he said.

"After your parents," She smiled and nuzzled him.

"You think we're ready for this?" Shadow asked.

Aleu smiled.

"Well, it's a little late for that don't you think?"

Shadow nodded.

"True, true."

"So what have you been up to?" Aleu asked.

"Oh I've been setting up the hunt, with the new ones, you know the pups, their first hunt is day after tomorrow."

"Yep," she said, "but why are you making the plans, I always.."

Shadow cut her off.

"Aleu, you're staying right here, in fact I don't even want you to get up for a week."

"A week?" She asked.

"Well, a little while anyway."

"I don't know if I can sit still for a week," Aleu said.

"I don' t know either," Shadow said.

Aleu smiled at him, and tried to laugh, but found out real fast that it hurt to do so.

"Aleu you know what?" Shadow asked.

"What?" Aleu answered.

"Sometimes, no all the time, you remind me of an overgrown pup."

"Well," Aleu scoffed, feigning offence.

"How'd you do it," Shadow asked.

Aleu looked confused.

"Do what?"

"Not grow up," Shadow said, "I mean it, you're so full of energy, so full of.. of life, it just spills out of you and infects everyone around you. Most of the other adults lose that when they grow older... not you, how?"

"I don't know Shadow," Aleu said.

"Well do me a favor," said Shadow.

Aleu smiled at him.

"What's that?"

"Don't ever change," he said.

Aleu tried to smile, but she wound up yawning again.

"You need to get some sleep," Shadow said, "I've still got some planning to do."

He got up and walked out of the room.

"I'm going," Aleu yelled, wincing at the pain that yelling caused.

"No You're not." Shadow called back, as he kept walking.

Aleu nestled down next to the pups, covering them with her head.

"I love my new family," She thought, as she drifted slowly to sleep.

Chapter V

Shadow woke up, to find himself in a dark hallway.

At one end was a light, and at one end was darkness.

As he watched. Aleu stepped out of the darkness.

“Aleu?” He said.

“Shadow, don’t leave me, please come back!” She yelled. Her voice echoed in the hallway and made Shadow’s head hurt.

He looked at the light.

Siear stepped out of it, as well as a whole host of old friends.

“They’re all dead!” Shadow thought.

He turned and tried to run back to the darkness, back to Aleu.

But the light started to pull him toward it, and Aleu shrunk from view, until Shadow couldn’t even see her anymore.

The light enveloped him, and he felt warm all over.

“Is this what it feels like to die?” He asked himself.

Then he drifted…slowly…. away….

“Shadow,” Aleu thought, as she laid there, paws covering her head, tears streaming down her face.

If she would have had her eyes open, she would have seen Shadow move a bit.

Slowly he opened his eyes.

His body from about his shoulders down was awash with pain.

He winced.

Shadow’s eyes were kind of half open, and he could barely see anything.

He realized Aleu was beside him, and that she was sobbing.

“She must think I’m dead,” Shadow thought.

“A…Aleu?” he said.

“Gosh,” Shadow thought, “it’s hard to talk, is this what it was like for Siear?”

Aleu stopped crying, and lifted her paws, unable to believe what she thought she had just heard.

Shadow smiled at her weakly.

“You don’t have to cry Aleu,” he said, “I…“

He winced at the pain that flooded through him.

“…I’m not dead yet.”

Aleu crawled over to him and laid her head on his shoulder.

She was crying again.

“Oh Shadow,” she said, “I… I thought you were….”

“What,” Shadow said, “you…you think that I.. that I would let some human take… take me down?”

Aleu smiled at him.

“You and bullets,” she said.

“Yeah,” said Shadow, “I always seem to cat… catch them when you’re around.”

Aleu smiled again.

“Come on let’s get you to the bedding chamber,” Aleu said.

`”I… I can’t get up.”

“Shadow,” Aleu said, “we’ve got to get you out of this chamber, the wind… you’ll freeze to death.” “Well,” Shadow strained, “I…. I can’t move, so we’re going to have to make do with what we have.”

“You go… go in there, with the kids…. I’ll probably be okay.”

Aleu shook her head.

“No.”

She looked back up at him.

“I can drag you.”

“Shadow nodded.

“Are you sure?”

Yes,” Aleu said, “’I’ll have to use my teeth, it’s gonna hurt.”

“Aleu,” Shadow said, “it’s not going… going to hurt any worse, than I already do.”

Aleu opened her mouth and gently bit down on Shadows leg.

Then she started to pull.

Though she didn’t bite down hard, her teeth started to dig into Shadow’s leg. He couldn’t feel it, the pain in his stomach drowned out all else.

By the time Aleu made it into the bedding chamber, Shadow’s blood was running out of her mouth.

Her eyes were clouded with tears.

She let go of his leg, and looked at what her teeth had done to him.

“I’m sorry Shadow,” she said.

He didn’t respond; he’d fallen asleep.

Aleu curled up next to him, and soon she too was fast asleep.

“Who are you, and what are you doing here?” Lightning thought,

He was looking at a group of nine black wolves and one kind of silver one, he was smaller than the others, walking through the woods.

“Our woods,” he thought.

He nodded at one of the other wolves with him. The wolf ran off to convey the message to the others.

Lightning watched as the small group continued through the woods, he was looking forward to facing off against them.

“Especially that silver one,” he thought, “he carries himself with confidence, I can see that, I wonder if it’s warranted?”

He smiled, remembering Aniak’s exact words.

“We are now at war, there are to be no

trespassers.”

“Soon we’ll see,” He thought.

Jeuke walked through these strange woods.

“They’re of a different kind than the ones up north,” he thought.

He looked up at the front toward Gia, the silver wolf that was their leader.

“I wonder how we’ll be accepted here,” Jeuke

thought.

Suddenly a brown wolf, slammed into him, his instincts kicked in, and he threw the attacker to the ground.

He quickly dispatched his attacker, breaking his neck.

“Not very good fighters down here,” he thought, “could be easy work for us.”

He looked up to see Gia on the ground, a white and brown wolf on top of her.

He smiled.

“That wolf has no idea what he has done to himself,” Jeuke thought.

Lightning was on top of the silver wolf.

“That wasn’t too hard,” he thought, a little disappointedly

Suddenly the wolf grinned at him, and threw him off.

“Woahh,” he thought, as he tumbled backwards.

The wolf arched its back, and sprung to its feet. It was on him in seconds.

The wolf stopped with its jaws around his throat.

A grin spread across its face, and it closed its mouth enough to let Lightning feel the prick of its teeth.

Lightning knew he was dead.

“Gosh , he was so fast, I didn’t have time to react!”

The wolf winked at him., and stood up.

Lightning stayed on the ground, looking up at it.

He looked around the clearing,

Three of the twelve of his team, were down and the rest of them, found them in positions similar to his own.

The wolf leaned down near him.

“Why’d you attack us?” She asked.

“You’re… you’re a female?” Lightning stuttered.

The wolf growled at him, and put her paw on his throat.

“I am,” she said, gritting her teeth, and pushing down just enough to cut off Lightning’s air.

“Do you have a problem with that?”

Lightning shook his head, unable to talk.

He heard laughing behind him, and turned his head to see one of the black wolves walking up to them.

“Easy Gia,” the wolf chuckled, “she’s a little touchy on that subject.

Lightning rolled over, relieved to see, that the other’s of his team were being let up as well.

He shook himself off.

“So I gather,” he said, looking at the wolf.

“So,” Gia said, ”Why’d you attack us?”

“We’re at war, or gonna be anyway, and you were trespassing.”

“So you have to kill us?” Gia asked.

The black wolf beside her laughed.

“Or try to.”

Lightning ignored the other wolf.

“I’m just following orders.”

Gia laughed, then became serious once more.

“That response would get you killed on my team.”

“Why?” Lightning asked.

“Because you’re not just following orders, you’ve got to believe in the reasons behind them, if you’re just following orders, you’ll never win, because you