Life Stories:

Rigs

           Everywhere I looked, it was dark. I didn't know where I was, then this bizzare smell reached my nose. I didn't recognise it, but it seemed comforting. My eyes began to open to a light and blurry world, my head instantly turned toward the smell. It was my mother, she smiled at me, and nuzzled my side. That was my first memory.

            I spent many days in the moist den where I was born, I had only one sibling, her name was Sara. She was an average sized pup, unlike me the runt of the whole pack. My parents were always away, hunting with the pack while a "nanny" watched us. My favorite was Bella, she was the omega, and she was always forced to stay and watch us.

            As me and Sara began to grow from newborns to pups, we were finally allowed outside of the den. It was early summer when we first went out. Sara instantly ran out, and began to play with the other pack members. I walked out cautiously, since I was naturally nervous.

            All of a sudden, my nose was attacked by a large variety of smells, that I had never known existed. I began to follow my nose, and before I realized it I was far from the pack. I could still smell them, and I occasionally caught a sight of one or two, but I couldn't remember the path I had taken to get here.

            I sat in the meadow that I had managed to end up in, and before I knew it my eyelids became heavy and I fell asleep. When I awoke, I could faintly hear my parents calling for me along with the rest of the pack. I had always had a good nose and good ears, but there was a breeze, which was causing them to sound farther away.

             I began to howl and call out to them, but since I was so small and the wind was picking up since it must have been getting pretty late, that they couldn't hear me. I strained my ears to hear them, before realizing something horrible... they were going the wrong way.

                I began to worry that I was going to get abandoned there, and die. I started to run after them, but then I tripped on a rock, and fell. I hit my head, and was knocked out cold.

                When I awoke, I could tell that a few days had passed, tried to stand, and felt a sharp pain in my head. I began to run in the direction of the pack, my head felt as if it was going to break in half, but I din't care. All I wanted was to get home and see my family and pack.

                  When I had finally found my way home, I found everyone gone. I tried to follow their scent but apparently it had rained while I had been unconcious. I ran around the area for a few days, before giving up and laying down in my parents old den.

                 I spent many months their, living off of scraps that I found from other predators kills, and off some small prey when I was lucky to catch any. Since I was so young when I had gotten lost, I wasn't the best hunter, and everyday life was hard for me.

                 One day when I was about six months old, I decided it was time to find a new home. I wandered for a year or so, until I came upon a pack on the alaskan coast. They were led by an old wolf named Nava, who was constantly being pestered by a younger but still kind of old wolf named Niju.

                  Nava welcomed me into the pack, although not many of the others approved. After a little while though, I began to befriend the other wolves. By now it had been about two years since I had been born, and I had grown from teh little tiny wolf pup into one of the largest wolves in the pack.

                  One day, two wolf-dogs showed up. They were obviously related. That day we protected them from Niju and his group of friends, and I found out that it was Balto the famous half breed, and his daughter Aleu.

                  Whenever I got the chance, I tried to spend time with Aleu, and within the week that they were here, we became good friends. It took me some time before I realized that I was in love with her.

                  We began to spend more time together, before we found out that the pack had to move. We had to cross the ice bridge to another shore, so that we could continue to hunt the caribou.

                  Then Niju attacked Nava, we all wanted to help him but right then the chunk of ice we were on broke away and we couldn't do anything. So Balto jumped into the water an dswam over to save him.

                   Then I thought that my heart would break, as I watched Aleu jump into the water to help her father. I tried to chase after her, but the others held me back. We all sat there waiting for them to come back, but instead, they appeared on the other ice block to protect Nava.

                    There was a long fight, and Niju ran, Nava decided to stay behind with him, Balto decided to go back to the rest of his family, and Aleu became out new Alpha. It took some time before she was happy enough to actually associate with anyone, since her father had left her for the rest of her family.

                   I spent many more months, trying to get her attention, and I fianally did. We became mates, and had some pups of our own.

                   Aleu has been wanting to return to Alaska for some time now, but it is once again summer and we have to wait for the snow to bring us the ice bridge again.

                   Our pups are all sweet, and we have already chose names for them. There is one that looks almost identical to Balto, one like Aleu but with my color, and one that is truly bizzare; we had a pure white pup and Aleu told me that the pups name was going to be Aniu, in memory of her grandmother. The others were Yukon (the Balto like one) and Ember (the Aleu like one with my fur color).

                    In the near future when my pups are grown, I hope that they can tell their life stories as I have. Another thing I hope is that maybe one day in this new home, I may once again see my old pack, or some sort of a sign from them.

               Until there is a new story to tell, farewell: Rigs