Wolves of the moon - Lost home

✧Chapter 9✧

Rain woke up in the morning, remembering the previous night when the whole pack howled their thanks to Moon after safely arriving to their new camp. Some time before that event however, he went on a patrol with Swift and Beta to search the valley. They haven't found anything dangerous, just an old abandoned badger set and they even stumbled upon some prey that they took back to camp. He stood up and stretched. Everyone was still curled up in their nests, deeply sleeping. He felt tired and he knew he was getting old.

He sighed, stood up and walked out of the den. The rising sun flooded the whole camp with sunshine and the air was filled with warmth. But still, Rain found a shadowy stop and sat down. Wolves preffered the cold over the warmth and the moon over the sun. It was also typical for their culture and believes. Rain was one of these wolves, one, that always respected and believed in Moon, the one watching over all wolves from above and guiding them, and when they entered the afterlife, her took care of his precious spirits.

Rain watched as other members of his pack started waking up and walking out of their dens. When Alpha came out, he immediatly called him and Dawn into his den. When they were in, Alpha turned to Rain.

„We have already talked about this with Dawn yesterday while you were gone, so now we need to tell you. It's about the prophecy and we think you were right. Swift is the last prophecised wolf," Alpha told him.

„I suppose I already knew that, all of the clues les to this solution," he answered and Alpha was visibly irritated that Rain humbled him. The two wolves held a staring contest for a while until Dawn decided to break the growing tension between them.

„Sooooooooo, are we gonna tell him?" she said and smiled anxiously.

„No, I think we should wait with that until he is ready for that. And you, Dawn, will have to prepare him for that," he ordered. She looked confused at first but nodded shortly after. „And you both watch out, we're still not sure about what the other part means. The one about you saving our pack. So watch out for any danger," he said and pointed with his snout towards the den entrance. Rain and Dawn understood his orders and left the den.

A patrol got sent out, but this time Beta remained with Alpha in the camp and Dawn went instead of her. They went to a good place for hunting that they discovered yesterday. It was a hollow in the ground, similar to their camp but a bit bigger and there were holes in the ground everywhere. These holes were filled with rabbits of all sizes and some of them was searching for food outside.

The wolves had a perfect strategy to catch some. Swift, the one that was the hardest to spot in the long grass hid his scent in some mud and dirt and snuck toward one side of the hollow. He quickly covered the holes with mud and then did the same on the other side. Then he gave a signal to the other wolves and the hunt began. Rain and Dawn burst out from the grass and chased after the rabbits. They tried to keep them in the middle so they don't run out of the hollow and when they had one of them in reach, they instantly killed it. Three rabbits escaped but they caught five in total. They still had enough strength so they decided to grab their prey and go somewhere else to see if they could find something.

After a little while they found an abandoned fox den under a tree filled with rat scents. So they burried their catch under another tree and Dawn was chosen to lure the rats out. She put her paw inside and stopped when she couldn't put it further. She swayed her paw and suddenly, tens of rats ran out of the hole. The others started spinning around, killing the terrified rats one by one. Rain killed five before he noticed Dawn's struggles to get her paw out of the hole. He called to Swift, who had four rat bodies laying around him and they went to help her, leaving the other rodents to flee. After some hard work the got it out and Rain saw the excitement in Dawn's eyes when she saw their catch.

„This is awesome! There's plenty for the whole pack! Even Stump- I mean, Omega will have enough," she said and threw on a little embarassed smile after saying Omega's real name. Rain realized that he was the only one there that could remember his first name, the one he was born with. He didn't want to think about it, as the more he did, the more his hate for Alpha and what he did to his own brother grew.

„Yeah, I agree," said Swift.

„Then let's bring it to camp," Rain said and picked up two rabbits and two rats. Swift picked up the same amount and Dawn picked up the remaining rabbit and five rats. Their mouths were completely full the smell of the prey in Rain's nosthrils and the taste of it in his mouth tempted him to take some but he resisted and carried on walking.

They arrived to camp and dropped their catch on the ground. Beta and Alpha were sitting in the clearing and smiled when they saw the food. They came up to the patrol, Beta licked Dawn's nose and Alpha nodded.

„Good job you three," he congratulated them.

„Yes, this is the best catch we had in a while," agreed Beta and rubbed against Alpha's fur, to which Dawn looked away uncomfortably. Rain understood her and felt sorry for the she-wolf.

All three went to their den to take a nap after the hunt and Rain felt a weird taste in his mouth but he assumed it was nothing. Then he closed his eyes and fell asleep