My wild - The White Wolf

My Wild - Part 5

One day about 9 months later we came back from our morning hunt and settled down next to the den to groom ourselves. We had just got back from tracking a deer through the dense undergrowth and our fur was matted with twigs and leaves. As we sat there Ezra suddenly started to growl. Not a play growl, a deep aggressive growl. We all looked up to see what he was growling at and spotted a wolf watching us from up on a hill. We all rose onto all fours and barred our teeth at him. He trotted off round a fern tree and we thought he had gone so we went back to grooming ourselves, still on high alert. 

Suddenly, and without warning I felt four paws land heavily on my back. I whipped my head round to see the strange wolf on my back. Ezra, Adri and Naledi all jumped up and snarled at him. I swivelled my body around to get a better look at him. I expected to see bared teeth and was bracing myself for him to go for my neck but he just stood there and kind of smiled at me. I looked at him puzzled. He just stuck his tongue out and started licking my face. I growled at him and gave him a nip on the shoulder to tell him to back off and he jumped off me. He sat obediently next to me and stuck out his long pink tongue. I rolled off my back onto all fours and turned to face him. I barked at my siblings and they respectfully trotted over to the den. They no longer bared their teeth but they watched his every move.

I circled him, my teeth bared but he just started spinning round in circles as if he was chasing his tail. I stopped and came over to him and he let me smell his scent. His scent was like that of any other wolf, unfamiliar and something I have made it my mission to avoid, but underneath that there was a different scent. It was faint and I was barely able to pick it up but it was there. It all made sense now. Why he hadn't been afraid of my threats and wasn't phased by my warnings. This wolf was the one bundle of fluff that my mother had that we hadn't had a chance to welcome. Adali. I gave a yelp of joy and jumped on him pinning him down to the soft forest floor. Ezra barked at me to remind me that they still existed and I barked at them to come over to welcome the newest edition to our pack. Later on we all went hunting together.

We had been trekking through the woods for a while when we came across a herd of wild, white-tailed deer. We agreed to split up. Ezra and I moved round to the herds flank to try and flush them into the narrow clearing where Naledi, Adri and Adali were patiently waiting for my signal. We crept up to them as slowly as we possibly could and then we stopped, muscles tense and poised for flight. I glanced over at Ezra, giving an almost imperceptible signal to advance and, in unison, we flew at the herd at top speed. They panicked and ran into the narrow clearing. Ezra and I chased them for at least 15 minutes until we heard the signal from the other three that they had caught something. We peeled off from our chase and trotted back to the others. The hunt was good. They had managed to take down a large hazel coloured doe. We licked clean every last morsel and carried the bones back to our den where we chewed contentedly on them for the rest of the evening, and then spent the night curled up together under a large fern tree. 

One morning when the autumn rain had frozen into the winter snow ( we were about a year and 7 months now), Ezra and Adri went out hunting for wild elk in the forest nearby. An hour passed and Naledi, Adali and I were sleeping on the snow when we heard a loud bark followed by a chorus of painful yelps coming from the forest. We jumped up and sprinted to the owner of the sound. We rounded a corner and the sight we saw knocked the breath right out of me. There in front of us was the leader of the rival pack, a great silvery brown alpha male towering high over us. His name was Nuka. Behind him lay Adri who, by the looks of it, had been tackled down. He lay, breathing heavily, he looked up at me and whimpered softly. Nuka's head whipped round and he snarled at Adri. Adri obediently flopped his head down onto the snow and breathed out a long sigh. I looked around for Ezra and spotted him watching from behind a thick tree trunk. When he noticed me looking at him he made his way carefully over and stood next to Naledi, hackles raised and teeth bared. Nuka turned back to look at us snarling. A deep growl began to rumble in my throat and I braced my back legs, ready to leap. Nuka locked eyes with me and then jumped, teeth aimed directly at my throat.