Blind Faith

Chapter 5: Battle Lines

Battle Lines

I had been running for longer than I had ever run before, and my legs were beginning to falter as I pushed my body to its limits.  I had run straight through the night and into the next day, the sun’s warmth on my back telling me it was near to midday.  I had passed through my old territory not long after sunrise, but I hadn’t even slowed down.  Blaze knew where to find me if I went back to my old territory, so I would have to push on until I could find someplace new to live.

On a whim I had decided to run through Blaze’s territory in a ploy that might make them think I had returned to the dens.  I had no intention of stopping at my temporary home, and as my paws ponded through the forest I could imagine the hope lifting Blaze’s face as he imagined me waiting for him back at the dens.  I shook my head to clear it of the image, knowing that even if Blaze had wanted me as a mate before, there was no way I could ever be a part of a pack now.  Not when my secret had been blown out of the water like a duck taking flight.

I had just reached the clearing in front of the old dens when I heard paw steps racing up behind me.  From the sounds of it there was only one wolf, and my heart twisted painfully as I picked up Blaze’s scent in the air.  I tried to scramble up the rock incline to get past the dens, but my legs were weak from running and I slipped on a loose stone, falling back down to the base as I heard Blaze race up to my side.  I bared my teeth and growled loudly in my throat, and I heard his paws skid on the ground as he came to a stop a few feet from me.

“Come any closer and I’ll flay you like a rabbit!” I said, my voice thick with a threat I knew I couldn’t back up.  “If you’ve come here to kill me then I won’t go down without a fight.  My old pack murdered my mother for protecting me, and I won’t let her sacrifice be in vain.”  I grit my teeth as I forced my body into a standing position, my fur bristling and my teeth bared as I pointed my muzzle at Blaze’s face.

He was standing about three feet in front of me, but to my utter shock he sat down on his haunches and asked in a furious voice, “You think I came all this way to kill you, when I proclaimed my love for you just last night?!  Are you stupid or just too afraid of others to stay in one place too long?!”  I could tell his fur was bristling, but rather than make me afraid, it only confused me as his words sunk in.

“Why else would you come after me?” I asked as my fur began to lie flat, though I kept my legs tensed in case he attacked.  “My old pack would have killed me as a young pup for what I am.  Why should I expect anything different from your pack now that I’m an adult?”

His voice seemed genuinely hurt as his volume dropped to a near whisper, “You think that we would kill you, after my father brought you into this pack like one of his own children?  You truly are blind if you could not see that we do not follow the same customs as your former pack.  You think we want to kill you?  Then why is my pack acting as a shield between your former pack and you as we speak?!”  His voice had risen to a yell again, and I flinched under his words.

“Why should I believe anything you tell me?!”  I screamed in his face, my fear of attack forgotten as I marched up to touch the tip of my nose to his, “As far as I know your pack mates could be surrounding us right now, preparing to attack and leave me like my mother in a pool of my own blood!”

He had flinched under my aggressive actions, but his full fury came out as he pushed his nose into mine, causing me to fall onto my back as he stood over me, “Are you deaf as well as blind?!  I just said that my pack, our pack, is acting as a shield between your former pack mates and you!  Why would we throw you out or kill you when we had the chance to do that the first time we met inside our territory?!”  I opened my muzzle to argue but he didn’t give me the chance, “I don’t want to hear it!  I’m going to say this and I’m going to say this once, so listen when I tell you that I love you Faith.  I never stopped loving you from the moment you became a part of this pack.  So what if you’re blind!  You’re still the most beautiful she-wolf I’ve ever met and on top of that you have skills that will only make the pack stronger!”