Chapter 1, (The Battle) Canis:

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The scent of prey hung in Canis's nose as she stalked the squirrel sitting in a clearing in the brush of the pine forest. She was well aware that this was going to be her first catch of the season. Spring, was finally here, and the hungry bellies of all the wolves in Greypack needed to be fed.

She finally got close enough to the squirrel to pounce on it. She hunched her shoulders, and prepared to kill it in one blow of her paws. She pounced on it, and gave it one last bite before it was finally dead. She carried it over the hill, and past the oak tree, that signaled the camps boundaries. The melting snow crunched underneath her paws, even though she was trying to keep quiet in rouge territory.

She padded through the opening in the thorn bush wall, and into the center of the camp to put her catch on the pile.

"Success today I see,"  the alpha wolf of Greypack, Lykaios calmly called to her from his perch on the boulder, "So we can take that as a good sign that the winter season is coming to an end?"

"Yes," she replied, "This was my first catch in a while!"

"Well I'm glad that we can start regaining the packs energy again." He sighed with relief in his eyes, and started grooming his muddled dark grey coat. 

Canis felt pride, and with her work all done, she decided to pick up some prey of her own, and start eating in the guardians hollow. After all, it was only about midday.

She pried her head into the hollowed tree where all the wolves with the title as guardians sleep, eat, and discuss hunting and territory guarding together.

Her pack-mate Sigiura saw her enter and called to her, "You sure did make Lykaios happy when you brought in that squirrel just now, I saw the whole thing!"

"It was just a squirrel," she remarked, humbly. But Greypack's alpha wolf, although usually calm, always got concerned every winter due to the clan not being fed well enough, and not being able to fight or hunt properly if needed to.

"NONSENSE," she exclaimed happily. They both laughed.

"Keep it down, WILL YA?" their grumpy fellow guardian, Fellan barked from his nook in the hole. He jabbed Siguira's light grey shoulder with his paw.

"Jeez, jeez, okay, all right, I'll stop!" Fellan said nothing, but only crawled back into his spot to sleep once more.

"I think we should have a nap, ourselves," Canis suggested. But, before her friend could say yes, she was already closing her eyes in exhaustion, and slowly drifted to sleep.

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She woke up to the sound of her friend worriedly barking in her face, "Canis, you have to wake up! It's Snowpack, they're raiding our territory!"

Canis immediately sat up. Snowpack was attacking now? Why? It was usually Timberpack that scavenged on their territory.

They rushed out of the hollow, into the light of the sunset. Mothers were gathering their pups into the safety of the nursery, and the rest of the wolves, old enough to fight, were preparing for battle. Through the entrance she could see Snowpacks leader, Iceout followed by all of his Guardians, ready for battle.

Greypacks chief, Tripaw was at Lykaios's side howling orders to the wolves of Greypack.

"Hyjack, you'll hold the 3rd flank, Mingan, you'll hold the second flank, and me, Lykaios, Canis, and Tuka, we'll be in the front."

I'm in the front, she thought, scared of the possibility's that...........that this could be my last battle.

She shoved those dark thoughts away as they plunged down the slope of the great hill, down toward the army of Snowpack wolves. It had started to rain, and now it was pouring, with thunder and lightning above their heads, the packs finally got thrown into battle, clawing and biting and scratching each other.

Canis tussled with a wolf white as snow, snapping at his hind legs. He was much bigger than her, but she was faster. She broke away, and then jumped at him again, but he was ready for her, and he knocked her clean off her feet and was soon on top of her, ready to make a killing bite to her neck. This was it.

She went limp, and the wolf on top of her drew back, his jaws open wide. But all of a sudden, a huge force blew him off of her and she stumbled to her feet, confused but relieved. There was no wolf from her pack close enough to have done that. It must have been a wolf from.......another pack.

She retreated back to her borders, where the rest of her pack were battling the first squadron of Snowpacks wolves. She could safely examine the crowd of enemies from here.

She only got a quick glance of her rescuer when he was saving her. He was white as fresh fallen snow, and he must've been big to be able to knock her attacker off of her. She did a clean sweep of the area, but nothi- wait. There. Disappearing behind a distant pine tree, was the one that met her description. The white wolf hid himself from his pack-mates, worry and guilt clouded his jade green eyes as he watched the battle from afar.

Breaking her thoughts, Snowpack's alpha wolf, Iceout howled to Greypack from a nearby boulder.

"You know what you did Greypack!" he threatened through the restless storm, with the wind almost blowing him off his feet, and the rain pelting at his coat. "We will never forgive you! Never! We'll be back soon, very soon!" And with that, he raced down the slope in rage calling, "Retreat! Retreat!" All of Snowpack charged back into the white-tipped mountains, towards their camp..........including the mysterious wolf whom had saved her.


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