This is my most recent short story, around 10,000 words, and it's about Star's, yes from the trio in Balto, parents. So here's the story, please give me a coment here or on my Fanfiction account. Thanks. Also the formating is messed up here; so if it's easier for you to read with indenting, clear-cut paragraphs, and so forth, just go to the bottom of the page where there's a link.
Stars Origin.
Silence reined throughout the house in the late evening after darkness had settled. The air held still, nothing moved, no one spoke, and life seemed void; which was surprising for this particular home, for the celebrations of life often happened here in the form of parties, diners, and general life. Yet on this cold day in Nome Alaska there didn’t seem to be much to celebrate.
In the kitchen the family gathered around the table, all their focus on the tiny body which lay before them like a slab of meat. The little pup didn’t appear to be breathing, his chest didn’t heave for those mouthful gulps of life, and his little legs didn’t move or squirm to find his loving mother.
The daughter of the family let tears flow freely down her face to the edge of her jaw. Her blond hair got caught in her lips and she brushed it away with her hand, sniffled, and let a small wail escape her. She reached her delicate hand out and touched the little body to see if a tender touch would bring him to life; but the touch only came back a little colder, causing a heave of emotions.
The mother hugged her grieving daughter and dropped to her height. “Hush hush.” She said tenderly, letting her daughter’s tears and muffled sobs flood into her white cotton shirt. “It’s okay. These things happen, there’s nothing we could do for him.”
The girl’s father reached to her with his right hand and set it on the edge of her shoulder. He let his hands rub all down her shoulder and back, trying to bring the warmth and love that she usually had back to the surface. It didn’t seem to work, and before he could even say anything his daughter bolted from her mothers grip and out of the kitchen in a wailing of tears. The mother followed as quickly as she could. “Wait honey, wait.” The father followed his wife leaving Mitsy, the black and white malamute who had found the pup, alone.
As soon as the kitchen was clear Mitsy jumped up and put her front paws on the table and pushed her nose close to the pup. She looked hopefully at the little body she had found in the forest and nuzzled it with all the love she thought she had in her body. The pup didn’t move. “Come on.” She whispered. “I know you can hear me. Don’t go.”
Tears formed in Mitsy’s eyes. Just two weeks prior she had to give her first littler of pups to their new homes and new owners. It had broken her heart to watch each one of her children being carried off. Mitsy knew that one day she would see her pups again, but she wanted so bad to keep them with her forever. And now this little starving frozen pup had been thrown into her life in the midst of her own turmoil, only to leave before she could get to know him.
Mitsy laid her head on the pup and let her tears move down her face. Hope was all she had for this pup.
Part II
The wind had picked up from just several minutes earlier and now had a hint of snow in it. A cold flavor had spiked the air, making it a little more intolerable to endure. Soon a heavy snow would fall, and by then travel would become absolutely impossible, especially when a whiteout ensued.
From the edge of a wide treeless field on the face of an unknown mountain a set of eyes scanned for possible dangers in the open terrain. He was wary about going out into the open, and if he had been traveling by himself he would have gone around without a thought to it. But now that his mate was heavy with children he couldn’t take a long detour and risk her, or the pups, health.
“Wait here.” The male, Drover, said over his shoulder to his mate and his mate’s younger brother. “I’ll signal when it’s clear.” Turning without hesitation, he moved his slim, wide chest, through some brush and out into the field.
The female, Amar, knew to trust her mate without hesitation. It was something she had learned to do over the past several weeks. He knew what would be best for her and the pups and would never put her in harms way for any reason.
Amar watched Drover move away from her and momentarily marveled as his muscular coyote body; another trait that she loved about him. Yet it wasn’t just his firm jaw, muscular legs, or beautiful black speckled brown fur that drove her nuts; it was his calm and caring voice that held her tight, that let her drop into a safe and secure sleep she had never had since being a pup.
Suddenly she shook the daydream away. Drover had made it far out into the field and stood sideways to her among some golden threads of grass which stuck up through the snow.
“That’s the signal.” Sween, Amar’s younger brother, said pushing forward. “Come on.” He said with a glance to his sister.
“Yes.” Amar pushed forward through the brush after her brother and out into the field. Oh I can’t wait until you are all out of me. She thought inside her head as if the pups inside her could hear. Walking had become one of the most horrible things on earth, and now when she should have been in a den resting up for giving birth, she was out moving around on the hunt for food.
Drover returned from the center of the field and took up a spot at his mate’s side. “Sween, lead.” He ordered as he looked at Amar. Sween pushed ahead with a boost of speed and began walking with his senses on full alert.
“Are you okay?” Drover asked quietly.
“Yes.” Amar replied with a smile. “But we won’t be able to go for many more days. I need to find a place to den.”
“I know.” Drover looked away as though he had failed his mate. “Just a few more days and we’ll find food and a place to raise the pups until summer. I promise”
Amar smiled at her mate. She knew that he wouldn’t let her children go hungry no matter what happened.
They continued on across the field, occasionally glancing towards the sky which began to fill with snow and turn grey. At the other edge of the field they ducked down into a thicket to rest for a moment.
Amar looked tired from the small stint of walking. She breathed and panted like she had been chasing a rabbit through thick brush and deep snow. Her younger brother looked hopefully at her. “Will it be soon?”
She breathed sharply, feeling a little pressure against her insides. “I hope they won’t want to come out before I have time to find a den.” She glanced at Drover, then the snow.
Drover could see his mate’s look of pain and worry in her pitiful stance and sick look. He would have done anything if he could have taken all the pain and worry from her. Yet he knew that her pain was caused by him and his stupidity in thinking that he could find a better place to raise his pups. It was his fault that they were out here in the cold and snow. If only he had listened to her original worry about the lack of food and a den site out in this country they would be safely settled and ready for the pups, but no.
Drover shook his head and came back to reality. His mate was looking deeply at him and had caught him deep in thought. “Are you worried?” She asked point-blank.
“No.” Drover grinned. “No, just excited to be a father is all … we should get moving.” He turned away and began to walk; Sween followed almost at his side. Then Drover stopped cold after several feet and turned to look at his mate.
Amar still sat where she had been, only now she breathed in deep breathes and scrunched her face in horrible pain. Her front legs shook violently and her entire body looked ridged and still. A groan, the likes of an animal in the throws of death sent a horrible shock up Sween and Drover’s spines, sedning them bolting to her side.
“What’s wrong?” Sween asked.
“Is it time?” Drover said looking into his mates face at near point blank range. She barely managed to return a painful groan of approval.
Drover looked straight at Sween and drove a look of need into him. Sween turned in an instant. “I’m going to find a den.” And he bolted away through the brush and out of sight.
“Don’t worry, just lie down and breathe.” Drover tried to calm his mate who looked to be absolutely terrified. “Don’t worry Sween went find a den site, he’ll be back soon just relax, relax, relax.”
Part III
Drover suddenly snapped back awake. He had drifted off for the hundredth time in his constant vigil over the nearby “den” where his mate was giving birth - and had been giving birth - for the past several hours. Drover shook his head to get the sleep out of him and looked over at the entrance to the den. Nothing moved, and nothing spoke of life. He looked away with an ashamed look again.
The den was in no way a proper place to give birth, especially for my children, Drover thought to himself as he thought of the den. At some point a tree had fallen flat on the ground near the edge of a very small clearing where Drover now sat. Then at some other point another tree fell almost parallel to the first from the opposite direction, making a small hole where a creature could sleep or pass a storm in. But the ‘hole’ was so small his mate could hardly lay on her side or sit up inside; and a drafty breeze flowed so quickly and abhorrently through the den, that if Amar had give birth on the snow it would have hardly been any different.
Drover sat for a long moment, and before he knew it he had closed his eyes and tried to drift off to sleep again. He shook his head violently. “Stay awake.” He ordered himself. “Stay awake.” He said again more gentle. It’s got to be any moment now, any moment, He thought. Any moment I will get to see my kids.
Several times already he had bolted upright and stood stiff after hearing what he though were his children squeaking. The first time he neared the den to see if he could see anything, but Amar quickly growled; and in a voice that Drover would never mess with she told him to “GET BACK!!!!!” He hadn’t approached the den since, but stood still and waited after every time he heard a squeal which he was sure was his children.
Drover snapped awake again, but this time it was because someone was coming towards him through the snow. Sween slowly walked towards him and gave a look of hope. He took up a spot at Drover’s side looking at the den entrance. “Have you heard anything?” He said sitting down.
“No.” Drover replied quietly. “What about you, see anything?”
Sween shook his head a positive no. “There doesn’t seem to be anything around. I don’t even see tracks of animals, not even a mouse or a squirrel, and I went at least three or four valleys over.”
The answer wasn’t one Drover had wanted to hear, although he knew that it would be the one he’d get. They were all hungry, no, hungry didn’t cut it, they were starving. In the last three weeks Drover had subsisted on one squirrel and some slivers of meat he had stole off a dead moose. The same had gone for Sween whose ribs stuck through his winter coat like a stick in the ice. Most all the food they found went to Amar and the young ones she carried. Nothing else mattered in Drover’s mind, for he knew that one day they would strike food and they would all eat well.
“Drover.” Sween said quietly. “I need to tell you something else.”
Drover turned his head. “What?”
“I did see some sign while I was out there, but …”
Drover pushed his head a little closer, fear and excitement both held to his face. “But?”
“But it was of human. I could see the footprints clearly in the snow. I followed his tracks to a cabin. He’s not far from here.”
Drover leaned back on his haunches, contemplating this over. Humans meant that there would be food, and that there is food somewhere. But humans also hunted coyotes and didn’t take kindly to them. “We will have to be careful and keep our eyes open for traps. But let’s not tell this to Amar right now. Agreed?”
“Yeah.”
The two of them remained silent for several long minutes. Drover began to close his eyes and drift into an unwanted sleep again. Sween on the other paw had got some sleep while his sister was giving birth through the night. Fortunately it hadn’t snowed during that time, and the cold that they were all sure about didn’t come either. This would be good for the young pups. Although the sky had turned grey, and the sun didn’t look as though it would appear, it seemed to be a good day for their birth.
Sween just started to curl himself around and find a comfortable spot on the snow to sleep when he heard Amar speak up. “Drover?” She called with a whispered hush.
Drover snapped to his paws and looked at his mate who sat in front of the den in exhausted repose. Steam floated from her mouth as thick as the clouds, and her eyes looked far and detached from her body. She looked as though she had become sick, deathly sick, and remained just a step away from collapsing into a coma. Yet she still managed to crawl from her bed and introduce her mate to their children. “There here.” She said simply.
In all his excitement for this moment Drover had never really pictured it in his mind. He slowly walked forward; eye’s skipping between his mate and the den, searching for the pups and the pleased look from his mate. “Are they named?” Drover asked just as he reached Amar; his eyes flashed into the darkness of the den, then back to her.
“No, not yet.” Amar replied. She could see her mate’s fear and excitement for the life that now existed in the den. “Go on. They’re sleeping now.”
Drover smiled and looked over his shoulder at Sween who smiled. He then got down on his belly and began to squeeze himself into the den. The opening barely accommodated Drover’s wide shoulders; but after some pushing and finagling, he managed to push back another three feet. Even though the den had holes all over and he could feel a cold breath on his face, the inside was dark as a cave and three times as scary for the room he had. Then he felt it touch his nose and it made him jump slightly, a soft and furry body that moved just in front of his eyes. If he hadn’t been so close to the ground he would have stepped on them for sure. He touched it with his nose again, only lighter this time, and the little pup squealed to life and began to scramble around. Soon Drover could see more of them, two more, no three, wait there were five of them, all bundled together on a bare spot of ground that Amar had cleared away. They were beautiful and helpless in this stage of life.
“Hello.” Drover whispered. “I’m your dad.”
The pups didn’t understand him; but they could feel the warmth and love in his voice and began to migrate towards his chest. Some searched for a place to suckle, others just curled up against his warm fur. Drover couldn’t help but let his tears flow down his face. He set his head very gently on top of them, and smiled.
Part IV
The snowshoe hare barely let a whisker move on his face; for he knew that a hungry gaze was upon him. Scanning around with his charcoal eyes through the thick willow forest he called his home there didn’t seem to be any particular shape in the snowy terrain around to worry him. No wolf, no lynx, and no coyote, there was nothing to worry about except his worrisome self. Yet he knew that something watched him with delight.
Drover’s jaws salivated without control. The rabbit looked plump with meat and fat, a round ball of goodness sitting just feet in front of his face. It had taken nearly two hours of stalking to get this close and he wanted nothing more than to pounce; but Drover knew that one false step in greed could ruin the hunt even at this point.
The rabbit seemed to calm down and relax as he shifted his feet under his body and puffed his fur out.
This was it, Drover knew it, strike now, he thought.
Drover flew forward with an explosive power that extended from all his paws to the tips of his yellow salivated teeth. His body soared through two willow branches and straight for the rabbit.
Panic hit the rabbit like a bullet. He flew to the left, his heart fluttering to life for life. And with a metallic click of empty teeth, the rabbit escaped with the hot breath of lust on his back and cold breeze of life on his face.
Fur clogged Drover’s lips and mouth as he chewed at what he thought was a rabbit. He opened his eyes and looked at his plump meal bolting down over the edge of a riverbank and into nothing more than memory. Drover spit the fur out and took a moment to sit in the snow and sulk over the lost meal.
It had taken him a whole day of hunting to get just one chance at a rabbit, and like a fool he had blown it; or worse the rabbit had known about Drover the entire time and just toyed him in close enough for a taste. Drover looked briefly at the sky. It was growing dark and chill breeze began to blow. Tonight would be a cold and hungry night. Maybe Sween had more luck than me; thought Drover as he stood and began his march back towards the den empty jawed.
The distance passed quickly, three rivers, two valleys, and one high round tree-barren hilltop. Drover moved towards the den with his head hung in silent repose. Sween looked to be nowhere in sight, and Drover hopped for a moment that fortune had come on him.
Amar crawled from the den at the sound of approaching feet. She looked upon her mate who lowered his head and looked away. The look told Amar everything. “Don’t worry.” She cooed. “It’ll be okay.”
“But what if it’s not?” Drover sat abruptly.
Amar breathed hard and glanced once into the den at her pups in their pile of warmth. They would be fine for just a moment. She stepped out away from the den, the farthest she had gone since their birth, and walked straight towards her mate.
Drover looked at Amar and felt even worse about missing the rabbit. Since giving birth Amar had lost most all her weight, due to recovery from labor and nursing the pups. Her ribs stuck to the flesh of her sides like the bark on a tree. The fur all down along her flanks bunched up in clumps and she obviously shivered in the breeze as she sat next to Drover. Her thin body pushed up against his and she set her head on the edge of Drover’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. Everything will be alright.” She paused. “Everything will be alright.”
For a long while both of them sat in the snow thinking their position over. Drover thought of way’s he could feed his mate and pups. He thought of how much he hated himself for brining his family here, for missing the rabbit, for missing every animal he ever stalked. He wanted to lash out at something, to throw all his frustrations into a fit of destruction. Yet he knew that when he grew tired he would only be in the same place he started.
After several minutes in silence Drover watched Sween come walking through the forest with empty jaws, surrounded by an unnatural silence. Amar watched him come to and felt her hopes sink.
Sween stepped up in front of Amar and Drover, shaking his head and sitting down. “Nothing … I didn’t even see anything.” He looked down in disappointment. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Amar said simply. “It’s okay Sween.” She stepped away from her mate and gave Sween a sweet nuzzle that said she loved him for trying. “Everything will be fine.”
Amar dropped her head and walked back towards the den under a hue of depression. She dropped down onto her belly and crawled into the dark hole, leaving Sween and Drover standing in front of each other.
Sween suddenly moved to Drover’s side with a quick elegance and spoke in a low tone. “I figured I should tell you about what I saw in private, so she doesn’t get scared.”
Drover turned his head. “What?”
“I saw food. Lots of food.”
“Where?” Drover snapped in a tone louder than a whisper. He looked at the den, then back at Sween when he figured Amar hadn’t heard. “Where?”
Sween breathed. “The humans.”
“No.” Drover stood and began to pace, not bothering to whisper anymore. “We can’t do that.” A moment of disgust filled his eyes; disgust at Sween for even mentioning the idea. Both of them knew very well that if the humans caught them stealing meat, they would be shot. And if they managed to escape, then there was the danger that the human would track them back to the den. “No.” Drover finished his thought. “We’re not going to do it. It’s just too dangerous with the pups and Amar.”
“You’re right.” Said Sween. “But it’s the only food around.” He culminated with a bitter voice.
Drover sighed “I know.” He sat near Sween.
Amar appeared from the den. She had heard her mate and brother talking rashly, and crawled once more from her pups to see what they were talking about. “What’s going on?”
Drover smiled. “Nothing dear. We’re just talking amongst ourselves. Why don’t you go back keep the pups warm. We’re just talking is all.”
“Okay.” She said submissively, all the while knowing that they were planning something dangerous that they feared she would negate. She turned around and crawled once again into the den. Curling around her pups, which wiggled towards her warmth, she kept her ears wide and keen for what her mate and brother were talking about but heard only muffled whispers.
Sween and Drover kept quiet for several minutes letting the air calm.
“Drover … we need food.” Sween whispered
“I know.”
Sween shifted his paws uneasily. “Amar and the pups need it most, and we’re not going to do it all the time, just this once to get us on our feet again.”
Drover mulled this over deeply for another several silent minutes while a new wind whisked the tops of the trees and dusted thin flakes of ice over their bodies. “Okay, tonight we go after Amar’s sleeping.”
Both of them shook their heads fully understanding what was about to be done.
Part V
Drover followed Sween through the dark forest, his mind ablaze with over-strung apprehension at what they were embarking on. Both of them had their senses on full alert, every snap of a twig from snow falling through the trees, every shifting and settling of hard-pack as it thumped like a boot sinking; nothing escaped them and their senses, or their imaginations.
Every few minutes they had to stop at a distant sound and wait to see what it could be, what terrors might dwell behind it. Yet every time they looked silently at each other with their original mission in mind, and continued on through the ankle deep snow, blowing darkness, and mind exhilarating cold.
Neither of them dared speak to the other for the fear that something might hear them. Both of them wanted to speak, wanted their fears calmed by the other and let a false security fall over them like a blanket. However they kept themselves silent to the point that the voices deep in their heads whispered, and only when it was safe.
After another several minutes, and three more stop to listen to the noise, they came across a deep gouge in the snow. It ran parallel with the river for several hundred feet before dropping down and crossing to the other side.
Sween stood still as he looked at the tracks, listening upstream and down. Drover stepped to his side and did the same, taking a long breath of the air through his nose at the same time. An overpowering smell came from the trail and it smelled like nothing either of them really wanted to tangle with, dogs. Dogs were the human’s security alarm, they would bark and yell and taunt them until shots rang out after Sween and Drover as they ran for their lives.
Drover looked at Sween who stared back with unyielding eyes. They stepped forward at the same time onto the trail and continued upstream with even more trepidation.
The cabin sat square and squat with low walls and a low pitched roof. Rusty tin covered the entire building and a small tin porch stuck out over the only door to the building that faced the river. On top of the building a small cylinder expelled chalk colored smoke high into the night sky and stars. Around behind the cabin, away from the river, a cage built against the back wall held several small puppies in a single little log doghouse; and behind the cage a field of doghouses extended away into the trees, each one containing a sleeping alarm. There was only one window on the entire cabin and it looked black and void of life.
Drover and Sween had made sure to examine everything as they snuck in close to the camp through the trees and snow. They moved side by side, slinking low to the snow and using the trees for cover as they hop-scotched along.
Sween made the first move towards the log catch, a small building built up on stilts several feet to the downstream side of the cabin. Drover followed him to the handmade log ladder which ascended up to a door. One of the nearby dogs snuffed when a flake of snow flew up his nose. Both Sween and Drover froze solid looking at the black dog which licked his chops and set his paw over his eyes.
Mutely they sighed and looked at each other. Sween quickly moved up the ladder in the kind of awkward finesse that only a dog can accomplish. Reaching the top he bit at a string which held to a handle on the door. The door opened and picked up speed. It swung suddenly, faster than Sween had thought it would, and banged into the side of the logs sending a resounding thud through the forest.
Both shuddered and tucked their heads down into their shoulders. Nothing moved and nothing happened. Drover lifted his head from his shoulder and looked over through the forest with a single eye at the many sleeping forms in the many little houses. Like some stroke of luck none of them moved and only a distant grunt beheld any life.
Drover looked straight at Sween who shrugged his shoulders indifferently and pulled himself into the little building. For a moment Drover stood alone with his right paw on the bottom rung of the ladder impatiently looking up, and occasionally over at the dogs.
All of the sudden the entire leg of a moose landed behind Drover with a thump, causing him to jump wildly and make a bolt for the forest before stopping nearly two dozen feet away. Meat, more meat than he had ever seen in one place at one time more than a couple times. He crawled back towards the food, his eyes still on the cabin window and the dogs.
Another leg suddenly dropped into the snow next to the first, and with it came Sween carefully plodding sideways down the ladder. Reaching the bottom he looked around and caught Drover sneaking back towards him. Sween smiled at the amount of food he had procured and Drover smiled back.
Then they both picked up, or rather took hold and began to drag the two pieces of meat back down the trail and into the woods.
Part VI
Amar awoke quiet suddenly, banging her head on the log ceiling above. She squinted at the pain which ran down her back and involuntarily released her gleaming white teeth and a seethed breath of pain. “Oh.” She moaned in pain. “That hurt.”
For several seconds she sat still, barely breathing, trying to figure out what woke her with such a start. Everything seemed quite, and the light coming from the entrance of the den looked bright and inviting.
Amar pushed herself to her feet. One of the pups who had been close to her body squealed at the sudden burst of cold and Amar worried that he might wake the others. He quieted down just as fast as he had spoke up and curled his blind little face around into his brothers and sisters and dozed off again. Amar grinned, then stepped over her baby’s and slid out of the den.
She bumped nose first into it, and it shocked her almost back into the den. “Meat!!” She yelped. Before she could even look at her mate who stood in front of her she threw her jaws into the frozen slab and grinded some small slivers away and began to suck them down without even chewing.
“Like you said,” Drover grinned at his mate with a loving stance. “Everything would be just fine.”
Amar grinned before diving into the meat again and grinding away with her sharp white teeth which flooded with saliva. “What about you?” She said coming up and chewing some slivers. “And Sween?”
Drover shook his head and made a quick motion over his shoulder where Sween chewed at an equally sized piece of meat like a puppy with a new toy. “We have our own. This is for you and the pups”
And it was at that moment that Drover thought, and truly believed deep down in his heart, that everything would be okay. He grinned at his mate. “We’re just fine.”
Part VII
Everything just seemed to fall into place. The meat lasted all of them for nearly an entire week, and in that week it had been nothing but pure bliss; they didn’t need or care much to hunt, even though they continued looking for food and didn’t find any. Amar began to get her shape back. Her ribs no longer stuck out and her face began to look fuller and vibrant with life. Her pups also began to grow, and even began to speak a little, nothing more than imperceptive mumblings, but it was a form of talking none the less.
Though when the meat ran out and only two large bones scattered about marked the meat they once had, things began to drift downhill again. Hunting became more prominent in the day’s ritual. Every morning before the sun rose Drover and Sween would head out, sometimes traveling for thirty miles before returning back late after the sun set with nothing to show for their effort. Amar would crawl to the mouth of the den to watch the returning hunters and make as good a greeting as she could. Though it seemed very empty and cold each and every time.
More hungry days past and more cold nights came. The skin on Amar’s body began to look sickly and thin again. Drover and Sween began to match her, and even came to a point where they might have passed her. The thought began to cross their minds again, the thought of the stilted cabin full of meat and how easy it would be to take it.
“Drover, I don’t think we can continue.” Sween whispered directly into Drovers ear. Both of them lay as close as they could together to share what little warmth they had in the dark night. “I think we might have to steal from the human again and possibly again if we are to make it until summer.”
“I’m afraid we may have to to.” Drover replied. He raised his head and glanced over at the den just a few feet away. “We’ll go tomorrow night, it will be better.”
Sween shifted uneasily. “But I’m hungry now and it’s the perfect time if we leave now.”
Drover shot Sween an irritated glance but he didn’t see it in the dark. “I said tomorrow. Right now I just need some rest and you need some rest too.”
Drover curled his head down around under his body until he was in as small a shape as he could get and the warmth he had seemed to increase dramatically. It took him just seconds to slip into sleep, especially after another long a fruitless day of hunting. Meanwhile Sween vanished into the trees.
Drover’s eyes fluttered open in the early morning light. For a long while he continued lying in the same position he had fallen asleep in, soaking in how great the morning felt and how warmth seemed to be squandered on his body when it should have been going to something more useful. He could have been out hunting, or helping keep the pups warm until tonight when he would go get some food. It just felt very wasteful.
Rolling over and coming to an upright position, Drover looked for Sween. The little clearing was empty, and an assortment of different paw prints coming and going didn’t point in any one direction he might have wandered. Drover stood up and walked to the den where he pushed himself into the dark opening.
Amar lay on her side stuffed up against the very back part of the den. The pups all lay in a pile at her stomach. Drover smiled and exhaled with sharpened love. It was love for his mate and just how beautiful she looked guarding over the pups.
Almost at the exact time that Drover was thinking of how much he loved Amar; Amar opened her eyes. She opened them slow and look straight at Drover, then closed them again to rest just a little longer.
“Have you seen Sween this morning?” Drover whispered tenderly.
Amar shook her head. “No, he’s probably around somewhere.”
Drover scowled displeased, then crawled backwards out of the den and began to walk into the trees to relieve himself and take a look around for Sween. It was then, just as he began to raise his leg to a group of trees, that he heard a distant sound which caught his ears like a pair of pliers. He dropped his leg and like a bolt ran into the forest towards the sound of very distant gunshots.
As the rest of this story is not allowed on this forum I cannot put it all up. But if you like the story so far, and want to find out what happens next, you can read it in all it's entierty in the following link.
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3419735/1/
