brimmed with kindness and interest.

"I accept." Said Kalaa.

"Now, about our visitor…" All eyes turned to where Michigan held down the enemy wolf.

"What is your name?" Asked Karti in a cold, emotionless voice.

"Hetcha." He replied with a growl.

"And what did you hope to accomplish by barging into our camp?" The leader demanded eyes beginning to show the burning anger that swelled withing her.

Hetcha turned his head to the leader and gave her a dirty look. "I will not betray my anyone of my group." He said stubbornly.

"Then we have no choice, but to hold you prisoner. Saba, your first tribe duty will be to tend to his needs. Apprentices are normally supposed to tend to the elders and mother’s needs, but since you are older than an average student, you will be in charge of him." Told the leader.

Saba resented this job already. It sounded really unfair and she really didn’t feel like baby-sitting someone who had attempted to kill her. But she had just joined the tribe and she knew that it wouldn’t be very wise to object or complain. Saba nodded and tried to seem understanding.

"Good, that’s settled then." And with that, Karti turned and strode away. The crowd began to break up into small groups, leaving Saba with Michigan and Hetcha.

“Well, first thing's first, we’ll have to get this flea bag somewhere to stay. He can go to the old sycamore tree.” Said Michigan “Common' you.”

He prodded Hetcha with his paw; Hetcha turned and bared his teeth. “Touch me and see what happens!” Spat Hetcha.

He got up, limped to the ancient tree and settled down. Saba could feel a dark, forbidding feeling from his presence, making Saba feel very uneasy about keeping an eye on him. The siblings padded away together leaving Hetcha by himself.

As they padded along there was an awkward silence between them. There was so much to say, but neither of them knew how to start.

Michigan broke the silence and said “I still don’t really understand. I knew you were looking for me, but why? Did you miss me that much?”

They both arrived to the sleeping area. Saba sat down; she had some explaining to do.

“I came looking for you because, I didn’t know what else to do” she muttered “After you left, Kayla died. She had a health problem humans call "cancer" for some time...”

Michigan gave her a sympathetic look, Kayla was a great owner. He was fond of her too.

“Her parents gave me away to some man. He would yell at me and hit me. Especially when he was drunk and all."


Saba watched her brother’s expression darken. The reason why he had been released into the forest was because he too was harassed by some drunk humans. When he had defended himself they blamed his wolf heritage and the father of his owner wanted to kill him, but before he could, his daughter let him go into the forest.

"So I finally ran away and, well, here I am.” She concluded.

“And you didn’t have any real plans, did you? Why didn’t you go to mom and dad? I’m sure they would’ve something.” Michigan asked, curiously.


She shrugged “I dunno.”

The truth was, she did know. She never really got along with her father and she really didn’t feel like crawling to him.

“Well, you’re here now. And I’m glad.” he rasped his tongue over her ears.

Saba smiled to herself; feeling very relieved to be beside her brother again, she nuzzled him affectionately and they curled up together and fell asleep.
 

Saba was woken up the next morning by a prodding paw. She raised her head, blinking from being woken up, and saw the brown wolf whop stood up for her the previous night. He smiled down at her.     “Just because you’re new doesn’t mean that you can sleep in whenever you want.”

 

(excuse the errors above)

 

“What? It’s still dark out" she protested

 

It was true; the sun was only barely rising. Surely it was too early, even for wolves.  The brown wolf shook his head.

 

“Nope. We have things to do. Time to get up. My name is Orkney by the way”

 

He stepped backwards to allow her space. Saba let out a yawn and slowly walked out of the den. She looked around for Michigan and spotted him a few lengths away talking to Kalaa. Both of them had noticed her emerge from the den and walked over.

 

“Good Morning. We had to send a wake up call otherwise you’d sleep in until sunhigh.” Commented Kalaa

 

Saba nodded to show understanding. She was still accustomed to sleeping in and taking her time to get up. She realized now that a lot of things would be changing. She had somewhat already known when she asked to be part of the Tribe. But as she tried to sleep last night she began to think what would change exactly. She could no longer depend on someone to feed her in a bowl. Or have some brush her and give her walks. She would have to take care of herself. And that little fact made feel a bit uneasy. Michigan must’ve noticed how uncertain she felt, because he leaned forward and gave her a small nuzzle.

 

“Don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll catch on soon enough.

 

 “Come on, I‘ll show you around a bit.” said her mentor

 

“What are you going to do” she asked Michigan.

 

“I still have some training to do. I’m not a full warrior yet”

 

He gave her a small lick and padded away. She and her mentor both slipped out of camp and into the breezy woods.

 

“Okay, what have you figured out so far” asked Kalaa

 

Saba pondered for a moment and gathered her thoughts of the currents events.

 

“Well…..Karti is the leader of Hawk Tribe and we have our own territory to defend. Does that mean that there are other tribes out there?”

 

“Sort of. There are others out there, but they aren’t tribes. On our north side there is BearClan. They are pretty bad group. They are extra protective and usually stir up trouble. On the east side there is another pack. They are a decent group so we really don’t have to worry about them. We don’t really come across them. There are several packs, but not all of them have anything to do with us.

 

Saba nodded in understandment. They were at some edge looking down on a small meadow. There were some caribou grazing is some areas.

 

“Why are we here?” asked Saba

 

“Watch” said her teacher quietly.

 

Saba turned her attention back to the meadow. She didn’t understand what was so interesting about it. It was all still except for the grazing of caribou and a few grass twitching from the breeze. A small patch of grey caught her attention and she noticed that the twitching grass where wolves hidden in the grass. As Saba looked around again she noticed that there were several or her clan mates crouched and hidden in the grass. It was a hunting party. And sure enough a couple wolves lept up and ran towards a caribou. The caribou saw that it was under attack and began to run. But another pair popped out of the grass which made the caribou steer the other direction, but as it steered it was slowed down enough to get caught. One of the hunters grabbed its hind leg and made it trip, they then pinned it down and made it their meal.

 

Saba was amazed at their strength and ability. She couldn’t wait to try that herself one day.

 

“That was amazing. I wonder how caribou taste like” said Saba to herself

 

“Don’t forget, part of that meat will have to go to someone else” said Kalaa

 

Saba gave her mentor a questionable look. Then her face fell. She remembered her little “duty” that was assigned to her last night. Hetcha.

 

 

Hetcha’s tail thrashed in annoyance. He was in his usual angry mood, but he had a real reason this time. His leg stung and throbbed with pain, thanks to that mangy house dog. He still jeered at how the tribe had accepted the house dog so easily. It was a sure sign of weakness for the tribe.

He lifted his head up, he heard someone approach him. His fury increased even more, it was the house dog herself. She held a chunk of meat as she walked towards him when she was within a cats length between him, she dropped the meat and nosed it towards him.

 

“You’re probably hungry” she said

 

He tried to find hostility in voice, but there was none. To be honest, she sounded rather friendly. He looked up at her and he saw that she was gazing kindly at him. It reminded him of someone, someone he last long ago…  

 

His only response was to tear a bite out of his breakfast. She was still there when he finished. He decided to ignore here presence, but it was hard. She was no longer looking him, but she was still hanging nearby.

 

“Don’t you have anything better to do” he growled

 

She shook her head “I have to keep an eye after you until somebody else takes over”

 

Hetcha growled to himself. He disliked the red she-wolf, at his own reasons. After an hour the house dog eventually left and had someone to replace her. Hetcha was planning to get out of here somehow. He wanted out.

 

 

Saba was relived to be freed form her job. Orkney was kind enough to offer to watch Hetcha. The only reason why she was being nice to the rouge was to make her burden more bearable. Or maybe it was because she felt sorry for him. She knew what it felt like to be baby-sat. She was glad to be able to do some real training. Kalaa had already shown her the territory. As she made her way to Kalaa, she noticed that most wolves where giving her dirty looks. Clearly they thought that she shouldn’t be part of the tribe.

      

 “Hi” she greeted

 

Kalaa swallowed the last of her meal. Saba had found the caribou tasty.

 

“Hi. Ready to get started”

 

Saba nodded. They walked out of the camp and want to a small grassy area. It looked liked an ideal place to fight.

 

“Alright, lets start simple. Attack me” Saba raised her eyebrows

 

“Attack? Just like that?"

 

“Just like that”

 

Saba crouched down and tried to pinpoint a place to jump

Previous Page

1 2 3 4 5 6

Next page