The Moon Wolf

Chapter 5 (1st Draft)

"This means you stick close together at all times, and you listen only to me and do exactly as I say until the Orthos alpha takes you in. Because, until that time, I am your guardian. Understand?"

The children all nodded their heads dutifully and kept their eyes on the ground to indicate their compliance and their understanding that there were still dangers ahead. Penn was satisfied and with a clap of her hands they broke camp and headed further down the mountain.

They walked till dark and never caught a scent or met a soul. Penn was surprised that the neutral territory was so large. There was a lot of dense forest between where the treeline ended and wherever the Orthos border began. It made Penn a little edgy. She needed to find their territory and the pack's Beta soon. The kids had been on the run for five weeks now. The sooner she got them to safety, the better.

"We'll settle here for the night," she told Cassidy who had stopped by her side and was waiting to find out if this was just a quick break or a real stop. "No fire," Penn told her.

Cassidy sighed but nodded anyway. She knew the kids would be disappointed. It was getting colder at night and the children were finding it harder and harder to sleep through the cold nights. A fire would help, but it would also attract danger. Everyone was learning to accept that it was better to be cold then dead. Though, when their teeth were chattering, that was sometimes hard to swallow.

"Tell the kids to sleep in their furs. You know it's warmer that way," Penn told Cassidy impatiently. She wasn't annoyed at the girl, just tired of fighting the children all the time about the importance of sleeping in their fur at night and doing any number of things that were necessary for survival.

"I'll remind them," Cassidy said with a shaky little smile.

She watched Penn walk off before noticing Jackson and Ace at her side.

"Can we have a fire?" Ace asked quietly.

Cassidy shook her head no.

"Another night wont kill us," Jackson sagely offered to Ace, whose face looked as disappointed as Jackson felt. "Soon we'll have rooves over our heads and warm beds to sleep in every night."

"Better safe than sorry," Ace added with a heavy sigh.

"Lets get everyone settled in for the night," Cassidy suggested and the boys readily agreed.

Penn watched the pups work together to get everyone ready for the night. All of them were so tired form the exhausting journey, that no one seemed to have the energy that night to whine about a fire. In fact, most of the pups just huddle together in little clusters and fell promptly to sleep. It was both sad and sweet.

Once the young ones were settled for the night Penn called the five oldest over to her - Cassidy, Jackson, Noah and the twins, Ace and Archer. She examined their faces as they came. Each one looked as tired and as warn as the littlest pups. Penn's heart ached a little for them. But, it would all be over very soon.