Young Times

The first thing that I remember about my childhood was laying beside my mother. That was when I first opened my eyes. I suppose I have a pretty good memory since I can still remember that all these years.

They named me Dusty, for my color. I was almost a dusty gray color. I didn't much like my name, but everyone else loved it. I suppose that over the years I've come to like it, too. I suppose because I admire that it describes who I am in a way.

But the biggest thing I remember about the earliest times of my life was loneliness. There were no other wolves around, because my family lived in the farthest corner of the forest, away from all other families, because aparently living with neighbors wasn't "safe".

I also didn't have any siblings, and I was the first of the litter. And I never got the oportunity to go to mentoring, like all the other kids, because that wasn't "safe" either. To mother, nothing was "safe" without the protection of a male wolf. But it also didn't matter what age to her for some reason. And so, one day I asked, "So why can't father mentor me, or atleast take me to and from mentoring?"

"Because," my mother would say, "You could get hurt. You could break something, or swallow something poisionous, or get dehyrated, or-"

"I get it, mother." That was my response to almost everything. I hated that nothing was "safe".

Being a young wolf can be very, very hard without a friend.

But the first time I ever laid my eyes on another child wolf was five months into my lifetime. I was getting a drink from the river for the first time by myself ever. That was a huge upgrade to being escorted everywhere my entire life by my father.

I was lapping from the slow-streaming water when all the sudden- WHAM! A brown and white female wolf about my age cannon-balled into the water. I screamed, terrified, and fell backwards.

When I realized what was going on, I sat up, drenched.

Water was dripping from my nose. I growled, angry. I hated the feeling of being wet. It was horrible.

"Who do you think you are?!" I stormed over to the side of the stream agerly. The wolf frowned. "Sorry..." She whimpered, and climbed out of the river, tail dragging, starting to walk away.

A weight grabbed my heart and held on. I felt horrible. "Wait!" I called. She looked back. "I'm sorry..." I swimmed across and shook off. "What's your name?" I asked.

"Leaf," she replied, "you?"

"I'm Dusty." I said.

It's amazing how fast a friendship can begin by just telling each other names.We ran, and tumbled and pounced. It was the most fun I'd ever had.

Leaf was my only friend, but I didn't care then. All I cared was that I had a friend at all. But I knew that I couldn't tell my parents, because then they would figure out our secret and move away.

Leaf's family had decided to migrate from their old home to get away for a while, and they lived not far from our's. I wanted to keep it  a secret as long as possible so that I wouldn't ever have to say good-bye to Leaf for good.

It became a routine that we would meet at the river each day and mentor each other in a fun way. We both wanted to be able to become good fighters, but it was that wanting that costed me my eye.

We were practicing our pouncing, but we didn't want to do it near the river since there was a risk of getting wet. So, we went to a small clearing, hoping my parents wouldn't find out.

But there was something about this clearing that we didn't notice until one of us were hurt. One of the roots on one of the trees came out of the ground, and the end of it was like a needle.

I tried to pounce onto Leaf, but she ducked, and the branch caught right onto my eye. At first I didn't know what had happened, but I was frightened as soon as I noticed that I couldn't see from the left part of my face. Leaf gasped in horror, trying to refrain from screaming. "I'm so sorry! Dusty, I'm so, so sorry!"

She broke into tears. "I'm sorry! Now you're going to have to move away, and I'm never going to see you again!"

"No!" I said, "I won't let them know. It was a total accident. I'll tell them that I accidentally caught it on a branch when I accidentally fell into the river."

"But you didn't fall into the river!"

I went and did a cannon-ball into the river which was only a short distance away and came back. "You were saying?"

My parents may have freaked when I came back home, but they never found out about Leaf. She may have caused me my left eye, but ratting her out wasn't worth giving her up. But it was also then that my father decided to start escorting me again. I caught a glimpse of Leaf one time, and luckily my father didn't. I motioned for her to go back, and she did.

But I was lucky, because our meetings only got postponed for about a season. My mother was expecting another litter, and when they were born, and if one of them were males, I could get hem to come with me anywhere and everywhere. Leaf and I would soon be reunited!

When they were born, I was so excited to find out that they were both males. Now my mother could never turn down the offer!

Their name's were Kavik and Kargo. I don't know why they were named that. I didn't much like the names, but they were out-of-the-ordinary... which I liked for some reason.

When they were old enough, I took them out first thing and tracked down Leaf. I inroduced them to her, and right away Kargo went over to the river and stared in. Right away, he was interested in nature and the beauty of it.

As for Kavik, he was the brave and bold type. It took nothing to give him a challenge. He loved challenges, and he would go on and on about how he would some day be the biggest most strongest wolf in the world. Maybe even the king.

But I loved my brothers. Most older siblings are very annoyed by their younger brothers and sisters. Not me. We got along very well, the four of us. Just me, my brothers and my friend. That was it.

Every day became another routine. Kargo was never interested in becoming mentored. He was a one man show. He always hung by the river and mixed leaved and made small medicines out of them, some of which actually worked as he became better at it.

But Kavik was all for it. Leaf and I would teach him simple moves every day, and he gained quickly.

Leaving Home

Over time, Leaf decided to leave home. She also encouraged me to go with her. It was a very hard decision for me to make, but as Kavik eavesdropped from a near ear-shot tree, he hopped right into the conversation and agreed. So did I, realizing that this was  the begining to an all new adventure

Kargo stayed back, though. But somehow I knew that we would see each other again.

The first night was misserable. The wind howled, the rain stung, the lightning striked and the thunder rumbled louder than an army jet. And all the protection that we had... Was a tree. A stupid tree.

Kavik payed no mind, but Leaf and I were frightened, annoyed, and angry.

The next morning, we trudged on, through mud and flooded grass.

I probably looked like a ballerina prancing through all of that soggy ground, but I couldn't help it. I felt as if I were sinking into the ground, and yet avoiding the mud that Kavik's paws splattered every step he took.

We didn't go far until we smelt a scent. A strange scent, and it made us curious. We followed it.

We soon came to a iny little town as we entered a clearing. There weren't any trees after the edge of the forest, and I smelt sea water from a nearby bay. I had heard of this place before.

This was Nome.

Still, we carried on. The smell took us to the back of a building. Inside of a large tin can was where it was coming from. We dumped it over.

Out fell trash. Lots and lots of trash.

My mouth watered, and I soon remembered how hungary I was. I dug into the old food. It wasn't any rabbit, but it was satisfying.

But soon, a large man dressed in heavy clothes stormed out of a door in the building and started shouting at us. We became frightened, and we ran. We ran until we cam to the bay, where the sunset reflected off of the water.

We all sat down and looked at the water. What a view.  It was amazing.

The Pack

We all decided that the stretch of woods next to the bay were perfect for settling down for a while.

Though we only stayed there for two days, we had a fun time while we were there. We spent most of or time down at the bay, splashing in the water and chasing fish. Then, at sunset, we would watch it go down. I had never seen such beauty in my life. The sun reminded me of a blazing ball of pink fire, dancing across the sky. Now that I'm older, I know that that's pretty much what it is.

The time that we didn't spend by the bay, we spent in the woods hunting and exploring. I was chasing a fast-going rabbit through the forest when I suddenly ran into another wolf. At first, i thought it was Kavik by the looks of his gray fur-but it wasn't.

I shook the stars out of my head and looked up.There he stood, a wolf about my age staring at me. "May I help you?" He said confused. The blow must not have effected him whatsoever.

"S-sorry...." I muttered. I was only half-concious. He shrugged. "No problem. But you might not want to hang around here too much. Our leader would tear you to shreds."

Leader? Leader of what? I looked around to notice that I'd chased the rabbit a bit further away than I'd gone before.

"Okay then...." I sighed, "Goodbye..."

I walked away to go find my friends. Something was weird here.

First I want to state something. Do to the fact that I did not whatsoever live a normal childhood, I didn't actually know much about how wolves are supposed to live.