Book 1 || Silver's Choice

| Chapter Fifty-Eight

I smiled. Artemis Rivers. Sounds good to me!
I looked up and saw the weather was getting better. The harsh wind that had been here — I hadn't even noticed — and the thunderstorms in the distance were going away now. I smiled even brighter, seeing this. I turned back to Artemis and said, "Come on, we need to get up."

Panting and gasped from the pain, I fell down and lay there on the ground. Artemis might be light-weighted, but my energy hadn't returned. Dragging him onto my back and flying up is not as easy as it seems. Especially because I was much smaller than him.
"Get away from her!" Spirit Walker immediately yelled, while running towards Artemis, intending to kill.
"Spirit, no!" I said, but she didn't hear me. I looked at Artemis and saw he didn't want to kill Spirit Walker, and thus he backed away. If he backed away two steps more, he would fall into the river. It was up to me to put an end to this. Of course, I have to do everything alone.
"Stop!" I yelled. I caught the attention of Artemis, Spirit Walker and the Squad. They better listen to what I have to say or someone is going to die today.
Right when I wanted to tell them about Artemis, Ocean Riff suddenly hugged me and asked, "Are you alright? What happened? I wanted to go after you, but Akela forced me not to when I saw Devil was going down with you and I was afraid it wasn't going as planned so I started panicking and wondering if I will ever see you again and I thought I would never be able to tell you..."
I rolled with my eyes. "Okay, stop, stop, stop, stop!" I was not in the mood to hear what he wanted to say. "As you can see, I'm still alive! And about Devil..."
Ocean Riff's mood suddenly changed and he turned to Artemis. "You! You hurt her!" Then he jumped up and started attacking Artemis.
I sighed and mumbled, "And there we go again." I turned around to see Ocean Riff going completely insane. Then I admired Artemis' battle techniques once again. No matter how hard Ocean Riff was trying to hit him, he only hit air and nothing else. Artemis just stepped out of his reach — he was wearing out Ocean Riff, clearly. And it made me laugh.
"Stop trying to hit me and hit me!" Artemis said, clearly trying to hold back his laughter. I couldn't blame him.
"I will kill you!" Ocean Riff shouted in anger as he started chasing Artemis around the rocky environment.
"No, you won't," Artemis said. He then rolled his eyes and kicked Ocean Riff's paws away, making him fall on the ground. Artemis sat down in front of Ocean Riff and philosophically explained, "You know very well what happened, the day I killed your boyfriend. I had no intention to killing him. Please, believe me. He attacked me — Coral — and I just defended myself. Is that true?"
Ocean Riff bowed his head and snorted. He seemed to give into this, because I knew he knew it was the bitter truth. Although he had seen it with his own eyes, I believes Artemis was telling the truth. If Artemis had just defended himself, then Coral must have died that way. "But still..." he sniffled. "It hurts."
Artemis confidently got up and walked over to me. He then whispered in my ear, "Tell them about me. Go ahead, Silver, tell them."
Even though I thought this wasn't the right time, I agreed with him. I gathered the Squad and told them to sit down and listen. Then I began telling them about Artemis Rivers.

Fallen Leaf and Mott are mates, that's a fact, but they haven't been this long. When Artemis was little, he used to cross the borders from the Forbidden Forests and the Randar Forests, searching for Fallen Leaf so he could play with her. Their puphood was filled with those memories, but soon Fallen Leaf found Mott. Mott said, "Go away from that bastard! Remember where he comes from?"
Fallen Leaf indeed remembered where Artemis Rivers came from, but hadn't paid attention to that one little fact before. Now that Mott had mentioned it, indeed, he was dangerous. So she said, "You heard Mott! Stay away from me!"
Fallen Leaf and Artemis had promised each other to stay with each other. They were one year "together", back then, when she left him. And they would have become mates if Mott hadn't been there. After that, Artemis returned home with broken-hearted. He told Allison, his mother, "Mother, I will take revenge for this!"
"Don't go!" Allison told her son.
"I hate being hurt all the time!" Artemis said. "First they bully me because of who I am, second they bully me because of where I come from!"
"It's better to be hurt than to hurt others," Allison said, trying to hold back her son from heartfelt revenge. "Nice wolves can live with that."
"Yes, Mother," Artemis agreed. But that night, he went away from home; he went after Fallen Leaf.
Two years passed and Fallen Leaf finally gave birth to her daughter — their firstborn Darkwhite was two years old, back then. Artemis was watching this unfold somewhere in the bushes where he had a good view on the cave. He couldn't help but smile at seeing little Oakleaf turn around and try to make her way. From that moment on, he knew he couldn't harm that little pup in any way. That burning hate in his heart finally melted. "I will be watching you, Oakleaf, you can be sure of that!"
After some time, Oakleaf went too far from the cave. Artemis found it very stupid of Oakleaf, so he went to find help — how could he try to convince Oakleaf when Fallen Leaf was there, wondering where her daughter could be? And if Fallen Leaf would find him, he would have a lot to explain. So, Artemis ran into a female badger with her five cubs. Before he could say anything, the female badger said, "You are Devil! But aren't you the Pr—"
"Not anymore," Artemis replied, interrupting the female badger, who appeared to be Lisa. "Can you do me a favor?"
"Of course, my Lord!" Lisa said.
"Could you make sure that pup over there," he said, pointing at Oakleaf, "will not go this far away from the cave again. As mother of five cubs, you should know what a pup — cub — isn't allowed to do."
Lisa nodded her head. "It's an honor, my Lord! Shall I tell her about you?"
Artemis shook his head. Looking at Oakleaf, playing around, he absently said, "No. I want to tell her myself."
"Alright, my Lord!" Lisa agreed. Then she said, "Sire, whatever happens with you, know that she will once be there for you."
Artemis nodded and watched Lisa approaching Oakleaf. They talked a little and a brave badger cub, who appeared to be Silver, bravely stepped forward towards Oakleaf. The both of them talking and after that Lisa went away.
Artemis smiled. "Oakleaf, whatever you are, one thing's for sure: You are a survivor!"