Bloodfang

Rebirth

1621

When Hidden Paw awoke, he found himself immersed in darkness. Was he dead...? He felt beyond weird and his vision was hazy too. He shook his head sharply, trying to clear the muzzy fog that was clouding his mind. One thing did become clear for him though as he raised his head, taking in his surroundings... he was not dead.

Weirdly enough, and not at all sure how it came to be, he was safe and sound inside his den. He recognized the rocky walls and powdery ground where he had slept since he was born. The smell was of home, even more so somehow, stronger.

His ears suddenly perked up as he heard voices. Soon the few voices sounded as if there were a hundred voices. The garbled words grew louder and louder as if they were shouting directly into his eardrum. The pain began to grow unbearable. He began to whimper and whine as the loud clamoring began to become agonizing.

"Someone please make it stop!" he howled in desperation.

As immediately as the voices had started, they stopped. The relief that the abrupt silence brought to his senses made him want to cry. He couldn't help but let a small whimper to escape his dry lips.

"Hidden Paw?"

Despite his fatigue, Hidden Paw looked up instantly at the sound of the soft and much beloved voice that sounded a few feet away from him. His hazy gaze focused enough to see the most important wolf in his life slowly walk into the den and towards him.

Like Hidden Paw she had pitch black fur as black as the darkest of nights and a beautiful pair of sun golden eyes that always shown with love for him. But there was one feature that she didn't share with him. Unlike Hidden Paw, she had a white mark in the center of her forehead, which resembled a white crescent moon. Surrounding the mark was a small ring of oddly shaped white dots that went around it. The dots somewhat resembled stars.

Her name was Luna. She was Hidden Paw's much beloved mother.

She immediately went to Hidden Paw's side and knelt down next to him. She began softly licking his fur with motherly affection.

"Mother... what happened?" Hidden Paw stammered as leaned into her comforting warmth, enjoying her calming love as he tried to make sense of everything.

Had this all been a bad dream after all? Had he not really been attacked by a horrible monster and left to die? Was everything okay now? Hidden Paw whimpered again as he remembered the painful feeling of the fangs piercing his neck, and the horrible sucking noises he could hear as he felt the blood being drained from his body.

His mother gave him one last lick before she began speaking to him in soft tones. Though her voice comforted him, the words she began speaking did not.

"When I woke up... I found you missing from the cave." Luna told him with the moisture of tears gleaming in her eyes. Her voice quavered as she continued. "I got so worried when I realized you were no longer here so I went looking for you. I looked and looked and then suddenly I saw you. I could smell the blood immediately and you were not moving. Oh Hidden Paw, my darling," she exclaimed with trembling voice as the tears began to fall earnestly from her face, "You were...lying there ....dead!"

"Dead? But I am here. I am alive." he claimed gruffly. Despite his confusion, Hidden Paw knew that any hope he had of this just being a bad nightmare was quickly diminishing.

"You weren't when I found you." She whispered, barely audible. She nuzzled Hidden Paw affectionately for a few quiet moments before she began speaking again with tears rolling down her face and her watery golden eyes looking haunted. "I picked you up and brought you home. Your father was furious because I had left your siblings here alone...including your eldest brother and future pack leader Moonshine. But I explained to your father that I had to. I had to find you and the others should have been safe here as the creature attacking our kin has never come into any of our villages."