Bloodfang

Changes & Heartbreak

1621

Hidden Paw didn't know how long he slept. The next time he woke up, it looked to be morning. "I sure have been sleeping a lot. I guess that attack really took a lot out of me," he thought to himself.

None of his family was in the cave he noticed. He was all alone. The loneliness of the cave didn't bother Hidden Paw too much though since he had grown so used to it. He had endured mornings where his family would be out. Half the time he would only have his mother at his side, but since she wasn't here, she was probably with his father. He got up and walked to the cave's entrance thinking maybe it was time to rejoin his siblings and training, such as it was for him. However, as he stepped into the morning sun, a fiery pain enflamed his body, causing him to spring back into the darkness of the cave.

Pain radiated through his body and only, slowly started to recede as he stood inside the darkened cavern. Once the pain and fright passed he started to wonder what in the world had just happened. He walked to the caves edge again and looked up at the sun as it hung high up in the atmosphere cushioned against fluffy, white clouds in the background of a bright blue sky.

He stepped out again. Very slowly. The sun felt hot. Really hot. He felt more than uncomfortable, and his fur felt as if it might molt.

"Hey Runt!"

Hidden Paw took a step back into the shade of the cave. He didn't know what was going on and he didn't want anyone else knowing that something wasn't right with him until he figured out what was wrong himself. They already thought of him as a weakling.

"Runt?" he heard again and he groaned. His luck lately had been nonexistent.

His eldest brother Moonshine along with his other four siblings Bear Killer, Slasher, Slade, and Celeste were walking in pack form toward him. Apart from being a runt he was different from them in regards of fur color. The rest of his siblings had a mixture of black and grey fur. Moonshine had grey fur making him look the spitting image of their father. Hidden Paw on the other looked like the spitting image of their mother. They had never invited him to walk with them. They also never called him by his name unless their mother was within hearing.

Their usual encounters consisted of them fighting each other or of him running away from them. In his current condition he didn't feel fit to do either of those. He sighed, knowing he didn't stand a chance with them today. Deep inside Hidden Paw resented that he had too. After all wasn't he pack, too?

"So Mother was right. You aren't dead are you?" Moonshine observed questioningly.

"No I am not." Hidden Paw fought very hard with himself to follow up with a sarcastic, "obviously."

"That's a shame," his sister Slasher remarked quietly to their brother Slade, but intentionally not quietly enough.

"You know you really must be desperate for attention," Moonshine, the future pack leader and the leader of his siblings snarled out quite arrogantly. "Yesterday while Father was teaching me how to hunt, Mother ran out on us. Why?" he asked looking around to his siblings in mock confusion. "Because of you! Why though really? Why does Mother act as if you are her favorite? I'm going to be this packs Alpha when I grow up," He puffed out his chest to show off his pride. "You're probably going to end up being an Omega..! That is if you make it to adulthood..." He growled out the last part quite viciously for a small wolf pup.

Hidden Paw tried to ignore Moonshine. After all his brother was just an idiotic wolf pup who was often blinded by his arrogance. Arrogance which he appeared to have inherited from their father. But he couldn't help the slowly growing anger as he listened to Moonshine's rant.