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. I didn't know how they separated into groups, or hunted. I didn't know anything.

And so, when I found Leaf, I explained this to her. She looked at me as if I were some kind of looney, though. "Dusty, this wolf belongs to a pack." She said to me. "A pack?" I muttered. I was majorly confused. "Yah," she replied, "packs are what wolves live in. Just like how deer live in herds, and ants live in colonies. It's their lifestyle. I used to live in a pack, before my parents and I migrated."

"Why did you migrate?" I asked.

"We never liked the pack lifestyle. I guess you could say we were 'nonsocial'."

I scratched behind my ear as Kavik aproached with a rabbit locked in his jaws. He laid it down in a pile of two rabbits to add on and make it three. "So," he said panting, lying down. He had obviously not captured his breath yet. "what's new?"

"Dusty met a member of a pack." Leaf explained. Kavik was confused too. "What's a pack?"

Leaf had obviously forgot that my brother and I were kin. Leaf obviously wasn't in the mood to tell explain it again, and she simply lay down and put her head on her paws Kavik cocked his head to the left in confusion, but didn't ask anymore questions.

That night, I decided that I was tired of contantly being curious about this so called "pack". I got up and walked to the point where I had chased the rabbit and saw the gray wolf. I sniffed. His scent hung in the air, but not for long. The air was musty and moist- rain was coming. I was going to have to hurry in order to find the pack.

I followed his scent to a small opening in a large bramble bush. I sniffed. He had gone through it. I went through it. It led to a leafy green clearing with dens made of stone. "This must be their camp..." I whispered to myself. Nothing was stirring, but the scent of combined wolves hung in the air. I could no longer detect the gray wolf's divided scent.

I went to the nearest den- the largest one, and peaked inside. It was dark. Really dark. I stared in. One ice blue eye shimmered in the darkness- then another. A wolf was staring at me.

Growling came from the wolf, and the moon reflected off of shining white fangs. I gasped, and backed up. Out pounced a snow white female wolf. I was stunned. I stared into her angry ice blue gaze, which soon turned confused. She stopped growling as wolves clambered out of their dens.

I was surrounded. I pinned my ears to my neck- not in anger, though- in fear.

"Who are you?" Asked the white wolf. But I didn't answer. I suddenly spotted an opening between one orange wolf and one white one. I fled.

Nothing chased me, which I was thankful for. They frightened me, that pack. I told myself never to go back there again.

When I reached my den once again that night, I didn't sleep anymore. I couldn't. I just laid there, terrified, all night long. Eventually, Leaf woke up and asked what the heck was wrong with me. I told her about my encounter.

"Are you nuts?" she growled at me, "Those wolves could've ripped you apart!"

"I realize that," I told her, "Then why did you do it?" she asked, "Because, I was curious. Wouldn't you be, if you saw this wolf that you had never seen before? Wouldn't you want to learn more about it? Where it came from?"

"Um, no!" she retorted. I huffed. "Well, you didn't grow up like I did, in quarintine."

"Whatever. We're going to have to leave here tommorow anyways. We weren't planning on staying here forever." Leaf put her head back on her paws and went back to sleep.

The news that we were leaving half relieved me, half dissapointed me. I wanted to figure out more about those wolves, and pack. And though I had vowed never to go there again, I wasn't sure if I could or not. What about that one wolf that I had run into? He seemed nice. For sure they weren't all vicious? Maybe it was just the nightime, and the fright that I had given them. I would be vicious too if some random wolf just walked up to me and poked their nose in my face.

 So, the next day, I got Leaf and Kavik to come with me to the Pack. When we came to the clearing, they were much, much less fierce they accepted us with open paws, and automatically added us to the Pack. We weren't planning on joining, but it was the perfect opportunity to join a pack.

The Split Up

And so, Kavik, Leaf and I grew up to be older, until Leaf and I were three and Kavik was two in the Pack. I became a fighter and prey-stocker in the Pack, Kavik became a fighter, and Leaf became a prey-stocker and fighter just like me. We were loyal to our Pack, and we quite liked it, those one year that we were with them. But then, there was a tradgedy. There was a flood. Leaf, Kavik, Polar, Clara and I were all out hunting together, when we noticed the flood starting. We got up on a hill, and, when we could come back to camp...

Everyone was gone.

The on thing that our Pack was not good at was swimming... And, with the leafy barrier around it, the camp flooded. No bodies were in the clearing, but we never saw any of the wolves again, accept one. Rustle, the wolf that I had saw on our first few days by the bay, that I ran into while hunting, and got me curious about the Pack. We joined together, and decided that we  couldn't stay any longer. The clouds in the sky were still dark gray, promissing more rain. We had to get out of there, and fast.

So we ran. We ran and ran and ran until we wee on an open moor. So, we stopped running. There were plenty of hills here, and in the distance, there was another tiny town. We began walking again, the six of us. We reached the town eventually, and slept there that night.

In the morning, though, there was sniffing, and wetness running up and down my pelt. I jumped up quickly, alrmed, already wide awke. there stood a cream-colored puppy at my feet with a color with a lightning bolt. I let out relief and smiled at her. "Hey there, little guy." At first, she looked terrified, but then she stood up straight and looked me straight in the eye. "I'm a girl, excuse you!"

That woke up Rustle, kavik, Leaf and Clara. We became friends with the little puppy quickly. "What are you doing here?" she asked us all eventually. "We're just passing through," Clara told her, "We're going far away to settle, and maybe even start a new pack."

With that, she got all jumpity. "A pack? Really? can I join? Oh, please, please, please!"

I chuckled. "If you're really willing to leave your owner and travel with us, sure, why not?"

"Yaaaay!" The puppy jumped up with joy. "Well, now that I am a pack dog, help me get off this stupid collar!"

All of us took turns tugging at the collar but it just would come off. Soon, though, I discovered the problem. in the back, I was hooked together with a metal piece and a lock, and the collar was made of pure leather. It was nearly industrucktable.

 After we gave up, she told us that her name was Flash, and we left the little town. Another moor lay beyond, but in the distance, there was a black dot. "What's that?" asked Leaf. "A house?" suggested Flash. "No, it's too small." Rustle told her. The figure came closer. 'It's a wolf!" Clara informed us. We dusked down, hoping that the wolf hadn't already seen us. "Why are we ducking?" asked Flash impatiently, "We're a big, stong pack!"

"Not yet." Polar told her.

But, eventually, the figure approached us. Not angerly, not cautiously, just approached us. "Can I join, or what?" asked the black wolf. He had piercing blood redd eyes, that made me shiver. "I was exiled from my Pack for attacking a wolf who I thought was an enemy, but happened to be one of our memebers. Being a loner stinks. I'm not one who likes to be lonley. By he way, my name's Scratch. I could also show you around this place. I've walked this ground for all my life, five years."

How could we put him down? "We're still traveling, so we'll need help navigating. And we're technically gathering members, so sure. Why not. Come along."

The Settling Place

We came to a place, two weeks later, on the very edge of the moor. There was a tiny little space of forest, perfect for a camp. We got to work at once. During our construction, another wolf also showed up. Her name was Cinder, and she helped us, and decided to join our pack as well.

The new camp looked almost identical to the lat. It was perfect. But what about a name? Only one was suitable. The Pack of Falling Leaves, named after the last.

"I want to be leader!" Piped up Flash, as they were picking duties for the Clan. Scratch chuckled. "How about you be a prey-stocker for now?" he suggested. "Okay!" barked Flash, satisfied to be in the Pack whatsoever.

But, who would be leader? We would need a leader, no matter what. And, it only sounded right for Leaf to be leader. She was the leader type, though she was shy and never tried to get in front of Kavik. Kavik would be a good deputy, though, so that was the way that it would be.

The final duties were:

Leaf: Leader

Kavik: Deputy

Polar: Healer

Dusty: Prey-stocker and Fighter

Flash: Prey-stocker

Scratch: Entrance Guard and Fighter

Rustle: Fighter and Prey-stocker

Cinder: Prey-Stocker and Fighter

Clara: Prey-stocker and Fighter

We had a pretty good Pack beginning, and we all had confidence that The Pack of Falling Leaves had been reborn.

Our Pack was Finally completed... But, we would soon be split up.

But, that's another story to tell. I musn't tell that one. That one is for Kavik to tell.