Survivors The Path Of The Pack: Thunder's Tale

Chapter 21

Looks like our puppy group is complete...

Nip was scrambling over to join his brother and kin. "Hi everyone! Why didn't you tell me we were hanging out?" he whined, nudging his brother playfully.

Scramble rolled his eyes but grinned at his brother as they started to play.

"Not too rough," Thunder growled quietly as all the pups joined their game. She set her head on the ground and let her eyelids close over her brown eyes.

Maybe I can-

Thunder jumped awake, feeling as if her heart had skipped its pattern.

"What's wrong?" Nibble whimpered. Her light brown eyes were focused hard on Thunder.

Thunder shook herself a little, causing both Tumble and Nip to fall off of her leg, and licked her lips that she felt were suddenly dry.

"Nothing, I was just spooked. You can keep playing."

Nibble narrowed her eyes a little but turned away when both her sisters jumped on top of her.

That was close, Thunder thought nervously, watching as each puppy pawed at the one next to them, if I fell asleep, the whole Scramble thing could happen again! And this time with Alpha and Beta's pups! How bad that would be...

"Wow, Thunder. Why didn't you invite us to the puppy party?" came Breeze's soothing voice from behind.

Glad to have another distraction, Thunder turned to give Breeze a friendly nose bump. She soon noticed that another dog was at her side.

"Oh, you haven't met me yet. I'm Snap, a hunter," introduced Snap.

The dog seemed to be a Beagle with bright eyes. Thunder's gaze drifted to Breeze's. Breeze slightly twitched, indicating that they'll talk later.

"Well, it's nice to meet you. I'm Thunder," Thunder barked, playfully kicking Fluff off of her.

This is the dog who rejected Mickey? Thunder watched Snap closely as she joined in on the pup's fun. She seems... Okay. But why did she reject him?

Thunder decided to leave it alone as she came to her paws.

"Where are you going?" Scramble whimpered, hobbling onto his three working paws.

Thunder drooped her head sadly, "I'm sorry, Scramble. But I've got to get back to my High Watch."

"What's a High Watch?" Tiny butted in.

Thunder tilted her head, "I'll tell you later." With that, Thunder shared a goodbye with the pups and trotted off to go back to her punishment.

* * * * *

"One day down," Thunder muttered as she started her walk back to Camp. For the rest of the day, she'd spent her time up on her hill on High Watch, though no dangerous activity occurred, it wasn't half bad having a peaceful evening.

Thunder paused as she smelled one of her packmates scents.

"Hey!" came Chase's urgent voice.

Thunder let her tail sweep across the ground as she started to smile, "Hello. Came to escort me back as a prisoner?"

Chase let out a nervous laugh as she greeted Thunder, "Ha, no. Me and a few other dogs had been wondering where Sunshine was. Have you seen her?"

Thunder let her tongue swipe her teeth as she made it into their camp, "No. Actually, I haven't seen her in a few days." Thunder stopped walking so she could stare directly at Chase' brown eyes, "Do you think... She's in trouble?"

"Yes!"

Thunder turned as Daisy ran to her. The little dog put her paws on Thunder's side so they'd be neck to neck.

"I haven't seen her since the day you, Moon, and her pups had that argument!" Daisy howled, drawing attention to her friends.

Thunder dipped her head in worry as the smell of meat wafted into her nose. The evening hunting party had returned, dragging a deer behind them.

"What a great catch!" Sweet's voice boomed.

Thunder stared at her Alpha as the slender Greyhound came to inspect the pack's dinner.

"You've done well, my hunters," Sweet growled kindly, plopping onto her rump.

Lucky came up beside her, tongue lolling, "Yes, a fine deer."

Thunder took a peek at the deer. It is pretty nice, she thought, looking over the packs plump dinner.

"Alpha!"

Thunder whirled around quickly, recognizing the high pitched bark. "Sunshine!" she yipped happily.

Sunshine ignored Thunder to stare
at her Alpha. The little dog raised her head, meeting eyes with every single dog before barking, "I challenge Moon for the rank of Lead Patrol Dog!"

×××

AN:

There you are Sunshine! But where has she been all of this time? And why would a sweet dog like her challenge Moon?

(P.S. I don't think I put an Author's note last time, I just had nothing to say.)