1

The Hot Dog Cart

Kach couldn't sleep. When ever he drifted off his memories came back to haunt him. The creture keepers, the cries for help and freedom, the disgusting food, the little shelter, the cave with the invisible walls,
 Then he would wake up.
 Kach sighed as he sat upright. He knew he couldn't help the past, change it or control it. Lei stirred. "Go back to sleep Love," she murmured.
 Kach lay down again, shutting his eyes tight. He could almost see the keeper pulling the rope aound his own neck. Kach opened his eyes again. This was partly due to the dream, but also he could smell something. It was cooking meat.
 Very carefully, he poked his nose out of the entrance of the den. A man at a stall was grilling hot dogs. The hungry wolf licked his lips. Then he looked up at the sky. The sun was down and there was a dim, pink light that engulfed the park and city.
 At the sound of an approaching human, he shot down the hole again. Kach whispered in Lei's ear "It's difa. We can hunt soon."
 At first he did not know if she had heard him, then she stretched and yawned, joining him at the mouth of the old fox set. She saw the hot dog stall. "I know what you're up to," she smiled to her mate "You want that man-fril. But it's a bit risky, surely?"
 Kach turned to her. "I am well groomed and if anyone sees me they will think I'm just a feral canfa." He paused. "A feral slave canfa, I mean." And with that correction to himself, he snuck out into the open.

The stall was at most five feet away. But it was a clear space between the tree and the unsuspecting hot dog salesman. Kach waited in the den for the right moment. Then he saw one. The man was walking over to another with a slave canfa. The hot dog man petted the labrador, while a black and brown wolf took a quick trip.
 Kach shot out of the hole. He ran the clearing in no more than two seconds and hid behind the push-along stall. He would have one chance at this.
 Praying to the Bronze Canfa, he stood on his hind legs, scooped up the cooked and cooking food and darted back to Lei. Dropping the meal inside the den, he noticed that a small door was open on the stall. A sausage fell out of it.
 "Lei," he hissed excitedly "There's more."
 "No." she replied firmly. "We have what you went for, and that's enough. Greed is the way of men."
 But Kach wasn't listening. He was being drawn to the swinging door. It suddenly flew back in a gust of wind, showing a mountain of hot dogs. It was enough to feed the pack for a fortnight! Wasting no time, the 'wise' leader galloped to the wolf's goldmine. He grabed half a dozen packs at once and returned them to the den. He went for a second and third time.
 "Kach that's enough!" Lei spat. But again he wasn't listening. Without warning, the man turned away from his friend and walked back to his stall. And at the exact same moment, Kach was picking up the last packets. He stopped in mid thieving. Suddenly panic overtook him. Lei was right. It WAS a bad idea.
 If he ran back now he would be seen, but the man was meters away from him. Hearing footsteps close, he leapt into the hold and closed the door.

The man wiped his hands on his apron and looked at his watch. It was 9 o'clock exactly, and he should be getting home. Not even noticing the missing dogs that were on the grill, he picked up the trolly. "Cor! Need to sell more o' these things, they're heavy to carry around!" he chuckled to himself. However the considerable weight was not of sausages, as, to his own without his knowing, they had been stolen by a very greedy wolf. The weight, in fact, was Kach.
 Kach felt the stall moving. He simmultaniously heard the man humming. The door of the compartment opened, just a crack, but enough to let the panicing animal see where he was heading.
 The large, cold, steel gates.
 Kach turned as pale as his dark fur would let him. His red eyes darted quickly about, looking for a chance to leap free of this terror. He saw it. Some holly bushes. It would hurt, but compared to the consequences of being exposed to the concrete jungle it was nothing. If a wolf was seen the pack would be destroyed.
 As the cart came parallel with the bushes, the man stopped to rest his back. It was definatly a lot lighter when he entered the park this morning.
 Kach grabbed his oppotunity with all four paws, bursting out of the cart with a single bound, landing painfully, but safely, in the holly bush.

The atmosphere was silent. The clock had not yet chimed ten, so Kach thought it was better to stay hidden until then. But he knew Lei would worry. There was a meeting set at the Bronze Canfa that night, so if he could get there early, he could proove that he had not been killed - for if a wolf left the safety of the park they were considered dead. It was twilight. The sunlight was dim and it would be difficult to be seen in the low light of the sun. Nothing less than a hawk would be able to see him, and luck was on his side by the colour of his dark fur. Finally he decided he would risk the presence of any remaining men.
 Kach looked quickly around him. There were no humans. He sprang forwards into the open path. Without any warning the light seemed to leave all together. The path was now invisible in the darkness, but the wolf could sense the low fence in front of him. With ease he hopped over the metal bars and felt splintery wood on his pads. He was in a playground.
 The timid wind blew one of the swings lightly, causing an eery squeaking-groan. Kach stepped away from this noise. He could smell rotting rubbish in the garbage can and knew there would undoubtably be some sort of leftovers awaiting inside.
 He poked his muzzle into the bin and pulled out the remains of a Big Mac. Scoffing it down, he heard the chime of ten. He licked the ketchup off his nose and started to run in the direction of the Bronze Canfa.

Lei held back the tears as she approached the other members of the pack. Taking a deep breath, she went and sat at the front. How could she tell them? Who would be leader? There was only one way to find out.
 "I'm afraid," she said akwardly, not quite sure how to put it "That something has happened. You see, Kach went to get some food and, and..." she looked around and almost broke into a crying fit, when a brown and black wolf jumped through the bushes and sat at the front next to her.
 "Sorry I'm late," he panted "Had a bit of a run in with a man."

2

The Meeting

Once the pack had settled down after the confusing moment, and Kach had convinced Difa that Latch was lying about him being the ghost of their deceased leader, the meeting began. There were many things to prepare. For example, as explained the night before, daylight lasted longer and so there was less time to hunt and less food.
 "If you catch something," Kach told the followers "Eat half of your fill, then store the rest. If you get too full you wont be able to move quickly and will loose the will to hunt."
 "But we only get to eat once each night. And if it's half a squrriel then we'd surely starve!" Latch shouted.
 Lei asked him why he always had to rain on the packs parade. Latch replied snappilly, but Kach stopped the siblings' quarrel with a demand for silence. Jeke and his sister, Difa, asked a number of questions themselves.
 "What sort of things keep fresh underground? Because I am not eating rotten meat!" Difa told Kach.
 "Yeah," Jeke agreed "The last thing Akila needs is maggot-infested food."
 "I'm suprised she suvived the night..." Latch murmured. Nobody heard him thankfully.
 Kach left his seat on the rocks and told the pack to follow him. The leader stopped at a bin. The other wolves sat in a semi-circle around him, watching with growing curiostity. Kach put his nose into the mouth of the bin and pulled out half an Autie Anne's pretzel and lay it on the floor.
 "Urgh! It's man-fril! Not even meat!" Toma said, sniffing at the doughy, sugar-coated snack.
 "Beggers cannot be choosers." Kach told him.
 "And how would you know," Latch said, face to face with his brother-in-law "Good leader?"
 "Scavenging as a pup in the land," Kach said quietly, almost in a whisper, to make sure no-one else could hear, "I couldn't hunt. I found it easier to take pickings off the man."
 Lei took her usual postition. "Okay, boys, break it up." Then she turned to the lower wolves. "Dig in." she smiled, throwing the pretzel to them. They crowded round in a group, all tearing at the flimsy pastry. While they were busy, Lei pulled Latch to one side.

"I am absolutely fed up with this Latch!" she growled "You're constantly making stupid, immature comments, and you never contribute properly to meetings or hunting parties! All you care for is yourself, and there's no I in Canfa Pack."
 Her brother stubbornly did not answer. He didn't even look her in the face. He just looked away, pretending not to have heard her. But when she left, he followed her with his eyes.
 Jo licked her nose of the cinnemon sugar and lay down on the grass. Toma lay next to her, letting his girlfriend's head rest on his front paws. Difa was grooming herself opposite the lovebirds and Kach was waiting for Lei to join them. Once she had, the meeting continued.
 "Now that's sorted, is there anything else somebody would like to talk about?" Kach asked openly. They rarely had a forum in a meeting, so he advised his wolves to use it now and wisely. After a moment or two, Toma and Jo nodded their heads. Kach gave them permision to speak.
 Well, Toma said excitedly, he and Jo had agreed on something. They both felt very strongly for each other and - he paused and smiled at Jo "We want to be partners!"
 Everyone waited to hear a sly comment to be made or an argument about it, but there came none.
 "Where's