"N-", she changed her mind. Nodding her head and standing up, she smiled to her son.
"You know what, that sounds like a good idea." These words brought a bright grin forth upon Kalgorn's face. He jumped up, tail wagging, and followed her as she headed to the right. On long sniff had told her the direction he was in. She stopped though, leaning down to Kalgorn and asking him a question. "Kalgorn, how about I give you a quick lesson on tracking a scent? You're pretty familiar with your father's so let's see if you can find him."

Kalgorn was ecstatic over the offer. He licked her nose in gratitude and his tail wagged furiously from side to side, his green orbs glimmered in exuberance. Giving every possible sign through body language that he would like that. No, not just like it, he would love it! Lately he'd been rowing more and more anxious to learn the skill and art of hunting down prey before overpowering it and then, consume it. However, neither his mom or dad had offered to teach him anything about it. So, as any other pup would have done, he tried to teach himself. As you can probably guess, he had no luck at all with it. "Oh, would I!" he practically barked out.

Mist chuckled and told him to settle down. At her words he immediatly sat down and remained still apart from his wagging tail. Smiling, Mist briefed him with the procedure a wolf would go through to sniff out a prey by either lowering their nose to the ground or pointing it out in the air. Demonstrating it briefly by tracking down a hare and releasing it. The fact that she'd found the small meal so quickly and with so little effort made her worry more about Hiro. She forced those thoughts out of her head though by stubbornly telling her mind to shut up and that he was just looking for something large enough to fee all three of them.

Coming out of her head, she looked at Kalgorn again, speaking in a incouraging tone. "You try it. Go on, give it a go and tell me which direction your father's scent is coming from." She added a loving smile for good effect. There was no needing to coax Kalgorn to try it. He'd probably go for it with out being told to. This was just to give him a boost in confidence. As she watched, the brown and white pup that was her son lifted his nose in the air. The black stud at the end of his muzzle twitched a few times, his nares flaring as he sniffed out the scent.

She hadn't expected him to succeed his first try. After all, there were so many scents lingering in any given area varying in age and strengths, it was confusing to know which scent was the one you were looking for if you weren't all that familiar with the scent. However, Kalgorn's features shifted to confusion after a few sniffs. It was only for a second though because the next second he was smiling and pointing a paw to their right. "Dad's that way."

It took Mist by surprise. She knew which direction Hiro was in, having already gotten his scent, but seeing Kalgorn find his scent like a pro his first attempt blew her away. Was this really his first time? Or had Hiro been sneaking in lessons with Kalgorn behind her back? She laughed a little and licked Kalgorn. "Wow, your first time too! Impressive. I'm proud of you Kalgorn."

Kalgorn beamed up at his mother, feeling pride rush through him. But he was surprised too. When he'd sniffed, all he could smell was. . . a confusing mixture of several animals he'd smelled before and several other scents he had never smelled before. He had picked up something that had was a little familiar, but vague. He wasn't even sure if that had been his dad's smell, but he took a guess. It had, pretty much, just been a lucky guess. But he wasn't about to tell his mother that.

"Well, come on Kalgorn. Let's go find your father." With that, the went on. Kalgorn following beside his mother, not a worry in his mind. He was too busy sniffing the ground and the air to think that just maybe, his dad was in trouble or hurt. He'd thought he smelled blood, but after another sniff, he decided it was a dead meal that had already been devoured. Now, Mist on the other paw, knew better. Her ability to smell the air and make out one scent from the other was better than Kalgorn's so, once she picked up the strong smell of blood, she immediatly feared the worst.
"Well, come on Kalgorn. Let's go find your father." With that, the went on. Kalgorn following beside his mother, not a worry in his mind. He was too busy sniffing the ground and the air to think that just maybe, his dad was in trouble or hurt. He'd thought he smelled blood, but after another sniff, he decided it was a dead meal that had already been devoured. Now, Mist on the other paw, knew better. Her ability to smell the air and make out one scent from the other was better than Kalgorn's so, once she picked up the strong smell of blood, she immediatly feared the worst.

Part of her told her that everything was fine. Hiro must have caught something and he was just a bit tired. The other part screamed at her that he was hurt. Possibly even worse, dead. Because of her anxiety, without meaning to, she picked up the pace a bit. Causing Kalgorn to get further behind. When she looked to her side to see Kalgorn and didn't see him, she stopped. Heart racing, she looked around. She was relieved to see he had just fallen behind and was right behind her. "Come along Kalgorn. I'll teach you some more about tracking later."

That was fine with Kalgorn. Gave him more time to try and figure this thing on his own. So, padding along a bit quicker, he followed beside her. Wondering why she had sped up. He was about to ask, but they had to cut through several thick bushes. It would have been easier to go around, Kalgorn mentioned, but his mother just continued, pushing the branches out of the way and allowing him to pass her so that they didn't swing back and slap him in the face.

Once they managed to get through the bushes, he shook the leaves from his body and looked up at his mother. She had a strange look on her face. Her mouth hung open a bit and her eyes wide. "Mom?" He asked, wondering what was wrong with her. He started to follow her gaze and look to whatever it was she was staring at, but she grabbed him and put a paw over his eyes. "Mom! What are you doing" He barked, raising his paws and trying to pry his mothers paw from his eyes. "You don't need to look" he heard his mother speak. Her voice sounded tearful and shaky.
With his vision blocked, he couldn't see anything but the way his mothers voice sounded made him give up his efforts to pull her paw from his face. Instead, he just sat there, listening and waiting for her paw to lift from his eyes.

The sight had come upon her so suddenly and unexpectedly, she couldn't help but get surprised. At first, she wasn't sure what she was seeing. It couldn't be. The figure of a wolf lay motionless and in a bloody puddle. His throat, well, pretty much his entire neck mangled and bloody. It was Hiro's dead body. The sight paralyzed her and she found herself unable to move at all. She couldn't accept what her eyes were seeing. Hiro couldn't be dead! But here he was, motionless, his body torn and abused. There was no other logical conclusion except he was dead. But what had killed him? It was only when Kalgorn finally spoke that she remembered he was there and immediatly, she covered his eyes. He was too young to see something like this. For a few more minutes, she held him next to her and bowed her head. Mourning for their loss. Kalgorn obviously sensed something was wrong because he stopped struggling and sat there without complaint or any other words.

They walked away after those few minutes were up. Mist took care to keep her paw over Kalgorn's eyes until she was sure he couldn't see even if he did try and sneak a glance. "Mom, what about dad? Aren't we going to find him?" He asked, trying to turn his head away so that he could see where he was walking. When he heard his mother reply, just the way she spoke clarified it for him. Something bad must have happened to dad. "Kalgorn. . . we wont find him."

"But what about tracking his scent? Mom, what happened?" his voice demanded an answer. Mist however, didn't know how to tell him this. How was she supposed to explain to him that his dad was never coming home? How could she tell him when he was so young that his dad was dead? She didn't know, but she knew she needed time to think of the best way to put this to him. "I'll tell you when we get home, Kalgorn. Until then, don't ask anymore questions."
She removed her paw from his eyes, allowing him to see again, and nudged him forward. "Come on"

 *  *  *

They reached the den that made up their home all too soon for Mist. She was dreading the moment she had to explain this to Kalgorn. He was too young to have to know about something like death. He was too young to not have a father! What had killed Hiro anyway? If she found the one who did this to Hiro. . .

Unknown to her, but if Mist had looked around, she would have seen exactly what had killed Hiro. The fallen bodies of the wolverines Hiro took out before that last one snuck up on him remained where they had fallen.
Taking a deep breath, she pointed to the den, indicating to Kalgorn that he was to wait for her inside. He did as he was told without question, padding into the den and sitting down. Waiting for her to explain to him what had happened to his dad. While he was alone in there, he was left with nothing but questions. What could have his mom have seen to make her give up on searching for dad? What had upset her the way she looked. Once she had taken her paw away from his eyes, he saw tears on her cheeks, which brought up more questions.

Mist stood outside the den, preparing herself for what she was about to have to explain to her innocent son. Gosh this was going to be hard to do. It only made her more angry and upset for what had been done to her mate. However, she couldn't stay out