Flame Wolf

Reborn Again

Again, I felt the warmth and roughness of my mother's tongue cleaning me. But, how? Hadn't they left? And hadn't I been just outside the mouth of my birth cave? What was happening? And then it hit me. I was reborn. After my pathetically short life of before, I had been given a second chance! It was a miracle! This time, I knew what to expect. My parents and siblings would leave me alone to die again, and I would get myself killed. But, if that were to happen again, why give me a second chance to relive the misery and despair of my first life? Why would the earth do this me? Maybe . . . maybe this time would be different. Maybe, this time I would have a good life. Live with my family, and they would teach me how to properly hunt. I might even get a chance to meet the other wolves of my pack. Hopefully, this life wouldn't be so short as my other one had been.

Later again, I could finally open my eyes. This time, my cave wasn't empty. In fact, it was clamoring with action. I saw several other pups wrestling in one of the corners, watchful eyes laid upon them. They were moving too much to count them, but I estimated about five or six other pups. One was silvery gray, two more were chocolatey brown, another was pure white, and the last one was multicolored with splashes of gray, tan, black, white, and brown just thrown all together on one tiny pup. I looked down at myself. I had brown fur with splotches of black thrown in, and a few patches of white here and there. I didn't know my eye color, but judging since all my siblings' eyes were either golden or green, that's what I assumed to be true to myself as well. I hobbled over to where they were playing and invited myself to play as well.

Once I had made my way over, I didn't know where to start. So I just jumped onto the top of their pile. Big mistake. They all looked in my direction and pounced. I was shoved to the bottom, forced to bear the weight of all the others when I myself only weighed a couple of ounces. I did not find this to be fair. In fact, I was so frustrated, that I sank my tiny little teeth into the nearest leg. The reaction? A strangled cry from one of the pups, but nobody budged. I huffed in frustration and decided I had to win this battle by sheer brute force. I would do it if I had to. So, I tried to claw my way out from under the pile. I struggled to turn myself onto my stomach, but I eventually prevailed. The next challenge was getting myself out from under my siblings. I dug my claws into the den floor and inched myself forwards until eventually I got myself unstuck. I yipped happily and ran around the cave in triumph at what I had done.

My siblings looked at me, amazed that I had managed to escape their grasp. They dispersed and ran after me as I did my victory dance around the den. One of my sisters, the white one, was barreling straight at me. I dodged to the side as she got close and she went crashing into the cave wall. I let out a high pitched squeal, somewhat like laughing. Two others came at me from the sides, and I put on a short burst of speed. They couldn't slow, and crashed head on with each other. My other siblings decided they couldn't beat me, and wisely stayed back. Was I becoming the alpha pup?

This life was so much better then my first. I was getting to play with my siblings and I was starting to understand the world. My other life had been so pathetically short, ended by who knows what. But what was that cold, white substance that I had tasted before my life was so sadly ended? I just had to know. I had learned from my past experience that the largest area of light led out into the great beyond, where the cold material could be found. I padded towards the cave entrance. I was almost there, but then my mother picked me up gingerly by the scruff and carried me back to where my siblings were. I whined loudly and cried, my paws stretching towards the opening to the den. My mother deposited me back with my siblings, and I was back to square one.

I didn't want to have to wrestle my siblings again, so I padded over to the other side of the den and sat down against the wall, watching. I have to admit, I learned a couple things from watching them wrestle. The first one being, never let your guard down. If you do, your opponent will surprise you and then overtake you while you're not looking. You need to protect your vital areas. If you expose them to the opponent, you're dead. I had already been dead, but I didn't really get to experience it as my death was so quick. Also, I learned that size does not matter. It's brain and strategy that does the trick, along with quickness and speed. You may be strong, but if you're a numbskull who can't run worth beans, then you're done.

As I watched my siblings for longer and longer, I began to see the strengths and weaknesses of each of them. For the white one, I saw that if she got flipped on her back, she seemed to have trouble righting herself. The silver one's weakness, like mine, was also that he or she was lacking in the speed department. One of the brown ones seemed to have sight issues, as it kept crashing into my other siblings, though I couldn't be certain. The other brown one seemed to be a bit slow in the brains department. He or she couldn't think fast enough or make decisions fast enough. But the multicolored one, no matter how closely I watched it, I couldn't sense any flaws. That pup was going to be some pretty serious competition for me, and I didn't like it. I wanted to show it who was boss.

Upon closer examination, I figured out the genders of my kin. The white one was a female, as was the silvery gray one. The two dark brown ones were males. And the invincible one, was also a male. I soon learned that I was a female as well, though I had no clue what I may have been in my first life. It hadn't done me much good except for teaching me how harsh and cruel that this world could be. I decided that I needed to give my kin names, otherwise I would never keep them all straight in my head. The white one I decided to call Raven. Why? Don't ask. The silvery gray one was to be called Winter. One of the brown ones I dubbed Dark, and the other one Oak. As for the seemingly invincible one? I decided to call him Rowan. Rowan seemed to like to pick on me. He would always challenge me to wrestle, instead of challenging any of my other siblings. Sometimes, I would happily oblige. But others, I shoved him away and found something else to do. No matter how hard I looked, I couldn't find a weakness in Rowan.