The Calling...

[Keeper]

Keeper reached the clearing, his orbs wide, his spirits high. It felt so good to finally be out, to stretch his legs, and away form the tightness of the cave. He laughed as the wind carreesed his gray fur, kissing his auds with it's icy touch.

He stoppped and looked around, making out the dim shapes of other wolves of the terra. He smiled and threw back his dial, a call resonating from deep inside him.

Come. Come. We Hunt. The call echoed across the terra, it's sound filling every crevice of the land, inviting all the wolves of the Moors to hunt.

[Breeze]

Kiche plunged through foliage, until she reached the clearing. Her orbs clear, she gazed at Keeper, then whined, and licked the corners of his maw, showing her affection for him as an alpha. Then, she waited.

[Setsuna]

Cloud heard the call and loped down from the cliff. She reached the clearing and padded up to the alpha. Cloud bowed her head to the alpha in respect.
"Greetings, m'lord. I am dubbed Cloudshadow, or Cloud for short. I have been wandering for the past two summers, and have only recently come into the territory of Misty Moors. I come humbly to ask your permission to join your pack. I have not been part of a pack since I left the pack I was born in when I was three seasons old."
Cloud cringed inside, she knew she could have done better than that. Why did she tell the alpha she had been wandering? He surely would not care. She waited quietly for his answer.

[Keeper]

Keeper smiled down at Kiche and nodded briefly, then his eyes wandered back to the terra around him, looking for signs of other wolves. He sighed. Have they not heard my call? he asked himself, a nagging doubt pulling at his heart.

He pulled himself up to his feet as another wolf approached him. He listened to attentivly, then nodded.

"Welcome, Cloud. You may join our ranks and call yourself one of Misty Moors. You are free to roam the terra as you please. He said, but quickley added, "But can you stay with me for a few? I'm trying to asemble the pack for a hunt... We need food for the new pups."

[Breeze]

Kiche smiled at Keeper, then looked around, reflecting Keeper's uneasiness. Where were the others?

Strider bounded into view. Skidding to a stop, he immediately began speaking. "Oh! A hunt! I wanna hunt! Can I? Pretty please?" Strider spoke, eyes eagerly looking at Keeper.

Ebony quickly loped to the others. "Sorry if you've been waiting long, I was checking in on Jez and our whelps." He looked around, and was anxious immediately. "Where is everybody? If we're to satisfy hunger, we need more wolves! Not to mention there's three litters of whelps!" he added.

ooc: *hint hint* Notice the 3 litters? Keeper only knows of two... *hint hint*

[HondaRaycer]

Lakota's favorite howl, the howl that signifies a pack hunt is drawing close. Even if she could ignore the fact that she heard the new Alpha, Keeper's voice; she wouldn't want to. She lived for the hunt. She lived because of the hunt, everywolf did. And it was the one thing she was most skilled in. Even when brutes let her down, even when the rain soaked her fur and chilled her to the bone, she could hunt and it would drive her mind away from the depressing things.

From the Mirror Lake, she broke into a full run, pistons carrying her o'er the land. Trees became green and brown blurs, other wolves looked like they were part of the scenery. Lakota herself was a black bullet skimming the ground. She was at the clearing and stopped in front of the others almost right after Keeper had finished his howl. She was panting, plume beating at a hundred miles an hour, excited fire blazing in her faded yellow eyes.

She dipped her maw to the new alpha, glad that Sky was gone. She liked Sky when she was a pup, but when she became Alphess, Lakota lost all respect for her.

"Lead hunter reporting." She said, snapping her mouth shut and assuming a more serious look so Keeper wouldn't think that she was too thrilled to participate in a pack hunt. The one thing she couldn't disguise was the flames that still danced in her orbs.

[Setsuna]

Cloud smiled happily. Finally, finally, she was part of a pack that did not drive her off but accepted her and asked for her talent! She was estatic. Cloud had been wandering forever, it seemed, and now, just as she reached the brink of despair, her emotions soared again.
"Thank you, m'lord. Of course I will assist you in the hunt...after all, you /are/ the alpha."
Was that a twinkle in her eye? Cloud bowed her head and asked Ebony a question.
"Excuse me, m'lord, but did you say there were three litters of pups? I love pups, and if you need any help caring for them, I would be very glad to assist in any way that I can."
Cloud nodded her head to Keeper and Ebony, and backed away, and began loping around the clearing. If they were to hunt, she would have to stretch her muscles, sore from months of running. She stopped for a moment to try and scratch at the shallow scar along her right hind leg, and then began trotting 'round the clearing again.

[Breeze]

Strider's orbs gleamed at Lakota. "Wow! You're the lead hunter? That's so awesome! I'm Strider! This is gonna be my first hunt! Maybe you could teach me, and someday I'll be just like you!" Strider barked with excitement.

[Keeper]

Keeper laughed to himself at Strider's eagerness. He bent his maw down to the pup and smiled.

"Do you ready, young one?" He asked, his tassel swishing back and forth.

Keeper's head snapped up at the approach of an ebon bullet bounding up to him.
"Lead Hunter? You must be Lakota." He co-cked his head inquisitivly. "I believe we've never met. I'm dubbed Keeper, Alpha of the Moors. My mate, Taint, is back at the den, tending to our pups." He smiled at her, a trembling ball of unreaseased energy.

He co-cked his head and raised a brow at Ebony's remark, but replied anxiously. "Three?
may fortune bless us on this hunt, then.

Keeper looked at the ranks around him and nodded. "So, are we ready?" he asked his hunting party.

[HondaRaycer]

Lakota responded to the anxious little pup Strider first and foremost. If you wanted the pack to succeed long after you'd returned to the earth, then you had to teach the young'uns everything you knew.

"Well, sure I'll teach you, but it takes a long time to learn everything, and sometimes its dangerous." She warned him. Often it was only a split second decision that drew the line between making the kill and being killed yourself. Lakota knew that boundary of that line very well.

"Pleasure to meet you, Keeper. And may your mate and pups thrive and bring new life to the pack." She went through the formalities, once more dipping her maw to show respect to Keeper.

"There are a few Caribou stranded from their 'pack'. I could smell them when I was at the mirror lake. With three of us, surely we could take down one." She told Keeper. ::And a caribou would mean enough meat for four or five full grown wolves at least, so the females with litters would have plenty to eat.:: She thought. ::And Strider here wouldn't mind some caribou either.::

[Keeper]

Keeper nodded, absorbing himself in Lakota's wisdom.

"Thanks, milady." So are we ready? He asked the other wolves, his tassel swishing a bit impatently.

[©Lou Scarlet©]

Through the grass bounded a small, light-brown shape, four pairs of dark brown-pillars ploughing through the vegetation. A pair of emerald optics poked between the blades, focusing on the group of wolves ahead. Around the left eye, a blue ring was visible and behind the left ear stood a feather, attatched by a strip of leather.

Baby Pawz yipped excitedly as words like 'hunt' and 'caribou' reached his auds. His tiny tail wagged ferociously.

Suddenly a grey muzzle swooped out of nowhere and grasped the cub by the scruff. Baby Pawz squealed and strained his neck round to have a look at his kidnapper.

"Anarchy!" he barked, licking the grey maw with difficulty.

Anarchy grinned and lowered the cub to the floor. "What you up to?" he asked, his emerald eyes wandering towards Keeper and the others.

Baby Pawz puffed his chest out proudly, "I'm going on a hunt!" he bragged, "I bet Lou will be proud," Even though he'd recently discovered that Anarchy was his father, Baby Pawz still had a soft spot for the white wolf who'd found him in the first place.

Anarchy chuckled, "I'm sure she will, when she gets back,"

"Get's back?" Baby Pawz asked, puzzled, "From where?"

The grey brute sighed, "She and Lily have gone to find Red and sort things out with Chaos. I told Lou that I should come but she insisted I stay here with you,"

Baby Pawz's spirits dampened. How could he've forgotten that his best friend had been taken?

"Lou will find her, right?" he inquired, looing up to his father with big eyes.

"Yes of course!" Anarchy replied as if it was obvious. Although a cloud of dark covered his heart. What if something went horribly wrong? "Lou says she has back up..." he continued, unsure what this part meant himself.

Baby Pawz grinned, assured that all was well, before bounding off towards the Alpha, "I'm coming! I'm coming!" he yipped, leaping up and down under Keeper's nose.

[Breeze]

Strider looked at Baby Pawz. "Oh wow, we can learn to hunt together! I'm Strider! What's your name?" He asked after grinning at Keeper and Lakota.

ooc: Writers block...

[©Lou Scarlet©]

Baby Pawz's toung hung from his mouth as he smiled. Another pup? Cool.

"My name is Baby Pawz!" he yipped, "And this is my daddy, Anarchy!" his tail thumped the ground.

ooc| Me too!

[HondaRaycer]

Lakota eyed the excited pups warily. She knew how it felt to be super-excited and adrenaline filled before a hunt, but she also knew that caribou were the largest game a wolves could take down and only if there were several wolves. :: We should have a side hunt for the pups before the main hunt for the rest of us. That way they wouldn't feel left out. I could scare up some smaller animals and send them their way so they could whet their appetite for hunting.:: It wasn't that she didn't like pups, she liked them a lot even though she had to leave her own three behind with their father. A healthy caribou used its antlers wisely, was five times the size of a white tail, and had little tolerance for wolves. If the wolves on this hunt were tripped up by slower moving, smaller pups, the caribou would be more likely to take them down one by one, including the pups. Caribou were good hunters in their own right. That would spell disaster for the pack.

Knowing this, the black fae padded t'ward Anarchy, concern in her eyes. She lowered her voice when speaking to him, since she sort of labeled him as the 'daddy' for both Baby Pawz and Strider.

"Per'aps we should hold a side hunt, one where they could kill some smaller game, that way they wouldn't be so anxious to join us in taking down a caribou. Caribou don't just injure wolves. . .you know. . .they finish the job. . .if you know what I mean. If Baby Pawz and Strider are busy eating and sleeping from /their/ hunt, they won't interfere and possible be killed in ours."

She suggested to him, orbs then flicking to Keeper and wondering if he would agree with the idea. First she had to clear it with the pups' father though. She looked back to Anarchy, awaiting his response.

[Breeze]

Breeze nodded in agreement. "Yes, I too know the dangers of caribou. Especially if a wolf gets excited, and tries to take one by hiself!" Breeze was an experienced hunter, she loved to hunt, like most wolven. She added "Strider's not mine, his family's... gone. His parents, the alphas of my former pack, told me to protect him. Thus, I'm his guardian, although Ebony and Jezabel would be wise in their descisions about him too."

[HondaRaycer]

"Then would you mind a mini-hunt just for Strider and Baby Pawz? It would give them some experience. You gotta start small when you are small." She added to Breeze, then dipped her nose to the ground to smell where some squirrels and rabbits might have gone off to.

Lakota found Strider's story interesting. Everywolf had a story and Lakota enjoyed learning them. She'd never met Ebony and Jezabel though.

"I have three of my own, three sons: Magnum, Eclipse, and Chasen. They might still be with their father Zynx. . .but I hope not." That was in the past, and if it was meant for her to see her sons again, then she would. She didn't like to talk about it, sometimes it made her dwell on the past; quickly she snapped out of the reminesce she slipped into. "So. . . about the pups' hunt?"

[Keeper]

Keeper sighed, glad that there where more wolves replying to his call. But the pups where more of a concern. With Lakota's proposed 'cub hunt', he wagged his tassel excitedly.

"I like this idea, Lakota. It would be good for them, and It will teach them how to hunt when they're bigger!" Keeper replied happily.

ooc- stupid writers block.... Stupid English assignment.... lol

[HondaRaycer]

"Good!" Her plume wagged in response to the Keeper's being so in favor of her idea. She liked to please others and be helpful where possible. Being the lead hunter just gave her a good way of doing that.

She turned to the pups, anxious to get their hunt started, so the rest of them would have plenty of time to catch up with the caribou, who were moving north for the summer. Lakota didn't want to hunt outside pack boundaries, lest a fight with the neighboring pack ensue.

"So are ya'll ready to hunt?" She asked Strider and Baby Paws. As soon as they responded, she was going give them a few pointers and then dart off to scare up the three rabbits she smelled.

[Breeze]

Breeze grinned and winked at Ebony, as she watched the young whelps. "Can I? Oh please, can I?" Strider begged hopefully. "All right Strider, but behave, and listen to what you're told!"

Ebony grinned, as he watched Baby Pawz and Strider. A corner of his mind was worried, anxious that he wasnt with Jezabel and the pups. He shifted uneasily.