Path Not Taken

Part 24: Seperated

They leave the tunnel through a cave system, but then rocks collapse and the adults and the pups get separated.

We all awoke to the pitch black tunnel. Night guided us through a cave system. The ridged ground turned to flat stone. In certain places we had to line up, Sage's tail would hit my face and mine would hit Mallow. After a while all of us stopped. Snow had fallen into the cave in a big pile, a hole at top the top of the cave revealed a light blue sky. "Almost to the exit," Night said. Finally, I could see her, her body was much to skinny for winter, her eyes were tired, some of her fur in patches most likely from getting mites in the warmer seasons. Her eyes a pale grey.

The cave, it had stone that looked like icicles, but some of them reached from the bottom to the top. The bones of small creatures laid on the ground, it smelled faintly of the old she-wolf and I wondered if she been spending most of time here in the darkness. We rested once more, I stared at the pile of snow in the center of the cave, even though we hadn't gone that far, my paws were still sore from traveling so much. Sage, Mallow, Sharp and I were on one side of the cave, and the adults on the other. Bandit and Mother were talking to Night and it looked like he was apologizing to her. "I'm sorry," he told her, his tail dropped and his facial features looked soft. "I didn't realize just how how you had to scrafice."

We all laid in the cave to rest some more. My body still sore, but my stomach started to rumble as did Sage's. We hadn't eaten much since our little adventure. We groomed each other to try and forget about how uncomfortable we were. Bandit and Mother now talking quietly amongst each other. Sharp kept to himself and Mallow groomed Night. The old wolfs eye hidden under her eyelids. Then there was movement above, and a big long cloud of steam. The roof of the cave started to crack as the huge dark brown furry creature appeared. "Bison," Mallow whispered, stepping closer to Sharp. The cave roof sent stone flying down toward us we ran for the exit our tail between our legs, the stone chasing after us. Only only took us about a quarter of a mile and we were out of the cave, panting, dust and rocks still on the top of our pelts. Sage and Sharp were in front of my, there was a small cut on Sharp's back leg, it was bleeding, but it didn't look bad.

"Mallow," Sharp whined. A few moments later and Mallow burst out of the cave, her tail tucked as far as it could go. Sharp ran to her and licked the top of my head. "Don't do that to me deer brain!"

"I ran as fast as I could," Mallow said. "But I don't think we need to worry about me right now."

All of us looked back at the cave, Mother, Bandit and Night never came out. I ran back into the cave. "Creek, get back here!" Sage said behind me. The distance only felt like a blink to me, I could hear Sage's claw scratching the ground behind me. I ran all the to where the roof caved in. I could see the legs of the bison in the ruble. It caved in enough any wolf could climb to the ceiling of the cave and leave.

"Mom?" I barked. I scratched at the rock. "Mom! Mom!" Loose rocks came toward me, Sage grabbed my scruff and threw me back to the cave ground.

We were lucky they weren't too big, Sage glared at me. "What are you doing?"