The Valley Of The Wolves

Hunting with the pack.

I sucked in the cold air through my nose. The snow almost went up to our stomachs, It had snowed hard. My feet seemed too light to sink very far into the snow though. I ran my tongue over my sharp teeth. I'm ready. I thought. Aki turned her head to me.

"Try to keep up." She yiped, and the whole pack took off. I ran just behind them at their tails, almost close enough to bite them. I pushed ahead faster, running next to the black wolf; Kuinsa. The wind lashed at my pelt.

As we ran through the trees, we moved as one wolf, jumping at the same time, steps and heart beats merged until it was impossible to tell how many wolves were running with us.

I hadn't known how long we had been running but at one point we slowed to a stop, everyone dead quiet. The trees were thinning and we were at the edge of a large field, only hidden by some thick shrubbery.

"There's some elk on the other side of that hill." Ulagee whispered to me.

"How do you know?" I asked.

"Put your nose to the air, we're down wind of them." He explained. I raised my head and took a deep breath. The smells overwhelmed me but I got something that was what I imagined could very well be an elk. "You can also keep an ear out, They scrape the snow with their hooves to get to the grass."

"Ok everyone, We fan out. Ulagee, Uroco and..." Aki looked at me.
"Myristica?" I suggested my name.

"Myristica. Go to the hill and on my command chase them down into our trap, Make sure to herd them and keep the weak, slow, and injured ones. Let the strong leave, don't hurt yourself going after a powerful elk." She continued,"Kuinsa, Tsura, Irakusa and Nichu and I will sneak around to flank them when Myristica and the others chase them toward us."

Me, Ulagee, and Uroco started to walk around and through the snow up to the top of the hill. When we got there they would smell us before they saw us, now being the ones upwind and all. I sniffed in, but their scent was lost to the wind.

The snow was fluffy so we sank to our knees even though we were built for the snow.
Once we got to the top of the hill we fluffed out our fur and prepared to chase them down.

The group was small for a herd of elk, about 8 members not including the male, he held his head high while the females ate the grass hidden by the snow. There was an old female with a limp among them, easy to find and pick out due to her grey matted coat.

Ulagee howled, sending the loud noise echoing over the hills. The elk raised their heads prepared to run. We started to run down, covered from their view by the sun shining off the snow. They saw Ulagee first, followed closely by Uroco but they didn't seem to see me as they reared up and ran.

They fliced their heads and tried to split up. We pushed faster and herded them close. They were almost kicking each other as they tried to run faster.

Uroco sprung onto the old elk's back, biting hard into her neck and matted coat. Now we were getting close to the forest. They sped up knowing if they could make it to the trees they could split up and lose us, but in their blind fear they didn't notice the four wolves springing out of the brush until it was almost too late.

They swerved away from the forest, towards the frozen lake. Irakusa,Tsura, and Nichu sprung onto the old females back to help Uroco. Ulagee, Kuinsa and Aki targeted a female so I helped them. We brought the two down as the rest of the herd left them and ran across the lake. I watched them go with sorrow, they had left part of their family behind.
Something I could never, and would never do.