Little Wolf

Chapter Three

The young girl carefully sunk her claws into the bark of the old oak tree. Her eyes flickered around, searching for the best way to climb up. Slowly she lifted up her left hand, reaching out of a branch close to her. As soon as her hand closed around it, she quickly began to climb up. Her claws on her hands and feet left small dents were they had sunk into the dark to hold herself up. She quickly leapt from branch to branch, being as quiet as she could. With practice she had managed to be able to climb trees quietly without slipping.

Silently she crouch among the branches, her green-blue eyes watching the ground below. She watched some of the pups she was training with run by, searching for the others. Fire-Flower had made sure to roll around in pine needles at the beginning of the training exercise to hide her scent. It seemed to of worked as her pack-mates ran by her and the tree she was in. She grinned, revealing sharp teeth that had a red hue that was likely from the blood and flesh of the animals her and the wolves ate. Her body had grown to be able to digest raw meat, which was good, as she would need to in order to eat. It would be dangerous for her to attempt to light a fire, as she was still young and could easily cause a forest fire, which neither her nor the wolves would be able to put out. So, in the end, all the wolves had been thankful when her stomach aches from eating raw meat had ceased.

She shifted her body from one angle to another, looking around the other side of the tree for anyone else. The pups at her level and her were all participating in a training exercise that day. All of them were to run out into the forests and hide. One pup had been chosen to find everyone. If you were found, then you joined the seeker and together searched for the others. It looked to Fire-Flower that she was one of the few left unfound. She felt proud at the fact that she remained unfound. It told her that she was high in her level and wound likely soon be moving up a level in training. Lionheart had said she was doing well in training. She froze at the sound of another group of wolf pups running by. Her breathing nearly ceased and her body was fastened in place. She watched as they dashed by, not taking a notice to her. They probably had not seen her up in the tree, as she was the only one who could climb trees, and had also probably smelt pine and figured it was just the forest scents.

More time passed. Perhaps an hour by now. She figured she was one of the last ones left. Maybe even the only one remaining unfound. By this point she had moved from her hiding place, climbing up different trees and hiding in bushes a few times too. Fire-Flower had also made sure to coat herself in the scents of the forest again, as the pine needle scent had seemed to be wearing off.

Currently she was sitting up on a high branch of a elm tree, her eyes watching the ground below her. Occasionally she heard someone call out a "found you" or someone would call out a name. Those who called out the names of who they were searching for told Fire-Flower who was still in the game. There were not many left, and she happened to be one of them.

She smiled, happy about how well she was doing at the game, and turned her head back to face the land in front of her. She was close to the edge of the forest itself. Only about two miles away lay the human kingdom. A place she had been forbidden to go, just like every other pup. They were warned that humans were dangerous creatures that would kill a wolf the second they got a chance to. Humans were not to be trusted.

Her body froze and her ears would of perked if she was a wolf. An unfamiliar scent crossed her nose. Faintly she heard paw steps, but they were different than the paw steps of a wolf or deer. They were heavier and had only one beat instead of two. She quickly leapt to a tree close to her, curious to what the scent and new creature or creatures were. She had completely forgotten about the training exercise by now. Fire-Flower heard voices as well, but they were not speaking in the native tongue of the wolves. They spoke in a different langue, and even though she had never learned it, she managed to recognize the meaning of many of the words. "Les loups chassent dans les forêts ici. Ils sont des créatures dangereuses Jack, souvenez-vous que." She recognized words such as loups, which meant 'wolves' and les forêts, which meant "forests.' Fire-Flower managed to piece together that the man was speaking about the wolves in the forests, but she was unsure of what exactly he was saying.