Wolv

23 - The den

Blasted rain.

I trudged forward, grimacing against the wind and driving torrent. I leapt over a boulder and landed hard on the slick granite, scrabbling to regain my footing.

The sky light up momentarily, then was swallowed up once again by darkness. The forest around me sung with the wind, as gust after endless gust raced through the trees, tearing at the millions of leaves and pine needles overhead.

A tiny ice pellet knocked on my forehead, and my grimace only deepened. The last thing I needed to deal with was hail, especially given how behind schedule I already was.

Aw, what the heck. I broke into a sprint, traveling down a tiny path that I'd beaten into the ground over the past few days. I trained my eyes dead ahead, searching for the tiny cave that had to be only a few more steps ahead. There it is!

I ran inside and shook my fur, grateful for the respite the cave provided. Well, to be honest, it wasn't really a cave--more like a tiny cavern created by two massive slabs of granite that had fallen together, creating a stone tent of sorts. Water dripped down from the seam in the rock above me, but it was nothing compared to the downpour that raged outside.

There wasn't much to see outside, but I stared out anyways. The rain, combined with the cover of night, left me with virtually no visibility in any direction. The occasional flash of lightening provided only the briefest of glimpses of the forest. I prayed silently that the storm would let up soon...I still had a lot of ground to cover before I could return to the den.

I threw my head back and howled as loud as I could, hoping that Jamie would hear me over the rain. I perked my ears and listened, waiting for his response.

C'mon, c'mon... After a few seconds, I head the faint sound of Jamie's response howl. I smiled to myself, glad that he'd heard me. I howled back once more, letting him know where that I was staying put for now.

When he responded, I picked up the faintest hint of annoyance in his voice.

I couldn't really blame him; I was going far too slow anyway. He'd been stuck with training me, and I hadn't made it easy for him. Essentially, he'd had to teach me things that everyone else had known for years--some of them, decades--and I had struggled to learn. I still couldn't hunt worth a crap; I was lucky if I ended up snatching just one rabbit for every six that he caught. As well, my endurance wasn't what I thought it was; in fact, it hadn't taken long for me to realize that I had been slowing us down when I'd journeyed out to the community with Spike, just over two weeks ago. No one had said anything about it then, but Jamie was always chastising me for being slow.

The past two weeks had been awful. After Nadie had woken up, the four of us had walked all the way back to the den at Black lake in almost complete silence. At first, Nadie had assumed I was ignoring her because of what had happened to Spike, but once we reached the den, it hadn't taken long for her to realize that I wouldn't be communicating with her anytime soon. She didn't know why I kept my mouth shut whenever she was around, but I could see the hurt set deep in her eyes. I wanted to talk to her, but I couldn't. I always felt like there were eyes watching me, waiting for me to slip up.

That fear, unfortunately, wasn't completely unfounded. At first, Kémé had watched me like a hawk from the corner of his eye, daring me to open my mouth to her. After a few days, David had taken over, stalking me almost every time I entered the den, and watching me fiercely until I left for my run.

They'd won.

Eventually, Nadie had given up trying to talk to me. Save for a sad look every now and then, we had nothing to do with each other.