How it all started

-

-

-

By: Xx spaz for guitars xX

-

-

Chapter 1:
A New Family

A great black wolf lay on a big rock next to his heavily pregnant mate, a pure white wolf, who was due any day now, overlooking his entire pack. “What’s the matter dear?” The black wolf’s mate, whose name is Rya, asked him.
“It’s your parents pack. Our guards have reported seeing more and more of their scouts around our territory. I think they might of found us,” the black wolf, whose name is Reid replied.

“It’s making me uneasy, that’s why I want us to move our pack away from here as soon as the pups are born. We can't let them catch us,” he told her.
“What?! We can’t leave as soon as they’re born! They’d be too small and weak. If we did that they’d end up dying!” She said, her voice rising slightly with worry.
“You’re right.” He sighed. "Then we will leave as soon as they’re ten weeks old, ok?”
"But they will still be too young!" Rya pleaded. "I just don't want them to get hurt, or even worse, die," she continued.
"Rya, believe me i don't want any harm to come to them either, but that's the exact reason why we need to leave as soon as possible. Besides we need to think about the pack's safety as well, for if it really is your parents pack and they decided to attack us, then you know as well as i do that we'd be outnumbered 3 to 1." Reid stated.
At first she was silent. She didn’t want to say it, but she had to. She couldn’t put her pack in danger, and she also couldn't argue with her mate. “Ok”, she finally said so quietly, it was practically a whisper.

Two days later…

Reid was pacing back and forth nervously at the entrance of the den. A few hours ago Rya had complained about having pains and didn’t go with him to scan their territory of any scouts from the other pack, as well as to check in with their own scouts to see if any of them had seen anything or anyone out of the usual. When he got back he was informed that Rya had gone into labor as soon as he had left.
Reid had stopped pacing and was now sitting by the entrance, waiting and hoping that everything was going ok. A few minutes later he saw Brook (the beta wolf) step out of the den and walk towards him. “Congratulations! You are now the proud father of three fine pups!”
Reid immediately ran past Brook and into the den. He slowed his pace as he entered so he wouldn’t alarm the new pups or Rya. As he got a little farther in, he called for her.
“Rya?” he asked gently.
“Over here,” he heard her reply in an exhausted tone. He started beaming as he entered into a different chamber and saw for the first time, his new family.

He slowly padded up to Rya and her three sleeping pups that were nestled up close to her belly. "Oh Rya, im so proud of you for bringing our first three children into this world," Reid said with pure excitement evident in his voice, but with a hushed tone so as not to wake the sleeping pups.
"You better be, it wasn't easy!" Rya said sarcastically.
"Have you thought of any names?" Reid asked, chuckling lightly from hearing that his mate could still joke around even in her exhausted state.
"No. I think thats gonna half to wait a while, I'm too exhausted to try and do anything right now," Rya managed to mumble out, sleep beginning to claim her.
Reid opened his mouth and was about to object, but closed it after he saw that Rya had fallen asleep already. "Well, i guess the naming is gonna have to wait. She needs the rest anyways," Reid thought to himself, and with that thought he scooted a little closer to Rya, laid his head down next to hers, and soon was asleep as well.

Ten weeks later…

Reid and Rya were sitting on the usual rock, watching their ten week old pups play around with each other. They were wrestling each other, the biggest one always taking the win. Until they decided to gang up on him. It took a little bit, but they eventually took him down.
The biggest one was black with white on his chest, belly and the bottom of his tail, he also has a white patch over his left eye, and a white sock on his left hind leg. His name is Dante, and it is he who Reid thinks will carry on the role of alpha for the pack.
His younger brother who's name is Dustin, looks just like Dante, but he doesn’t have black fur. His is gray. However, his chest, belly and the bottom of his tail are all white as well. He also has the same patch on his eye, and sock on his hind leg, but the sock on his leg is black instead of white.
His sister, whose name is Angel, is the youngest of the three. She looks just like her mother, except she has black tipped ears, the tip of her tail is black, she has a black marking on her back, and her two middle toes on her front right paw are gray. She doesn’t have the same eye patch or sock that her brothers have.

Dustin pinned Dante to the ground and was waiting for Dante to push him off. Just as he had planned, he was thrown off of his brother.
“That all you got bro?” Dante taunted.
“Not quite…NOW!”
Dante didn’t know what was about to happen, until he saw a shadow over him that was quickly getting bigger. He tried to move out of the way, but it was already to late. WHAM!
Angel had hid in a tree and waited for the signal to jump on her brother, and it had just worked perfectly. Both Reid and Rya had seen this and were laughing at Dante being pinned by he’s younger sister.
“Kids, come inside now. Me and your father have to go lead the hunt, and Brook will be over soon to watch you,” Rya said.
“Awww…” they said in unison, with matching disappointment at having their fun come to an early end.
“But we’re having fun! Besides I just pinned Dante!” Angel complained.
“I know, I know, but we can’t just leave you out here by yourselves, your not old enough yet,” her mother replied.
“Ok…” they said, sighing. And reluctantly followed their parents into the den.

“Where are they? They should’ve been back by now,” Dante said, a hint of fear faintly evident in his voice.
“Don’t worry, I’m sure they’re just fine. They’re probably just having some trouble finding some kill,” Brook assured him.
“No, we should of heard something about how its going by now.” No sooner had he finished he’s sentence then they all heard a howl in the distance.
“What’s it say? What’s it say? Who is it? Who is it?” Angel and Dustin kept asking Dante.
“Shut up and maybe I can tell you!” Dante snapped.
“Ok, sorry” Angel mumbled under her breath.
“Come…quickly...need help…being attacked! Oh my God! It’s Dad!” Dante almost yelped.
Brook suddenly snapped to attention, having no trouble decoding the message in the howl herself, she had figured out the urgency behind it long before Dante had finished translating it to his siblings.
“You guys stay here! I’m going to help them! And what ever you do DON’T leave the den!” She told them. “No, I’m coming with you!” Dante said, determined to help with, and find out what exactly was happening.
“No your not! Your going to stay right here!” Brook said a little louder.
“No! All three of us are going with you, they’ll need all the help they can get!” Dustin said. Brook was starting to get annoyed.
“LISTEN! Your parents put me in charge of you all, and I’m not about let you go and get hurt out there! Now I want all of you to STAY HERE! Do you under stand?!” she yelled, authority clear in her voice.
“Yes ma’am.” They all said quietly.

20 minutes later…

“Aaagghhh! I can’t just sit here and wait for them to come home any longer! I’m going to help them!” Dante snapped, running towards the entrance of the den.
“Dante! Wait!” Dustin yelled as he and Angle ran in front of him, blocking the only way out of the den.
“GET OUT OF MY WAY!” Dante yelled at them angrily.
“NO!” Dustin yelled back.
“Dante think about what you're about to get yourself into!” Angel yelled to her brother, trying to get him to come to his senses.
“I know what I’m about to get myself into, and I don’t care! If it means saving Mom and Dad then I’ll risk my life for them! And if you really loved them, then you’d do the same thing for them!” He yelled to both of them.
“Your right…I’m going to!” Dustin said to Dante, that little fire beginning to come to his eyes that Dante had seen maybe only once or twice before.
“Well Angel, that just leaves you. Stay or go?” Dante asked his sister.
“I don’t know…” she said, not sure what she should do.
“Come on Angel, Mom and Dad need us!” Dante pleaded with her.
“Well…I guess I can’t let you two go by yourselves.” Dante and Dustin both smiled at her.
“Good, now lets go before it's too late!” Dante yelled as they took off out of the cave.

-

-

-

-

-

Chapter 2:
Tragedy

“Dante where the heck are we?!” an annoyed Angel yelled to Dante.
“I’m not sure, we’ve never been this far away from the den before!” He replied.
“Wait! I think I just heard something!” Dustin suddenly said. They all stopped and listened to everything going on around them, trying to pick up even the faintest of sounds.
“I don’t hear anything.”
“Wait, I got something!” Angel said abruptly. She had always been the one with the best hearing, marking her as a potential tracker or scout at an early age.
“What is it?” Dustin asked her.
“It sounds like a lot of growling and teeth clashing, and i can also hear some cries," She replied.
"That must be where the battles at!” Dante shouted.
“Come on, we got to go help them!” Dustin yelled, taking off in the direction that Angel had pointed out.

They all burst through some undergrowth, and were shocked at the scene that they had stubbled upon. Wolves everywhere were fighting. At least, the ones left alive were anyway. The rest were all corpses on the ground. Blood stained almost every inch of snow around them. Chunks of bloody flesh were scattered here and there, bits of fur left in patches on some. And the smell was fowl.
But the worst shock was what they found amongst the piles of bodies.
Dante and Dustin were walking around looking for their parent’s bodies, praying to the good spirits that they wouldn't find either of them amongst the mutilated remains of both fallen enemy and friend, and being sure to stay out of site of any wolf that went by.
A sudden scream pierced the air.
“That was Angel!” Dustin yelled, worry obvious in his voice.
“Come on!” Dante yelled to his brother, taking off in the direction it had come from.

They found her shaking and crying on a patch of snow away from the all the casualties of the battle. “Angel! What’s wrong?!” Dante asked her with a worried tone.
“O-o-v-ver th-th-there!” she managed to choke out through her tears.
“Dustin, you stay here and try to comfort Angel. I’m going to go see what she’s talking about,” Dante said.
“Ok,” Dustin replied as he walked over to Angel, laid down beside her, and began licking her head and neck, trying his best to calm her down.
Dante walked over to where Angel had said she found whatever had shaken her so badly. When he finally saw what she was talking about, he immediately threw up at the sight of it, losing everything he had had for breakfast that day and nearly breaking down into tears himself.
He decided to go get Dustin, he needed to see this too.
When he got back he was relived to see that Dustin had calmed Angel down enough to stop her shaking, but she still had some tears in her eyes.
“Dustin, I think you need to come see this,” Dante told him.
“What?! No, I’m not goin’ back there!” Angel cried out.
“Don’t worry Angel. You do need to come with us, but you don’t have to see that again.” Dante told her. She sniffled a few times and hesitantly said ok.

As they approached what Angel, and now Dante, had both seen, he told Angel to wait for them on a spot close to where they were, but where she couldn’t see the sight.
When Dustin saw what the other two had seen, his breath caught, his heart pounding against his ribs as he finally pulls in a shakey breath to cry out.
“OH MY GOD!”
Then he, too, threw up, also losing everything he had had for breakfast. Tears began to well up in his eyes.
What lay in front of them was the two cadavers of their mother and babysitter Brook.
What had made them both throw up was that their mothers side had been torn wide open, and you could see all the organs inside. Some were even spilled onto the ground. And on Brook, their babysitter and best friend, her head was twisted into a very odd angle, her neck very obviously to them all had been broken in a most likely, very unpleasant way. The thing that upset them the most, or at least upset Dante quite largely, was blood still oozing from some several cuts and gashes that covered each of their bodies, showing that they both hadn't even been killed that long ago.
They had been too late to do anything, quite possibly even by a single minute.

“No—no--no, NOOOOO!” Dustin screamed, trying to hold back his tears with little success. Dante couldn’t take seeing his brother this way. It was enough to make him burst into tears along with him, even though he already had tears falling from his face.
He went over to go try and comfort him.
“Dustin I…” Dante started, but was interrupted by him.
“It’s my fault”, he mumbled.
“What?” Dante asked, not quite catching it the first time.
“It’s my fault!” he yelled this time.
“What? No it’s not Dustin. It’s not your fault! None of us had any idea what was happening!" he paused for a moment, trying to persuade himself along with his brother that what he was saying was true. He also felt like it was own his fault that they had arrived only just in time to find their mother and beta dead on the ground. Freshly killed.
He took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh before continuing. "Look, we all die eventually, and now was just their time to go.” Dante tried to assure him, actually making himself cry a little harder with that last statement.
“But if I had been there I could have done something! I just know I could have!”
“If you had been here, you would have died too!” Dante yelled back.
“So? I don’t care. Like you said, I would’ve died for them if it might’ve saved them!” Dustin countered.
Dante didn’t know what to say after that. “And now they’re both DEAD!” Dustin screamed as he ran off into the woods. In the opposite direction of home.
“Dustin! Wait!” Dante yelled after him.
Dustin ignored him, and kept running.
"Dante! What’s the matter?! What happened?!" Angel asked running up to him, worry finding it's way into her voice. "I heard you two arguing and then you told Dustin to wait!”
Dante didn’t say anything, he just turned around and buried his head in Angel’s chest, sobbing now.

She was startled at seeing her older brother breaking down and crying into her fur. She slowly looked up from Dante in the direction Dustin had just taken and saw paw prints in the snow, leading off into the woods. She understood then after she saw the prints and sighed, then whispered to herself, "Dustin, where are you going?” She then laid her head on Dante’s and started sobbing along with him, wishing her brother would come back.

-

-

-

-

-

Chapter 3:
More Hurt

Dante and Angel were walking through the woods in the same direction Dustin had taken a little while earlier, but with no intention of finding him, they both knew that he’d be too far gone by now to go try and find him, it would be pointless. They also had no intention of going back home, considering that they thought everyone in their whole pack was dead, except Dustin and each other.
They were still upset about what had just happened a few minutes ago with him and didn’t say anything to each other for a while, until Dante finally broke the silence.
“Man I’m hungry!” he said.
“I know, I am too, but neither of us know how to hunt.” Angel pointed out.
“Well…how hard could it be?” Dante said while eyeing a few mice running around. He got into an awkward stalking stance and after watching them for a few more seconds bolted towards them. “Come here dinner!” he yelled at them.
After a few minutes of this with no success, he gave up.
It wasn’t that Dante lacked the skills to hunt, he was fast, he could make quick, sharp turns and he could sneak up on just about anything. It was just that, no one had ever taught him how to hunt the right way.

“Awww, what’s the matter? Is Dante out of breath already?” Angel teased.
“Yes!” Dante yelled back at her, panting. He then noticed that Angel had two mice trapped under her paw.
“Hey! How’d you get those?!”
“Easy,” she said simply.
“But I thought you said you didn’t know how to hunt?” Dante asked, confused.
“Yeah I know, but I lied.”
“Oooook, why?"
“To annoy you of course,” she said happily.
“Why didn’t I see that one coming?” Dante asked sarcastically, and clearly annoyed.
“Ok, ok, so you remember all those times you went to go hang out with all your friends?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, every time you weren’t around me and Dad went out to the hunting grounds and he gave me lessons,” she explained.
“Well, do you think you could pass along some of those lessons?”
“Sure, BUT you have do something for me first.”
“Fine, what is it?” he asked dryly.
“A simple little task, all you have to do is admit that I’m the best, and I’ll give you some lessons,” she said.
“No. Way. Ain’t gunna happen,” he said defiantly.
“Kay, I guess you can go ahead and starve then,” she said with a sly smile parting her lips slightly.
“Ok! I’ll do it!” he said finally giving in after his stomach growled in protest.
“I’m waiting,” she said, egging him on.
“You’re the best,” he mumbled.
“I’m sorry, what?” she asked, actually hearing him the first time but just wanting to make it hard for him.
“You’re the best, Ok!” he yelled at her.
She giggled,“I know.”
“Now, about those lessons,” he reminded her.
“Right, come over here,” she said as she walked over to the field with all the mice in it.

“Alrighty, I’m going to give you the crash-course in hunting. First I want you to get into a stalking stance like mine,” she told him.
“Like this?” he asked her, getting back into his akward stance but trying to correct it after seeing her's. “Close enough. Now I want you to pick a target, and wait for it to come close,” she instructed.
“Alright, got one,” he told her, anxious for what to do next.
“Now i want you to lower yourself to the ground, but keep your stance, and don’t make a sound,” she instructed further.
“Alright,” he waited for it to come close enough to ensure a good catch.
“Now…go for it!” she yelled, quietly enough though to not startle the mouse.
“Heeyaaaa!” he yelled out as he gave chase. At first he was losing his prey, but gradually caught up to it.
“I got you now!” he yelled as he made a leap for it. When he landed, he opened his paws to find a pretty big rat between them. He smiled and yelled to Angel, “I got him! I got him!”
“Not bad for your first real try!”
He laughed and picked up the rat in his teeth and carried it back to where Angel was.
“Here, you can have this one. Now that I know how to hunt the right way, I want to catch more,” he said. “No thanks, I’m full, I caught two more while you were tryin’ to catch that one,” she told him.
“Are you serious?! God your good at this!”
“Yeah well, I’ve had practice.”
He quickly ate the one he caught, and went back out for some more. The whole time he was hunting, Angel was watching.
‘Man, he’s good at this! He’s picking this up much faster then I did! Its no wonder why Dad wanted him as the next alpha,’ she thought to herself.
She was awakened from her thoughts by Dante waving his paw infront of her face.
“Hello? Anybody home?” he asked sarcastically.
“Huh, what, what did you say?” she asked a little startled.
“Well I was just sayin’ that we should probably find some shelter soon. It’s startin’ to get dark,” he told her while looking up to the darkening sky.
“Oh, ok yeah, sounds good. Lead the way.” she also looked up to the sky as she got up to follow him along with a new objective in both of their minds, find shelter.

15 minutes later…

“Dante! I don’t think we’re goin’ to find anything out here! And it’s starting to get darker!” she told him. “Hold on, I think I see something up ahead,” he replied back to her. As they got closer, the image started getting clearer through the lightly falling snow.
“It’s a cave!” Dante shouted to Angel. They took off running full speed towards it, but stopped at the entrance of it.
“Do you think it’s already taken?” Angel asked Dante.
“Yeah, it is, and by a bear,” He told her, sniffing the entrance to the cave. Angel gasped. “Don’t worry! It hasn’t been here in a long time. Probably abandoned it,” Dante assured her.
“Well, as long as nothing else lives here, then ok.”

5 minutes later…

Dante and Angel were curled next to each other in the back of the cave, trying to get away from the biting cold outside. A blizzard was starting to blow in and was making the temperature drop fast.
“Hey Angel?” Dante asked.
“Yeah?” she replied.
“Do you--do you think that dad is still alive?” he asked her.
“I have know idea Dante,” she responded truthfully.
“But we didn’t find his body anywhere, which means that maybe he isn’t dead,” he told her with some hope in his voice.
“Yeah but we didn’t exactly look around very long either,” Angel pointed out.
“Oh, right…” the hope in his voice disappearing just as quickly as it had come.
“Look all I’m saying is, don’t go and believe that right away. Maybe he is and maybe he isn’t, but it could just lead to disappointment.”
"Well do you think that at least some of our pack is still alive?” he asked.
“I wouldn’t doubt it, but like I said, don’t get your hopes up just yet,” she told him. Dante just lay there thinking about everything that had happened today after that question. Thinking about how happy everybody was just a few hours ago, and how quickly everything had been torn apart to end up like this. About why exactly Dustin ran off and if he was ok. If his father was truely still alive or not. But most importantly, about what the future held for him and Angel. And many other things.
“Hey Angel?” he asked.
No response.
“Angel?” he asked a little louder.
Still no response.
He looked over at her and heard light snoring coming from her and he knew instantly that she had fallen asleep. He smiled at her and laid his head back down to try and follow her lead.

Dante was almost asleep when he was awakened by what sounded like heavy footsteps. At first he didn’t think much of it and thought it was simply his imagination, a lot had happened today after all, but a few minutes later he heard it again and it sounded a little closer than before.
This time he got up to go check out what could possibly be making that sound, if anything actually was. He stuck his head out of the entrance to see if his eyes could pick up anything and was surprised by how much colder it had gotten.
He was about to go back inside when he heard the sound again, even closer this time. Dante spun around and looked around everywhere. This time though he thought he saw something but he couldn’t tell exactly. If there was something there then he couldn’t make it out, because it was hidden behind a fairly large tree.
He was about to go check it out, but one step outside told him otherwise. It was too cold to go find out if anything was out there. He turned to go back in but after only a few steps he felt hot breath on the back of his neck.
He froze.
He didn’t know what to do, should he look and see what it is or should he stand still and hope nothing happens. He finally got up enough courage to turn and look. After he saw what it was he wished he hadn’t.
He came face to face with a Kodiak bear.
He noticed that it wasn’t very old but that didn’t matter much, it was still about 4x his size, and it didn’t look too happy.
The bear reared up and let out a loud roar, slashing at Dante’s face, but he managed to dodge the attack and run to the back of the cave.

“Angel! Get up! We've got company!” Dante yelled to her.
“Huh-who-what-where?” she woke up startled.
“Angel we’ve got to get out of here!” he told her franticly.
“Why?! What happened?!” she asked confused.
“That!” he yelled staring at the bear who was now in the back of the cave.
“OH MY GOD!” Angel cried out.
The bear reared up again and turned its attention on Angel.
“No! Angel run!” Dante shouted to her, but the bear wouldn’t let her past.
“I can’t, the bears in the way!” she yelled back. The bear swiped for Angel’s chest, but she was able to dodge it at the last second.
“Damn it! Well then it looks like theirs only one way to get out of here then!”
“Dante your not serious!” Angel said in disbelief.
“You got a better idea?” he asked while trying to dodge another swipe from the bears claws.
“Well…no”
“Then we’ve got no other choice,” he said and jumped at the bears neck.

The bear easily knocked him aside and into a wall. Dante fell unconscious as soon as he connected with it.
“Dante! No!” Angel yelled to her fallen brother. Anger and adrenaline now coursing through her veins, she dodged one of the bears paws and went to go for the throat but she didn’t see the other one coming until it was too late. She was hurled back with a nasty gash on her shoulder, but the adrenaline kept her from feeling pain so she went in for another charge and managed to get a good hold on the bear’s ankle.
Dante slowly began to regain consciousness and as soon as he saw what was happening he jumped into the fight.
He attacked with more caution this time and with the help of a rock managed to get a hold of the bear’s neck. He tried to find the jugular so he could pierce it, but the bear was flailing around too much.
“Angel!” he yelled through the bear’s fur. “Find the big tendon on the heel and sever it!” Even though it was hard with the bear moving around trying to get them both off, Angel did as she was told.
It took her a little while to find it but once she did she bit down as hard as she could. She tasted blood in her mouth as she bit down harder and harder, finally severing the bear’s achilles heel. The bear roared in pain and fell to the ground making Dante smack into the ground along with it and lose his grip.
He quickly got back up and went for the bear’s neck again but with the bear flailing around at feeling helpless on the ground he couldn’t get to it. He sunk his teeth into the bears arm instead, hoping that he could at least restrain it a little.

“Angel! Quick! You’ve got to sever the jugular now!” he told her past the fur in his mouth once again.
“But,” she was about to protest.
“Don’t argue with me just do it! I can’t hold on much longer!” he yelled to her trying desperately to keep his grip on the bear.
Angel knew if she didn’t listen to her brother then they’d both end up dead, so she did as she was told. Even on the ground and with Dante biting into it’s arm, the bear put up a fight. Angel almost got slashed three times trying to reach the bears neck and one of those times could’ve been fatal, but she managed to get to the bear’s neck with nothing more than a few minor scratches.
She had to bite down even harder for the jugular, but once again she finally managed to sever it and she didn’t let go until she was sure it was dead. After she felt the violent dying tremble throughout the bear’s body, she dropped its neck on the ground and starred at it.
“We-we actually killed a bear. Just you and me,” she said in a mix of amazement and disbelief.
“Well, yeah. I mean its not like it was very old,” Dante replied while panting.
“Yeah but it still could’ve easily killed us,” she said. Just then they both heard a roar that sounded much like the bear's they had just killed, only louder and more blood chilling.
“We’ve got to get out of here!” Dante said quickly as soon as the roaring stopped.
“Are you crazy?! We’ll never survive out there in that blizzard!” Dante looked her in the eyes.
“Look! Would you rather go out there and have a chance of survival or stay here and face that bear’s mother?!” Dante asked his sister.
After hearing another roar Angel decided against staying in the cave.

“Dante! We need to find some shelter somewhere! The blizzards picking up!”
Angel yelled to her brother through the roaring wind and snow whipping by her.
“I know, but its not really all that easy to spot anything through all this snow!” Dante yelled back. He was struggling against the snow and wind of the blizzard, the fridged temperature of being out in this raging snow storm really not helping to move him along any faster either. He wasn't sure how much longer either of them would be able to stay out in this torrent of snow and wind and was beginning to think of just simply digging themselves a make shift cave in the snow, he knew however that with their small size and with it being in the middle of a blizzard, it had maybe at best a 50-50 chance of keeping them warm enough to see the light of the next day.
“Hey, how you holdin’ up?” he shouted to his sister, trying to be heard over the wind.
“I’m fine!” she assured him. In truth it was exactly the opposite. The wound she had gotten from the bear had hardened and was now infected and every time she put weight on it, it sent a fire down her entire leg. She didn’t want Dante to know that though because she feared if she told him that he’d be distracted from finding shelter for the two of them.

‘I can’t take going on like this much longer!’ she thought to herself.
“Hey Angel! I think I see something up ahead!” he yelled to his sister, racing off through the snow in the direction of what he’d spotted. In his excitement, he failed to notice that Angel wasn’t behind him any more.
As Dante got closer to what he had spotted it became clearer. It was another cave, smaller than the last one but just big enough for him and Angel to stay in. As he reached the entrance to it, he slowed his pace to sniff it. He was relieved to find no other animals scent on it. He walked inside and plopped down on the floor of the cave, exhausted.
“Angel, Angel—we—made it,” he said in between pants. When he realized that his was the only panting he could hear, he started to get a little worried. He got up and spun around.
Panic raced through him.
Where Angel should have been was nothing but cold air.
He ran back outside, “Angel! Angel where are you?!” he screamed. He looked at the ground. The snow was covering his tracks fast. He only had a little time to go find her or he would be lost in the blizzard too.

“Angel! Angel!” Dante yelled continuously. “Damn this weather!” he cursed under his breath. He had been searching for his sister for about five minutes, but to no avail. “No, no, no!” he started yelling as he saw that the tracks were almost completely covered by the snow.
He now had to make a huge choice. Either continue looking for his sister in this blizzard and almost certainly die trying, or go back and save his life and hope that some how Angel would be ok. He thought about it only for another minute or so because the tracks were disappearing quickly before he turned around, looked back, and quietly said, “I’m sorry,” and started off back to the cave, head slunk to the ground, hot tears dripping from his eyes, his heart torn in half again.


                                                                                                   -

                                                                           -

                                                                           -

                                                                           -

Chapter 4:
A New Hope

Dante was depressed for the next couple days that passed. Not just because of what happened to Angel, but because of what happened to all his family. He didn’t have anyone now, he was all alone. He didn’t stay in the cave too long because it only reminded him of what happened to Angel now. So as soon as the blizzard let up, he decided to move on, find a new place to call his own far from his old home and the cave.
As he was walking through the woods he suddenly heard his stomach growl and realized he had not eaten anything since the field full of mice. The reason he had not noticed he was hungry earlier was probably because of his depression about losing Angel in the blizzard. Now that he finally noticed how hungry he was, he set out on a hunt for food.

“God there’s nothing to eat around here!” he said to himself. He had been searching all day and the daylight was already beginning to die away, and he still hadn’t come across anything.
He collapsed onto the ground and thought to himself, ‘Maybe I should just lay here and wait for myself to starve to death. Then at least I would be with my family again.’ No sooner had he finished his thoughts that a sent caught his nose. ‘It’s caribou!’
He had only smelled the sent of caribou once before, but he could never forget it. Instincts are what finally got him off of the ground to go find where the source of the sent was. He had been so caught up in following the sent that he didn’t even notice he had left the woods, the sent was mesmerizing to him. He didn’t snap out of his trance until he ran right into a little wooden sign.
When his head stopped hurting and his eyes could focus again he looked up at the sign trying to read the well weathered letters.
It took a quite a bit of effort but he was eventually able to decipher the sign. It read: Welcome To Nome. Dante had no idea what Nome was and didn’t really pay it much attention, because the sent had filled his nostrils once again.

He followed the sent for a couple more yards before his eyes grew wide. Down below him was a small town with a small hew of light coming from it. Dante had never seen a town before, it was definitely something new to him, but he didn’t stay to gawk at it for very long because the sent got him moving again, and that’s when Dante noticed that the sent was coming from the town.
Finally figuring out where the sent was coming from Dante burst into an all out run towards the town, but slowed his pace before he entered it. It may have been a very new and exciting place full of wonderful smells, but he was still a stranger to this place. So he entered through a small ally that ironically lead straight to the butcher's shop.

Dante now overwhelmed by the smell of all the different meats was inching himself closer, one paw over the other and down in a crouch to one of the birds that hung on the hooks. When he finally got to it he couldn’t figure out how he was going to reach it, until he saw some boxes piled on top of each other.
He carefully climbed each one of them, and once at the top he quickly looked around to see if anyone was watching and stretched himself to try and get to the bird on the hook. He was so close to getting it, just a few more inches and the bird would be his.
“Hey! Get away from their you thief!” Dante spun around to see the butcher coming at him with his butcher knife. “Get out of here you filthy mutt!” Dante didn’t need to be told twice and bolted off of the boxes and out of the ally.

Dante was in such a panic that he didn’t see the dog infront of him until it was to late.
WHAM!
Dante ran right into the dog making him fly to the side along with the dog. They landed a couple of yards away on the ground next to each other. Dante slowly got up and looked up at the dog he had just bowled over, who was just starting to get up.
“Hey punk! Watch where your going!” the dog yelled at Dante. He spun around and his anger quickly melted into fear. “Ahhhhhh! A wolf! Don’t hurt me! I-I didn’t mean it!” The dog whimpered out.
“Relax I’m not going to hurt you, i'm the one who should have been watching where i was going,” Dante assured him. After he calmed down Dante took a good look at him. He was just as old as he was.
“So punk, you got a name?” the dog asked.
“Yeah, it’s Dante.”
“Hmm, well Dante," he said while putting extra emphasis on his name. "Around here we don’t take to kindly to your kind,” he said.
“My kind?” Dante asked confused.
“Oh, did your wild mommy and daddy forget to tell you that your not the same as us,” he taunted him. “Us?” The dog whistled and two more dogs came out of a nearby ally.
“Yes, us. This is Kato he said pointing to a husky who was black with white on his face, neck, chest, belly, and the underside of his tail. This is CJ he said pointing to another husky who was blackish gray with white around his eyes, the bottom of his muzzle, his belly, and the underside of his tail. He also had a white sock on his front right leg and a light gray sock on his left hind leg. And I’m Butch.”
“What do you guys want?” Dante asked, beginning to become a little unnerved by the dogs who now out numbered him.
“We want you to leave!” Butch shouted at him.
“Yeah get outta here,” Kato added.
“Why do you want me to leave?”
“Like I said punk, we don’t take kindly to your kind.”
“But I can’t leave. I have nowhere to go,” Dante tried to explain.
“Well doesn't that suck!” Butch said. “And if you don’t want to leave, then we’ll make you!” he said evilly. “Get him!” Butch yelled to the other two.
Dante turned tail and took off into an ally. He made sharp turns and swerved in and out of other allies to try and lose them, and being wolf he was faster then them so it didn’t take to long.

Even though Dante had lost them he kept running and ran straight onto a beach outside of town, right past and old wrecked boat, but he didn’t pay it any mind and just kept running and didn’t stop until he came to a stone pathway next to a very large rock wall.
‘I wonder where that leads to,’ Dante thought to himself as he started the ascent up it, after only a short while of walking he decided to switch to running to shorten the trip, regardless it still took Dante nearly two hours to climb the pathway, but once he reached the top he was amazed at how high up he was. But what amazed him most was the sun just beginning to set on the horizon.
Dante walked over to the edge to see exactly how high up he was when all of a sudden everything that had happened to him over the course of a little over a week came flooding back to him. The battle between his pack and the other pack, his mom and best friends dead bodies, Dustin running away, losing Angel, and what had just happened to him not too long ago.
All of it was enough to bring hot tears to his eyes that spilled down his cheeks, and crashed to the ground. He couldn’t take it anymore, everything was happening to fast for him, he didn’t have anyone to turn to and as far as he knew all the dogs in town hated him for being different.
It was all just to much for him to take.

Dante looked over the edge of the cliff at the snow covered sand below that just seemed to be calling to him, telling him to jump and land on it. It seemed so soft to walk on, so why wouldn’t it be safe to land on? But Dante knew that if he jumped he would surely splatter on impact.
‘That’s a long drop, there’s no way I’d be able to survive it,’ he thought to himself.
He backed away from the edge and looked up at the clouds. ‘I’m sorry, but I just can’t go on like this anymore Mom, and Angel and Dustin too if your up there.’ He walked back to the edge, looked down and closed his eyes, tears streaming down his face. ‘But at least I’ll be joining you all soon.’
He cocked his legs.
He was ready to jump, ready to end this unfair life of his, ready to be reunited with his family once again.

“Hey!” Dante’s water filled eyes shot open and he turned his head towards the source of the voice. His eyes focused through the tears on a tan and beige wolf, or was he a dog? Dante couldn’t tell, he looked like a wolf, but when Dante looked closer he could tell he wasn’t full wolf. He was a wolf-dog!
“What are you doing?” the wolf-dog asked.
“None of your business!” Dante snapped back.
“Whoa, some one's a little upset. What happened to make you so mad?” he asked, starting to walk towards Dante.
“I said it’s none of your concern!” Dante shouted. The wolf-dog stopped.
“Well to me it looked like you were about to jump off of that cliff, and that concerns me.”
That got Dante’s attention.
For the short time he was here and his little "talk" with Butch, he thought that no one in that town would care about him, about a wolf. It made Dante soften up a bit.

“It’s a long story,” Dante said truthfully.
“I got time,” the wolf-dog replied.
“Alright, well see I’m new to this town, I sort of just stumbled across it and I don’t know this place at all, except that my kind apparently isn’t excepted around here and I was attacked for being different. They told me to get lost, but I couldn’t leave. I don’t have anywhere to go. My pack was attacked by another. I far as I know, all of my family is dead,” He paused and sighed. “And then I was chased out of town by a group of dogs. My name’s Dante by the way,” Dante finished, deciding to give the wolf-dog a summarized version of what had happened to him.
“I see. I’m sorry to hear that Dante,” the wolf-dog said, the tone in his voice making it obvious that he was sincere.
“Thanks. Hey what are you doing up here anyway?” Dante asked him.
“Oh, well whenever I can I come up here to watch the sun set, it usually calms me down, or just simply because of how beautiful it is,” the wolf-dog explained.
“Oh, I see.”
“Yeah, well, hey you look pretty hungry Dante. Why don’t you come to my place for something to eat?” the wolf-dog offered.
“That would be awesome! But, i wouldn't want to be a burden." Dante replied thinking that the simple fact this other had stopped him from nearly killing himself and then had calmed him down enough to get him thinking straight again was already more then he could be thankful for. The wolf-dog himself didn't seem to be all that well fed, enough to keep him alive and keep a little fat on him, but only barely. And yet here he was offering to share what little food he had with someone he had only just met. There was no way that Dante could allow himself to make this nice as could be wolf-dog share his food with a complete stranger.
Despite what Dante thought was being helpful himself at not making the wolf-dog have to feed one more mouth then he had food for, the wolf-dog's smile wilted a little bit at his reply.
"No no, it's completely alright, really. I know that i don't really look all that well fed but i've always kind of been on the skinny side. Besides, i was able to catch some fish today, as well as get some fresh meat that the butcher had just thrown out. There's more then enough for one more to join, especially if that one more looks to be pretty hungry and hasn't had the best few days," the wolf-dog tried to assure Dante.
"I'm not really all that hungry," Dante replied back, but his lie was busted by his stomach growling just as he finished the sentence. The wolf-dog smirked and raised one eyebrow at him.
"Sounds to me that your stomach's saying something completely different."
"Look, i appreciate the offer and all, but what you've done for me already is more then i can be grateful for. I don't need to be a thorn in you side as well." The wolf-dog's smirk withered some again.
"C'mon, i know your hungry and i already told you that i have more then enough food to feed at least two. If you're truely set on getting out of here and not being a 'thorn in my side'" the wolf-dog used his paws to put quotes around the words thorn in my side to show that he thought Dante was in fact not being what he was implying of himself. "At least come and have something to eat before you head off so that you can start off with enough energy to get you where ever it is you plan on going."

Dante opened his mouth to say something but closed it when it came to him that this wolf-dog wasn't just trying to be nice to someone who was obviously depressed, he was trying to make a friend. And then something else occured to him. This wolf-dog probably hasn't had the best life himself, maybe this wolf-dog also wasn't accepted in the town. These thoughts made him reconsider his answer to the wolf-dog's offer. Maybe he too could use a friend right now, it's not like he actually had anywhere to go, he was on a journey to find himself a new home anyways.
"Well, if you really believe that you have enough to share, and you don't seem to want to take no as an answer, then i guess i could use something to eat. I am actually kind of hungry."
The wolf-dog's smile brightened at hearing that Dante had accepted his offer and laughed lightly at his joke.
"I thought so, well we should get going then if we want to make it back before it gets too dark, I'll also need to tell Boris that your going to be eating with us,” the wolf-dog said, then took off down the trail with Dante close behind.

“Boris? Who’s that?” Dante asked.
“Boris? Oh he’s a friend of mine who takes care of me. He’s actually a goose,” the wolf-dog explained.
“A goose?” Dante laughed a little at that one.
“Yeah but he’s the one who found me when I was an abandoned pup, and took me in,” the wolf-dog explained further.
“Man, I’m going to half to hear about that story later, oh hey before I forget, what’s your name?” Dante asked.
“Oh me, my name’s Balto."

-

-

-

-

The End of Dante's Story
Part 1

That's all folks, i'll try to get to writing the second part of Dante's story when ever i can get some free time, school and stuff kind of has me pinned down at the moment, but i shall at least get it started when i can. Hope you enjoyed Part 1 and hope that you will stay tuned for Part 2.