Libby's ears perked. What?

"I understand. We'll bring the pups back with us."

Her heart started to beat faster. Dreven is going to force us to come back with him without letting us say goodbye? No! He can't do that!

Dreven and Red Spirit continued their talk, but Libby had heard enough. She stalked back in Alex's direction. The pup sat where she'd left him with a grumpy expression.

"Wow, you didn't get caught? I'm impressed," he muttered, his voice oozing with sarcasm.

"We've got to go!" Libby whispered urgently. "Dreven wants us for his own Pack! He's just as bad as those Army wolves!" A thought came to her. "What if he's secretly working with the Army?"

Alex tilted his head, his grouchiness gone, and raised an eyebrow. "That doesn't make sense! Why would one of those Army wolves have killed Brighten if they all had the same goal in mind?"

Libby frowned, her heart thumping so hard she thought Alex might hear it. "I don't care! Point is, they're bad! We have to go right now! Otherwise they'll catch up!"

Alex's ears perked. "Libby, no!"

Without another thought Libby ran off, this time making sure to stay silent and unseen. Tears stung her eyes. These wolves had betrayed them. She prayed that Alex wouldn't give her away. To her surprise, he did not call for her.

She passed the edge of the forest and bolted through the long grass in the direction of the rendezvous. Soon she'd see her mother again! Everything would be fine and return to the way it was. She didn't even think about how she'd left Alex behind with the Dark Stones wolves.

Two voices sounded from behind her, much farther away than she'd expected.

"Libby! Libby! Come back! Where are you?"

"Pup! What did I tell you? No running away!"

Libby didn't dare to turn around and see if Dreven and Red Spirit were actually coming after her or not. She kept going, adrenaline giving her the extra energy she needed.

Finally, she heard the pawsteps getting closer and closer. The smells were familiar. The Leader-wolf and his Patroller. She didn't smell Alex.

Libby finally stopped to pant, though not too loudly, and started to stalk slowly through the grass, being careful not to make any sound. She paid close attention to make sure her scent wasn't blowing in their direction.

She got closer and closer to the rendezvous site, but also more and more worried. Something seemed wrong. Strong smells lingered about that didn't belong. The scents of strange wolves, but also that of what she smelled last night. Smoke.

She wanted to jump up to see over the grass if she could spot the tree that signified the den. However, she didn't dare, being afraid to alert Dreven and Red Spirit.

Instead, she started to dash in the direction of the clearing. Please be okay, Mom, Dad and Alice! Everyone! Please!

The scent of smoke got stronger until finally she stopped. She was only two wolf-lengths away from the rendezvous, but everything smelled wrong. Aside from the stranger wolves and smoke, there was also blood, and birds.

Libby entered the site. Her eyes widened at the carnage in front of her.

The entire site and the grass surrounding it had a grayish-black color, with whiffs of smoke rising from it. The tree that had stood above the pup den had caught fire, too, and now all that remained was a blackened stump with a marking painted on it in green.

The worst was the middle of the clearing. All the dead bodies of what had once been the Fading Shadows Pack. Libby's mother, her head lying loose from her body only still attached by the spine, was next to the pile of corpses. North was nearly on top of the pile, the entirety of his right face and one leg ripped off. Other wolves were there, too. Cleo lay at the bottom, while at the very top Pike's severed head rested. Her body was nowhere to be found. Black birds were tearing away at the rotting meat and flesh.

The young wolf pup stood frozen. No. This cannot be. This isn't real! But as she shut her eyes and opened them again, the sight remained the same. "No..." Libby whimpered. She ran at the pile of wolf bodies and pushed her head into her mother's thick belly fur. "No! Mom!"

One of the birds beside her let out a disappointed “caw"and started to peck at one of Elder Willow's eyes. The white she-wolf's body lay beside Cleo her entrails and stomach laying half a wolf-length away from her torn-open belly.

Libby cried. Hot tears blurred her vision and rolled down her whiskers. Her small body shook. She didn't care if anyone heard her. Her Pack was dead.

It's my fault, she couldn't help thinking. If I hadn't run off...

Panting and paw steps announced the arrival of two other wolves, though Libby didn't bother to check who. If she was going to die and be reunited with her family in the Spirit Realm, maybe that was better than being alive without them.

"Spirits, no..." Dreven rasped, sounding distraught.

"I told you..." said Red Spirit. "Look, there she is."

Pawsteps got closer until finally Dreven stood behind the sobbing Libby. "Pup, come on. Let's go."

"Don't sound so heartless, Dreven. This sight is traumatizing."

Without waiting for a further answer the Leader-wolf grabbed Libby by the scruff and pulled her away from her mother's corpse. The pup promptly started to scream. "NO! NO! LEAVE ME WITH HER!"

Dreven ignored her cries and finally put her down on the ground near the grass of the clearing edge. "I'm sorry, pup," he whispered.

Libby continued to sob.

"They didn't even bother to burn the bodies..." she heard Red Spirit whisper.

"Then we'll do it. We can't let these wolves be stuck in the Mortal Realm. You look for some leaves to patch up their wounds with, I'll try to find something burnable."

Libby dropped herself on the ground and continued to wail. Her worst fears had come true. All she had left was Alex. What's going to happen to us now? We have no Pack! No family! No one! What if Dreven is going to leave us to fend for ourselves?

It took a while, though it felt like an eternity, but Red Spirit finally returned carrying some leaves between their jaws. They started to patch up the mortal wounds of the wolves, for as far as possible.

Feeling numb, Libby approached Red Spirit. The pup sat down beside the white-black wolf and buried her muzzle in the they-wolf's short flank fur.

"They're gone..." she whispered.

"I know..." Red Spirit stopped from working on covering the throat wound of a Fading Shadows wolf to turn to the pup. They gave her a brief lick over her forehead. "It's okay to cry. It's okay to feel helpless. But you're not alone. We'll look after you."

Libby blinked. "You aren't going to leave us?"

"Of course not!"

A question suddenly popped into Libby's mind. "What happened to Alex?"

"He's fine, don't worry. He's hiding in an abandoned fox den." Red Spirit continued to put leaves on Cleo's lethal wound.

Libby sniffed briefly and tried not to let her voice break. "Why are you do-doing that?"

"What? This? I'm covering up the wounds that killed them. If we burn them without doing so, they'll bleed endlessly in the Realm of Souls. That wouldn't be nice."

Libby sobbed again and rested her head on her front paws as she lay down. Watching Red Spirit do something helpful for her Packmates felt slightly better, plus it was oddly therapeutic, seeing the they-wolf put all of the leaves on the wounds.

Dreven finally returned as well, carrying something between his jaws. Alex's fresh scent clung to his fur.

"He knows," the old wolf. He dropped what he'd been carrying, two dark rocks.

"Alex?" Libby rasped.

"Yes. He's waiting in the long grass not far away. He doesn't want to see this. You can go back to him if you'd like. Red Spirit, you could watch them. I can finish patching the last ones up myself."

"That's fine," Red Spirit responded, getting up from working on Zeta.

"No." Libby stared at her paws.

"What?" Dreven inquired.

"I want to help burn them. It'll be the last thing I can do for them," Libby barked. She felt that somehow, maybe she'd get some tiny form of closure.

"Are you sure?" asked Red Spirit. "Don't you wanna be with your brother?"

"I'll go to him afterward."

Red Spirit met Dreven's eyes, and the Leader-wolf nodded. "Very well. Red Spirit, let's do these last ones together. Then we'll send them to the Realm."

The two adult wolves settled down and worked on some of the wounds again. Finally, only the head of Pike remained. Both Red Spirit and Dreven looked at it doubtfully.

"There's no body to attach it to anymore," the former whimpered.

"We can't leave her trapped like this between two worlds."

"I guess..."

Libby got some gruesome images at thoughts: Pike being stuck between the Mortal and Spirit Realm, only a decapitated head. Or the head alone in the Realm of Souls, bleeding out forevermore. Maybe the ones who had taken her corpse had it burned, too, and the body was walking around without anything attached. The pup swallowed hard, and whimpered.

"We'll burn it," said Dreven finally. "Maybe she'll find her way to her body in the Realm of Souls. But being between two Realms... it's the worst fate for a wolf."

"You’re right," Red Spirit agreed, though they still sounded uncertain.

Dreven grabbed the dark rocks he'd gathered earlier between his front paws. He struck them together a few times above a dry stick that'd come from the tree above the pup den. Sparks came out the first three attempts, and then finally one of them landed on the piece of wood, catching flame.

"You wanted to do this, right, Libby?" the Leader-wolf said calmly, holding the stick between the claws of one front paw.

Libby nodded, though she really wasn't sure. "I...I think so."

"Good. Come here," he said softly.

The brown pup took a few cautious steps before stopping, staring at the dead bodies. Dreven brought his paw closer to Libby's as she opened her jaws.

"Take it by the unlit end between your teeth, or paw, if you want to. Careful, careful. Yes... Yes, that's it."

Libby blinked and looked at the flame at the end of the piece of wood. It danced in the slight wind.

"Go on. You can do it." Dreven gave her the slightest nudge with his muzzle.

Libby walked forward and swallowed. She kept her eyes on the end of the stick that was aflame, not wanting to look at the broken corpses.

"Now, put the end of the stick that's on fire into their hairs. A place where they're dry."

The young she-wolf gently held the end of the stick to the brown fur of Zeta. It singed for a moment, emitting smoke and a distinct smell Libby didn't like, before finally catching fire. Libby did the same with the other dead wolves.

"Shouldn't you say something?" she asked Dreven, her voice low in grief.

Red Spirit answered for him. "When an entire Pack es murdered, Leader included, it's best to let them go in silence. Only Leaders, Seconds and Healers of the same Pack are allowed to say the final words they'll ever hear."

A third of the bodies were aflame. Libby's eyes sting from the sharp scent and strong smoke. This was much worse than when Brighten had been burned.

The trio watched the entire pile of wolves and coywolves catch flame in silence. Red Spirit held their head bowed in respect, while Dreven watched the skies as the embers rose up into it. The pup sobbing with her head buried into Red Spirit's fur, before the they-wolf finally got up and left the clearing.

"What's next?" asked Libby in a hushed voice after a while. The pile was starting to smell downright disgusting by now, and the flames had grown so big that she was starting to feel frightened.

Dreven turned to her. "Let's look for Red Spirit. They should be with your brother."

The duo of wolves went in the direction Red Spirit had gone in. Libby stared blankly at the ground while following the Leader-wolf. She felt numb. Everything she'd ever known and loved was gone.

"Libby..." Alex approached her as they finally reached the abandoned fox den Red Spirit sat in front of.

"They're gone..." Libby started to sob again.

"I know. Red Spirit told me."

"They're gone. It's... it's all my fault! Alex, I killed them!" Libby let out a howl of grief.

She expected him to agree with her. To call her out again. Instead she felt him nuzzling her fur. His breath was raspy and his voice hoarse, as if he'd been sobbing, too. "It's not your fault. Those Army wolves did this to them." He paused for a moment. Libby opened her eyes and pulled back from his hug. His bright yellow eyes met her dark brown ones. "Whatever happens next, I promise. His voice broke for a moment as he blinked in emotion. "I promise, no matter what, that I'll look after you. We'll always have each other.."

Libby's ears drooped as she let out a soft whimper.

"And we'll take you in," Dreven said softly.

The young male pup whimpered as well, before he also broke down into a series of whines of grief. Libby buried her muzzle in the longer fur on his neck while Alex started to lick her shoulder. The pups sat there in sadness for a while, and time seemed to slow down.

"Pups," Dreven said finally.

The young wolves looked up.

"I'll go back to make sure the fire doesn't get out of paw. Red Spirit, head to the rendezvous with the pups. Don't mention anything about them staying yet. I'll make the official announcement when I get return."

"Yes, Dreven," Red Spirit responded. They looked sympathetically at the pups. "Are you ready to leave?"

Alex looked up with his eyes wide. "Will we ever come back?"

"I don't think it'll be safe," Dreven barked softly. "The Army wolves might still come back. They've marked this territory as their own. It's so far away from their seaside-lands in the Southlands, but that at the very least means it's no longer safe here for other wolves, especially young pups."

"I see," Libby's brother responded, his voice eerily calm before breaking down into another sob.

Red Spirit nuzzled the top of his head for a moment with their muzzle before turning to Dreven. "Leave it to me to bring them home, Dreven. They'll be safe. I'll protect them with my life if I must."

"I expect nothing less," the Leader-wolf responded before turning tail and going back to the source of the smoke coming from over the grass.

"Home... We're leaving home," Libby cried softly.

"It'll be okay, Libby. It'll all be okay," Alex meekly tried to cheer her up, though he didn't sound convinced of what he was saying in the slightest.

Red Spirit gave the pups a small nudge with their black front paw. "There, there. Let's take you home."