slowly lost her smile as well and approached Rallan, standing beside him.

“What is it? Do you smell something?” Krystal asked, but Rallan held up his paw.

“Shh…” he said blatantly, his ears pricked high and his nose twitching slightly every so often.

“What is it you smell? What’s going on?”

“Krystal, shh…” Rallan said again, still looking upriver. Krystal had enough of that response and gave Rallan an annoyed look.

“Listen Rallan, just because you’ve got all the better senses doesn’t mean you can keep all the information to yourself…” Krystal said in an irritated voice, “I have a right to know what’s going on around us as much as you do!”

“Damn it…” Rallan muttered and jumped into the river, immediately beginning to swim across to the other side as soon as his body hit the cerulean water. Krystal had no idea what he was doing, but jumped in as well and followed him across to the other side. Once they reached the other bank, Krystal looked at Rallan in confusion.

“Alright Rallan, what’s going on?” Krystal asked seriously, but was only answered by Rallan placing his paws on her chest and pushing her into a nearby thicket of shrubs and bushes. Krystal glared at Rallan as he jumped into the bushes as well.

“Rallan, I know I’ve missed you and I’ve been searching for you for two years, but from what you’re doing now, I’m beginning to-” Krystal began, but the rest of her sentence was muffled as Rallan swiftly placed a white paw across her muzzle and held her down, pretty much lying on top of her as well.

“Don’t make a sound or we’re both dead…” Rallan whispered, glancing through a small opening in the bushes out at the opposite bank of the river where the two of them had been lying on only a few minutes ago.

Within five minutes of hiding, Krystal had become fed up with Rallan’s behavior. Just as she was about to push Rallan off of her and yell at him, she saw a group of four wolves appear on the other side of the river. She recognized them immediately as Rayne, Drake, Hunter, and Valley. Rayne sniffed at the spot where she and Rallan had dozed off and growled lowly.

“He’s been here recently! His scent’s all over this spot, along with someone else’s, but I can’t tell who…” Rayne said, looking all around. Drake came up and sniffed the area as well.

“Hmm, I’m not sure who that is either, but that scent there is definitely, without-a-doubt Rallan’s…” he said assuredly, nodding in agreement to Rayne, “If anything, he’s probably jumped in the river and swam downstream, hoping to lose us…”

“The river does get calmer as it goes downstream… He’d have an easier time swimming down there…” Valley pointed out. Rayne thought for a moment then sighed softly.

“Alright, we’ll follow it downstream until we find his scent again… If worse come to worse, we’ll just backtrack here…” Rayne said, standing in her authorative stance, “Move out! We’re losing daylight fast!”

Without another word, she turned and ran southward, followed by Drake, Hunter, and Valley. Rallan waited a couple of minutes before sighing softly with relief. He looked down at Krystal with soft eyes and released her muzzle.

“I’m so sorry about that Krystal… But I couldn’t let them kill us… and if I took the time to tell you what was happening, I could’ve risked our lives by winding up short-handed of time…” Rallan explained softly, “Please forgive me…” Krystal sighed softly and nodded slowly.

“I forgive you, Rallan… I understood from the moment I saw Rayne why you did what you did… I just wish you hadn’t been so forceful with me…” Krystal replied with a soft laugh. Rallan laughed as well.

“Sorry, but I was kinda in a rush to get down and hidden…” he remarked, then looked her over, “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

“No, you didn’t,” Krystal answered, smiling slightly, “Um, Rallan? Could you- get off of me?” Rallan blinked a few times and grinned sheepishly, his ears lowering in embarrassment as he climbed out of the bushes, followed by Krystal.

“Sorry Krystal… I just knew we had to get as low as possible to stay out of sight, so I-”

“WHERE THE HELL IS HUNTER?! I SWEAR TO GOD, I’LL KILL THAT RAVENOUS BASTARD IF HE MAKES US LOSE THE TRAIL!!!” came the vicious yells of Rayne just before she came into sight again, her back to Rallan and Krystal. From a nearby bush, Hunter came out, a hare hanging from his jaws.

“Sorry Rayne, but we haven’t stopped to eat in nearly five days and I’m starving!” Hunter complained, “Besides, it’s not like Rallan’s… just… gonna…” Hunter froze as he spotted Rallan and Krystal across the river. His jaws dropped open and his kill fell to the rocky bank beneath him. For a moment, everything seemed to freeze as Rayne turned and gasped sharply. Then time picked up again.

“DRAKE!!! VALLEY!!! GET BACK HERE!!! RALLAN’S HERE!!!” she yelled down the river.

“Run…” Rallan said to Krystal before the two turned and bolted off through the forest faster than if there had been a forest fire burning.

“No! Hunter, after them! Do not let them get away from us again!” Rayne ordered. Hunter nodded and growled softly as he dashed into the river, swam across rapidly, and took off after the two fleeing wolves. A moment later, Drake and Valley ran up to Rayne.

“Where’s the fire Rayne?” Drake asked. Rayne glared at him and ran into the river, swimming across.

“It just ran off with Hunter chasing after it! Let’s go!” Rayne shouted back, “We’re not going to let him go!”

“Um, I thought we always wanted fires to go?” Valley asked. Drake glared at him and bopped him on the head.

“It’s a figure of speech, moron!” Drake snapped back, rushing into the river to follow his Alphess’ lead, “Come on! Rayne will have our heads if he lose Rallan again!” Valley didn’t need to be told twice and he was soon across the river as well.

Rallan and Krystal panted as they ran off as fast as they could through the thick woods. Everything was nearly blurs as they ran on and on. After a few more seconds, Krystal looked behind them, then looked at Rallan.

“Rallan, do you even know where we’re going?!” Krystal asked. Rallan shook his head.

“Not a clue… But we’ve at least got to get away from those homicidal maniacs!” he said back to Krystal. After a couple more moments, Krystal’s paw got trapped beneath some gnarled tree roots and she tripped, yelping in shock and pain. Rallan skidded to a halt and ran back to her.

“Are you alright? What happened?” he asked, glancing at her paw before immediately setting to biting through the roots.

“I dunno… I just, kinda