throw out a million questions.

Her thoughts raced within her mind.

“Back at the pack. I fell into the river and was washed ashore downstream to another wolf pack consisting only of females. She was one of them. What's your excuse.”

Azalea looked at him clandestinely, the shadows along her uniquely constructed face hovering over her whimsical eyes that held forbidden secrets.

“I used to know her a long time ago...” he concluded, his voice trailing off as if he had entered a dream from a past fantasy. Azalea took the time to explore his expression, faint, yet distinct. Lilly, on the other hand, seemed skeptical about this wolf she knew so little about. Their personalities had rather clashed back at Azalea's pack, sending her away in search of the pack she planned to return to.

“What are you doing here?” Lilly snapped, her maddening expression sizzling with the fusions of fury and hostility. “Did Thistle decide to banish you too?”

“No, I left on my old accord. I had some unfinished business to attend to.”

“It's kind of funny that we all arrived at this same place at this same time. What do you hold up your sleeves, Azalea?” Torrid inquired curiously.

“Torrid,” she countered in a flirty tone that made Lilly's nose wrinkle and her brows lower an inch, “my reputation has gotten the better of me, I see. Can't you ever learn to forgive little ol' me?”

“What reputation do you mean?” Lilly growled.

“Dear, Torrid, we can't expect Lilly to know, can we?” she giggled.

Torrid's head shot backwards in disapproval. His facial expression was a mirror reflection of Lilly, who was almost raging in disgust. Azalea chuckled freely again and continued explaining in her taunting voice that neither Torrid nor Lilly cared for.

“Well, since your both apparently slow, I will let you know that my reputation is set on the basis of what other canines think of me, although, of this subject I am careless. Not around these parts, but a separate area in the woods, everyone feared me.”

“Why?” Lilly snapped, growing impatient.

“They called me the 'hunter' because of my interesting way of getting what I want. I worked for a wolf with a name I shall not repeat. We got off in the wrong direction. It resulted in the death of a wolf. Torrid was there. He then left the pack, and I soon followed his example, as I was in love with him. Not to worry, Lilly, he didn't care clouds for me, and probably still doesn't. Silly as it was, I set off to find him, to tell him how I felt.”

“That doesn't explain how you managed to get here at the same point of the creek, the same time and day as us,” Torrid stated, beginning to growl.

Azalea looked anything but frustrated or worried.

“What a minute!” Lilly concluded. “Did you say that Torrid and you got mixed up with a gang that caused the death of a female wolf?”

“That, I did,” Azalea answered with a sly grin.

“Torrid, when we first met, you told me the same thing.” She paused, and Torrid watched as her lips were about to pull back in a fierce growl. “But you told me that you got mixed up with a wolf named Holly.”

“Oh, so you do know Holly?” Azalea commented.

Lilly's head snapped around to face Azalea, her teeth still bared.

“Is that the name of the wolf you would not repeat?”

“Yes, it is, actually.”

“Take us to her!” Lilly threatened, moving predator-like toward the visitor.

“I don't recall the exact location of her, but I do know one place in particular where we might find her. To tell you the truth, Lilly, I've been after her too, but for different reasons, as you can imagine.”

“So does that make you friend or foe?” Torrid inquired.

Azalea bellowed, “Ha! I'll let you be the judge of that. I give you my word that everything I have just told you is the truth. Follow me, or I will follow you.”

“Lead on,” Lilly commanded, her anger melting, but suspicion still lingering. Torrid seemed to feel the same way by his obvious expression.

Azalea headed toward a grove of trees that lined the outer premise of the field, a place Lilly had gone through as she wandered away from the pack. She gave Torrid a helpless glance of credulity and walked on, following Azalea into the unknown pits and terrors of trailing an unreliable guide.

“Funny,” Lilly thought silently to herself after an entire day of traveling, “this seems to be the exact way I took when I left the pack. Holly must be lurking somewhere around home.”

“Hope you don't mind crossing another wheat field,”Azalea called from ahead. “I prefer to take the road less traveled.”

Lilly rolled her eyes and became extremely cautious, as this was the field she came into contact with the hunter. It seemed safer now that the sun was high and a family of deer were crossing along with noisy blue jays and mockingbirds. A single red tailed hawk soared through the cloudless sky, searching for field mice and rabbits that grazed in the tall grass. It's shadow fell upon the travelers for only a moment as it looked on toward another field, finding no luck in the first.

After a long tedious walk through the high grass, Lilly's browsing blue eyes finally caught glimpse of the edge of the pack's forest in the horizon. The tall dark trees lined the pack's ground like pillars to a palace.

“Or a dungeon,” Lilly muttered.

The light afternoon sun had begun setting behind the trees, highlighting long strands of fur on their backs as if they were sunbeams themselves. The June temperatures made it difficult to keep moving toward the line of trees in the horizon, that never seemed to get any closer.

“We're almost there,” Torrid stated, encouraging Lilly to go on, since he noted that she looked weary and sullen.

She nuzzled him in return, only to find Azalea glaring at her with a malicious look in her eyes.

“Can we hurry it up? We're almost there,” she complained from ahead.

“Give us a break; we've been traveling all day today and the day before,” Torrid snapped for he too was exhausted.

Lilly looked up at him as if she were about to faint dead away with fatigue.

“It's just a little further, then we'll be at level ground,” he whispered softly, licking her forehead.

“I just wish this slope wasn't uphill,” she grumbled, proceeding after Azalea toward the trees. The shadows of their branches finally covered the travelers after a few more weary paces. The shaded regions of the woods brought familiar comfort to Lilly as she gazed upon the outskirts of her home.

“We're finally here, no thanks to you two slowpokes!” Azalea growled.

“Save it for later, Azalea,” Lilly replied irritably, a hint of anger rising in her tone.

Rolling her eyes, she turned to Torrid, and curled up beside him, ready to rest for the night, which seemed to pass just as fast as it had come. The moment she opened her eyes to meet the scarce beams of light that passed through the trees, it seemed that only a few seconds ago, she had closed them to fall asleep. However, her body felt revived and replenished of strength.

Glancing around at the familiar domain of the forest, her heart leaped at the sight of solitude. Azalea was no where to be seen, which rose suspicion in Lilly's mind. Twigs snapped and leaves fluttered to the ground from the tree dwelling creatures above. Lilly watched keenly as they played around in the pines as Torrid awoke to find her already conscious.

“How did you sleep?” she asked him.

“Like a bear. You?”

“Same. Wonder how Azalea slept,” she said, almost in a perplexing growl.

“Why don't you ask-” he began to say as he looked around. “Where is she?”

“That's what I'd like to know. I don't like her sneaky tactics.”

“I don't like her either, but she's the only guide we have to Holly.”

“We would have run into her sooner or later,” Lilly explained. “She vowed to kill me if it were the last thing she'd do.”

“Errr...” Torrid thought aloud. “Maybe we better get going. There's no reason to go so near the pack when we don't know where Azalea is, and Holly too, for that matter.”

“I guess you're right,” Lilly stated, her mind off the subject. “We better go.”

“Go where? I was wondering when you two slowpokes would get moving. I've been awake since the first rays of light,” Azalea said with a playful groan. “Not that I'm complaining, mind you.”

Lilly growled and walked up to Azalea with her head hanging low between her legs, and her ears slanted backwards, making it apparent that she was trying to hold back her rage.

“Where have you been?! We've been awake for some time now, and if wasting time was really as important as you claim it to be, why didn't you come when we awoke? I was awake at sunrise, and you were no where to be found,” Lilly snapped, fury burning in her eyes.

Azalea hardly seemed flustered.

“Lilly, do you honestly think that I would just wait around all morning for you and Torrid to get up? I am a highly active wolf with an outgoing personality, and I do not like to just sit around.”

“Well, little miss jumping bean, why don't we get going? Daylight's a'wasting!”

“Fine.”

“Fine!” Lilly thundered.

Torrid exhaled as if he were relieving stress. It was so early in the morning and Lilly was all ready fired up about Azalea. He wondered how long the peace and quiet would last as tension built up between them. He increased his pace, so that he trotted alongside Lilly.

“Lilly, are you sure we should be trusting Azalea? I know her better than you do, and her character is still suspicious to me,” he stated in a low murmur.

“Azalea is my one-way ticket to Holly. This could be my big chance to find out where and what Holly is plotting and give her a surprise attack,” she replied in a whisper.

“You and I both know that Holly is more devious than a wolverine. She probably has spies everywhere, watching us. Who knows? Azalea could even be one.”

“Oh, that's stupid, Torrid. Azalea could no more be a spy than you or me. Even if she is, it gets me to Holly, which is all I'm interested in.”

“I just hope we don't run into anyone from the pack. Wouldn't that be a joy?” he replied