Take Wing Part Three: Unexpected Help

It's so beautiful here.  Brite, a Border collie/husky mix, gazed out at the panoramic view below her.  She was perched upon a jutting peak of the Alaskan mountain that she lived on, and sunset was looming.  Her friend Juneau, the future leader of the wolf clan that lived there, had invited her to stay three months before, when her owner had moved south and left her behind.  Sick of the humans, she'd fled to her only friend.  Now, however, Brite had several friends, not the least of which was Aspen, a buttery orange and gold wolf who had just become mates with Pawnee, Juneau's guide and temporary leader of the Northern Heights clan.  Aspen had taught her all she knew about fighting, which was a lot.   

As Brite mulled over all this, a wolfdog with a coppery brown coat, startling white markings around his amber eyes, and dark chocolate shoulders ambled up to her.

"Hey, Brite!  Time to eat!"  It was Juneau.

"All right, coming!"  She barked hastily, throwing herself back over the side of the rock.  He waited for her as she loped up to him.  As soon as they were even, Juneau challenged her to a race and, without waiting for an answer, promptly set off up the mountain.  "Hey...no...fair!"  Brite gasped, pulling herself up and into gear.  She gained on him steadily, but Juneau flung his legs out farther behind him, taking huge, bounding leaps.  He won by about six inches, reaching the top and flinging himself down on the cave's cool floor.

"There you are!  We though you'd never come," said Pawnee jokingly.  He was a brownish-gray color with a pale belly and toes.  Beside him lay Aspen, chuckling.

"Well, we're here, but no thanks to Slowpoke over there."  Juneau jerked his chin grinningly at Brite, and she snapped at him.  "I didn't lose by much, you, you..."

"Let's just eat, OK?"  Pawnee hastily made amends for the argument and tore into his hunk of raw meat.  Aspen followed suit.  Juneau almost fell on top of his piece in his hurry to eat it.  Brite, however, just sat and gazed distastefully around her, but especially at the cold deer meat.  All her life she'd eaten either cold fish, dog food, or butcher's fare.  Recently she'd had to get accustomed to the tangy flavor and slimy texture of the raw stuff. 

Juneau knew how to make her eat it up in a hurry, though.  Her friend made a sudden grab for her share, and before she knew it, Brite had snatched it up and was chewing furiously at the meat.  She made a face at him but was too proud to spit it out again.  Juneau responded by laughed out loud.  Pawnee's face was twisted in an unusual grimace that told her that he was trying awfully hard not to laugh himself.  Aspen seemed to be the only one with any composure as the other two gave it up and laughed their heads off. 

Brite, despite her intense embarassment, was surprised.  After all, wasn't Aspen always laughing about something?  But then the golden wolf leaned in close and whispered tremulously into the collie-mix's ear:  "Don't worry, Brite,..."  The older female started cracking up, despite herself.  "After all, you're only...you haven't..."   She couldn't finish.  By this time all of the other wolves-about fifteen to twenty in all-had noticed the party's merriment and then the object of their mirth.  Brite saw them all chuckling--at her.  With a great huff that was almost a sob she whirled away and padded softly out into the waxing moonlight.

Juneau and Pawnee roared with uncontainable laughter for another five minutes, which to them seemed like days.  Finally Aspen held up a paw to stop them.  "Boys, boys!  I think we've hurt her feelings.  I-I'm not sure, but I though I heard...crying outside.  Please go see her."  Her deep blue eyes were honest and pleading, and the other wolves soon quit their chuckling, also.

"All right, all right.  I'll go."  It was the wolfdog yearling who spoke first.

"D'you want me to go along?"  Pawnee got to his feet hastily.

"Naw.  This can be the 'foreign relations' part of my training."

Pawnee's face split in a wide grin as he chuckled at Juneau's dry comment.  "Whatever you say."

Brite stared at the moon, tears streaming in cascades down her black and white face.  It was all unfair.  So unfair!  Just because they were all wolves didn't mean they had to expect her to be like one.  It was now more then ever that she wished she were a wolf.

"Brite?  Hey."  A tentative voice came out of the shadows ensconcing the hills. 

"What do you want?"  She asked coldly.

"I-I wanted to tell you something."

"Well, I don't want to hear it.  Maybe your wolf buddies will."  She turned away, expecting to end the conversation.

But Juneau wasn't going to give up that easily.  "I'm really sorry."

"You are, are you?"  

 "I am," he said, "really.  And I didn't know-we didn't know that it would hurt your feelings so much."

"Well, I guess you wouldn't, being a boy."  She sniffled, then laughed.  She accidentally choked, and Juneau whacked her on the back.  "Th-thanks."

"No problem."  The wolfdog suddenly felt uneasy.  There she was, staring straight at him, and he didn't know what to say.  Her icy blue eyes had him frozen solid.  Their depth was illuminated by the swirling rainbow of the Northern Lights.

"What's wrong?"  She glanced down at her paws, and the spell was broken.

Juneau fought to keep from clearing his throat.  "I-I was just thinking."

"About what?"

"That there's a place...a beautiful place where there's another, smaller Northern Lights, in the town.  Under a-a building."

"Oh?"  The old mischief sprang into Brite's eyes.

"Yeah.  Maybe I could take you there sometime.  That is...if you'd want to go."  Juneau's cheeks flushed.

"Count on it."  The girl beamed.

"Oh, what is the matter with me?"  Aspen yawned.  "I'm so tired.  And just the other day I had an inexpicable desire to eat moose, when the day before I was sick of it.  Ugh."  She rolled over inside the den that she and Pawnee shared.

"I don't know what's wrong with you, but you'd better get well soon!"  Her mate warned.  The anticipated month-long hunt was three days from now, and all the qualified wolves were geared up and ready to go.  Aspen was one of their prime hunters, and they almost couldn't afford to lose her.  It would mean less winter meat...unless Juneau could make up for it.  He was training hard, but he didn't have the experience so necessary to a good hunter.

On top of that, Pawnee was worried.  As far back as he could remember, Aspen had never been sick with anything more than a mild case of the sniffles, and that was when she was a pup.  The temporary alpha couldn't imagine what was wrong now.

"We could get Juneau's aunt, Jenna," Brite suggested.

"Maybe," replied Pawnee doubtfully, "but isn't she a pure-bred husky?"

"Yes," piped up Juneau, "but that doesn't mean that she isn't good at caring for other dogs-and wolves.  She's cared for Uncle Balto tons of times when he was sick, and he's both dog and wolf."

"You have a point, kid.  Maybe we can use her, even if huskies are generally not acccepted among us wolves.  Anyway, where's The Elder?"  The Elder, as he was called by name, was a black wolf with a muzzle tinged with silver.  He was very wise and good, and had given Juneau advise an innumerable amount of times in the past five months.  Surely, he'd know that to do.

"I really don't know what to do."  The Elder shook his head in puzzlement after examining Aspen.  Pawnee groaned helplessly.

"Why don't I get Aunt Jenna?" supplied Juneau tactfully, not mentioning that he'd hinted that they needed her help several times, only to be completely ignored.

"I get the point," said Pawnee, sighing exasperatedly.  "Go."

"Wanna come with me?" asked the hybrid, turning his attention to Brite.

"Oh, yes, and let's hurry!"

As they headed down the mountain, the yearling was almost afraid to look his friend in the eye again.  He'd never felt that way around her before, and it was unusual and somewhat awkward.  Juneau had never really noticed it before, but Brite was kinda pretty.  Then suddenly she leaped at him playfully, and before long he'd forgotten all about his nervousness and was lost in the game of tag.  Who could be nervous around someone who was so confident and fun to be around?

Several hours later (after having rolled and tumbled down most of the way), they were approaching Balto's boat.  To their dissapointment, Jenna wasn't there, but Balto offered to fetch her for them.

"Hurry, please, sir," begged Brite.  "Aspen's sick with something, and we don't know what it could possibly be.  Tell Miss Jenna it's something important."

Balto only laughed and said that she could just call him Balto, and he was equally sure that Jenna wouldn't mind being simply called...well, Jenna.  Then he took off, assuring the duo of a quick return. 

In a matter of minutes he was back with his red-and-white mate in tow.  "Here she is,"  Balto panted.