Night falls and I find a small patch of earth to sleep in the forest. I shiver in the cold night as I try to huddle for warmth. I sigh as I remember my mother telling me that a lone wolf may be able to stay alive for some time, but it is extremely dangerous. I was so confident that I could travel by myself when meeting Nightfang, but, in truth, I am not accustomed to be alone. My pride was my downfall and now I am left to wonder if I will survive by myself. I look at the beautiful moon and lift myself from my bed. I lift my nose to the night sky and howl, not for the moon, but for someone to find me. The howl does not travel as far and wide as when I was near the peak of the mountain, but perhaps it will suffice.

I miss Nightfang more in the night. It is very lonely and cold without him. His scent, his warmth, his touch, the way he would gaze at me. I miss it all. It is not only sexual desire that I harbor for him.

Suddenly, I hear a snap from a branch alert me to my surroundings. I wonder if it is another wolf or a bear. I move quickly as fear overtakes my senses and I run off into the open field, away from the embrace of the forest. I sigh and walk into the night without faltering or stopping. The night brings a cacophony of noises if you are quiet enough and listen attentively. I find it a bit maddening at the beginning, but then welcome the noise instead of the silence. In the distance is a passage through to the Meadowbrook fields. My pack would often hunt there during the summers.

I decide to head that way. It is towards the north anyways, perhaps I will encounter wolves that are heading to Lovers Pass. I walk slowly, a bit weary from sleepiness. I begin to run as I feel eyes watching me. I turn to look behind me but there is no one, at least no one I can see. It’s easy to hide in the tall grass.

After a while, I am tired again and I find a resting spot under a lone tree in the middle of the path I am walking on. I look at the moon again and think that perhaps Nightfang is lying in a patch of grassland and looking up at the night sky. I close my eyes and try to sleep, but it is not so easy when noises keep alerting me to some hidden danger or just a creature stirring in the night, though my instinct does not know the difference.

In the morning, I yawn and stretch before remembering I am alone. I head into the open field and continue on my journey without a companion.

Birds in the sky alert me to the eyes in the sky that Ruby was talking about. Gossipers. I click my tongue and head north as I was planning to do last night. The fields are vast and there is a forest not far from here to catch small creatures, maybe more rabbits or mice if I get desperate.

“The mountains have goats…The Jasper Mountain has a whole lot of them.” I say to myself. “But that’d mean I’d have to head east.” I sigh as I remember what I had planned.

I continue on my way towards the Meadowbrook fields I remember travelling to as a child with my pack. It is a bit of a long way, but I am willing to make the journey. I try to make myself less conspicuous and head into the tall grass. I make my way through it slowly, trying to avoid being spotted by any gossiping birds or dangerous wolves. Bloodbeast and Howling King are two wolves I would never want to encounter. It would be even worse for me to be found by them while I am alone. If I was with Nightfang, two wolves wouldn’t suffice to hunt or kill large prey or take down multiple wolves, but it would certainly be better than fighting alone.

I hear something in the grass and notice the scampering of a small mouse run across my paws. If I were in better spirits, I’d try to catch a few to satiate my hunger, but I am not in the mood to hunt, nor eat. I continue to walk along in the cover of the grass before I hear the faintest cries coming from beyond the fields.

“Get off of me!” I hear a deer cry out as the sound of a struggle ensues. A strong kick from a buck could easily kill a wolf or badly wound one. I notice the growls and cries of wolves trying to subdue the deer with little luck. The barks and cries do not sound familiar; they are definitely strangers to me. I approach the scene very carefully and watch from afar. There are three wolves, all of which are gray wolves, one much more striking in his color patterns, with a black back and browns and grays marking his face around his eyes and top of his nose. He is probably the alpha as he seems to sit along the sidelines watching the betas struggle with subduing the deer. The other two wolves are lighter in their shades, one baring a scar on his eye from a previous battle, another one missing an ear from a horrendous fight.

“Sharpteeth, Barkbite, will you hurry the fuck up!” The alpha says angrily. “You’re both making me impatient.”

“Not very mannered, that one.” I comment softly to myself. The alpha’s ear twitches and he turns his head in all directions as he tries to find the source of the sound. I hide in the brush and try to refrain myself from speaking like a damn fool. Sharpteeth and Barkbite, neither of those names seem familiar. I fear they are from the Howling Clan that hunts and kills down any wolf they see. I hold my breath and try to calm my heartbeat. The struggle ends with the deer collapsing and the wolves beginning to feast on its flesh. The meal looks appetizing and I feel my belly begin to growl.

“Wildclaw, you could have helped us.” One of the betas say bitterly. “Roguefang ain’t gonna be happy when he hears you were being an asshole and delayed the hunt.” The name suddenly surprises me. Fang.

“Who gives a shit about what Roguefang says.” Wildclaw says aggressively. “Who the fuck died and made him alpha, anyway?” Although the thought hadn’t crossed my mind, Nightfang hadn’t mentioned about any siblings. It is uncommon for a mother wolf to birth one pup unless the rest died of illness or weakness. Although it is common to not have the same part of your name match your siblings, the name “Fang” just catches my attention. I crouch closer to listen more attentively.

“He asserted himself as alpha when he fucking beat your ass in that fight.” One of the betas says with a laugh.

“You’ve been asking to be kicked out of the pack. Maybe you should just not return with us.” The other says spitefully. Wildclaw suddenly turns and looks in my direction and I feel my heart drop as he growls and sniffs the air. I sit still in the brush and hope that he has not noticed me. He and the two other betas approach the fields carefully and I am certain they have noticed my scent. I turn my body slowly and begin to sprint away. My breathing becomes erratic with fear and I can’t dare look back if I wish to escape.

Suddenly, like I suspected they would do, I see in my peripherals both of the smaller betas at my sides. I suspect that Wildclaw is following behind me waiting for one of the smaller betas to attack me so I can trip and he’ll capture me when I fall.

“Grab him!” Wildclaw yells. When I see both of the betas on my sides preparing to lunge, I speed up and make them lunge at each other. They collide with each other, but Wildclaw manages to jump over them and growls as he trails after me. “You little shit!” I am panicking and not at all aware of where to go, but manage to make a break for it in the thick forest. I run around the trees to try to lose him, but he’s still on my tail. He speeds up and begins to try to catch me by my tail as he continuously opens and closes his mighty jaws. My paws and heart are getting tired and I can’t find any way out of this situation.

Suddenly, I hear Wildclaw gasping for breath and I look behind me and notice he is beginning to tire out and slow down.

“Run, shithead! We’ll track you down!” He yells. I gasp for breath as I get lost into the forest as my pace slows. I whimper and feel like crying out of fear. I head deeper into the forest and wonder if I am still heading north. I can’t see through the canopy of the forest to see the mountains that I recognize which help me along my way, but going back to the fields isn’t an option anymore. Those wolves were not at all friendly and were hardly what I would consider polite in the ways they spoke.

When I come across a river I stop to drink and look at my reflection for a moment. My white fur and blue eyes like my mother, but the scowl of my father. For a moment, I hallucinate and believe I see the reflection of Nightfang in the river, but it fades and I am left alone in the darkness of the thick forest. I continue straight ahead, but find myself becoming weaker and weaker as I go on without anything to eat.

My hunger makes me imagine my favorite food like rabbit, boar, deer, and goat. I sigh as I walk along in the forest with a growling belly and tired paws. I have to go on, no matter what. Whatever happens, I might continue on my journey despite my hunger, tiredness, and heartache, but I truly do miss Nightfang and his mischievous yet charming humor and affectionate side.

A day passes and I have made progress but have not reached the Meadowbrook field yet. As I walk, the scents around me alert my senses. Lavender. I look at the bushes and sneeze. Not far away, I see bushes of more pleasantly aromatic jasmine. I head over and smell them and remember how Nightfang had rubbed himself with the scent of lavender.

“Perhaps…” I think as I rub myself against the jasmine flowers and head into the bushes of it. I shake my body and smell the wonderful fragrance cling to my body. It is not only a way to impress but it also helps to get those mongrels off my trail. The click of something suddenly alerts me to something in the distance before a powerful shot sounds throughout the forest and the birds escape into the sky.

Of course, the worst possible situations happen when I am alone, I think to myself as I back away from where the sound came from. I hear muttering in the distance before I witness the furless humans approach the corpse of a deer that they killed with their booming device. I peak through the bushes and then notice a familiar black furred form wandering in the field a bit away from the hunters. Nightfang. I notice another wolf with him, Howlingwind, I presume. They are careful, but the humans suddenly turn their attention to them and aim their device towards them.

I act fast, racing towards the humans with little more than blind worry and anger. I bark and snarl at them as I attack the one with the booming device. I bite his leg and pull and try to tear flesh or bone. The other human shouts and prepares his booming device as the other frantically shouts and screams. I only see the device from my peripheral vision, but the sound pounds against my eardrum as he shoots. The pain is searing as I begin to realize the amount of force had hit me. Thankfully, the human’s partner was an awful shot and just managed to shoot my leg rather than my head. I whimper and whine as the two humans seem to argue among themselves. I see their horrified and worried expressions before they quickly run off. I lie my head down and whine as the pain overwhelms me. I hear two howls in the distance before I see the familiar coat of black come into my view. Before I can speak a single word, the pain finally makes me pass out. Perhaps, all that just happened is a terrible nightmare, I think, but seeing Nightfang would be a wonderful dream.