---Nyra’s POV---
I stared up, trying to figure out whatever was holding me. It definitely wasn’t a wolf nor any animal I had heard about. Its face was flat and weirdly furless, except for the brown locks that flowed over the top and back of its head, decorated with a few wooden rings and some feathers.
Blinking in confusion, I growled as it lifted me higher so we were face to face. Its brownish eyes shone with curiosity, as it reached an equally furless paw up towards my muzzle. Growling, I tried to wriggle out of its hold but it was fruitless, as it simply held on tighter, relaxing again when I stopped wriggling.
“Where are their tails?” Coda barked out in surprise, making me want to turn around to see if I could spot a tail on these creatures. The two that captured us were talking in that weird language, which made my ears flutter and strain, trying to understand what they were saying.
“Can you understand them Coda? I can only understand parts of it.” I breathed, looking up at the creature as it was still staring down at me, now frowning as he looked from me to my brother and shook his head, telling something to the creature behind me.
“Same here sis. Why are we so far away from the pack? If we were closer, we could have alerted them!” He whined softly before he yelped in pain, making me trash in the hold of that thing, wanting to protect my brother.
“Easy wolf, calm down!”
I froze as I understood what that thing said. Looking up at him with widened eyes, I saw him blink in confusion and shock, as if he couldn’t belief that I listened to him. I couldn’t belief it myself, but when Coda whined again, I started thrashing again, snarling wildly as I used my paws to scratch at the furless skin of that creature.
He dropped me with a pained hiss as blood seeped out of a few shallow scratches, while I crashed on the ground. Another of those creatures was bent in a threatening position over Coda, who was whimpering and whining as he tugged with his leg, desperately trying to get out of the vine around his hind leg.
The creature reached out for him and my paws reacted before my mind registered what I was doing. I darted in between the creatures opened legs and snapped at his hand, successfully nipping at the skin before he pulled back with a shout.
“Are you okay Coda?” I asked softly as I crawled over him, meanwhile keeping my eyes on the two creatures as they looked down at us. Coda whimpered and nodded slowly, still trying to escape from that rope around his paw, though we realized by now that we wouldn’t be able to get it off him.
The two creatures slowly lowered themselves on their hunches, looking at us cautiously as I growled lowly at them, joined by Coda as he twisted around to look at them. His paw was hurting him, I could tell by the way he winched and carefully moved around.
One of them, the one that hovered above Coda, made a hushing sound between its pink lips as Coda started pulling again. The other one, that had grabbed me before, had leaned forwards with his paws on the forest floor, stopping when I growled at him and snapped my jaws. I might be a pup, but I knew that I could cause pain with my teeth and claws.
They both looked at each other, as if they were communicating silently before one of them slowly stood up and circled us until he was behind us. I followed its movements while Coda kept looking at the one who had previously caught me, his growls becoming more worried than aggressive.
I observed the creature that was now looking at me; its fur on its head was black and fell straight down, only decorated with one white feather. The furs on his body were weird though; they smelled as prey. If my nose wasn’t tricking me, I smelled deer and rabbit on him but that wasn’t possible.
Maybe they ate deer and rabbit before they came here. My eyes widened at the thought because that meant they were predators, not prey. I followed his movements closely as he pulled a large claw out of his fur and bend down slowly, reaching slowly for the long strand of vine that formed the trap.
The silver claw made quick work of the vine and I sighed in relief; Coda was free again. We could go home safely. My relief was short lived however, because the creature started pulling on the rope, slowly but surely pulling my brother closer to him.
“Nyra! Help!” Coda barked out as he dug his claws in the forest soil, tearing it open as the creature kept pulling him in, meanwhile making calm, soothing noises. I snarled and jumped forwards, my paws thudding against the forest floor while I heard the creature behind me move as well.
I was tackled to the ground before I could reach Coda though. Struggling against my attacker’s hold, I whined when Coda whimpered in fright as the other creature stood up and reached for him with its claw ready in his hand.
My paws lost their footing as I was being lifted into the air again, one of the creatures paws firmly holding my two front legs together and its long limb pressing my body against its side.
“Let’s go home. We need to talk to dad.”
A whine escaped my mouth as my ears immediately flew back against my skull. They were taking us! We can’t leave, we’ll never be able to find the pack again! I tried struggling harder and froze when I felt something on my muzzle. The other creature was holding Coda in a similar position and had reached out for me to curl my top lip up, revealing my newly formed canines.
“Newborns, not weaned yet.”
With a growl, I snapped at the finger, which were still pushing my lip up and heard the creature snarl in pain. The one holding me chuckled.
“Told you to keep your hands away.” He smirked before reaching down with his own. I blinked and looked at Coda, who looked at me with his silver blue eyes. They looked above me and widened before he started wriggling against the hold around his chest.
I looked up and instantly, my muzzle was captured in the creatures paw, or hand as they called it. Crunching my muzzle together, I tried to shake my head to get him off but he simply pressed the back of my head against his chest as he wrapped something around my muzzle.
His hand pulled back and I growled, wanting to nip at his fingers before I realized that I couldn’t open my mouth. I growled again and tried to look at my nose. A brown band ran across it and it smelled like deer but it had no fur on it. I tried pawing it off but the male who held me quickly grasped my paws again and started moving.
I whimpered in fear and looked to the side as the other male walked in pace with the one holding me. Where were they taking us?
-----------------
Something brushed over my head, softly, tangling with the fur in my neck before it rubbed back up again. My mind was still sleepy but the touch wasn’t like when mom cleaned my fur. Something was…off.
Forcing my eyes to open, the first thing I noticed was the tanned, furless hand that was holding my muzzle, prying the string around it away as another set was brushing through the fur on my head.
I yelped and pulled away from the touch, franticly looking around until I spotted a sleepy Coda. I stumbled towards him as quickly as my sleep-induced paws could carry me and growled at the creatures around us.
Creatures, because the first two were being joined by several others. Looking around as I nudged Coda awake with my paw, I noticed that we were in some sort of den, although I could see sunlight seep in through the edges. The thing that had been so kind to remove the rope around my muzzle turned around and slowly walked towards us.
The male was much older than the two that captured us, who were sitting in the middle of the circle, their limbs crossed and their heads hanging down respectfully to the ground. The silver haired male stopped when I growled warningly, before it made an amused sound in the back of its throat.
“The spirit wolf has plenty of courage.” It spoke in its native tongue as I watched it warily while Coda stood up. Something was going on here.
---Coda’s POV---
I yawned slightly and tilted my head as I heard the male speak of us, naming Nyra a Spirit wolf. What was that? I pressed myself close against her as we both looked around warily. The old male stepped around us and went to a wooden bowl, where he started mixing flowers and plants before he pressed a large wooden stick in it, grinding it around.
My paw was sore and thumping with pain, even if I didn’t use it to walk around. Turning my head slightly, I started licking the wound and whimpered when it hurt even more. Nyra whimpered with me in compassion and lowered her defensive stance as she turned to watch me, her deep blue eyes heavy with worry.
The white fur on her neck rose up as we heard the male come closer again but this time I surprised myself by growling to him, lying down on the floor, as my paw couldn’t carry me anymore. Although there was a twinkle of amusement in his eyes, his expression was death serious as he moved as slowly as possible.
“Dad, I don’t think that’s wise…” One of the younger males said as he lifted his gaze from the ground, only to be trapped under the burning glare of the elder. “Clearly you’re not thinking at all, wounding a Spirit of the Night and capturing both him and his sister, a Spirit of the Moon.”
The elder’s tone was sharp and bit off, as if he wanted to growl like a wolf towards his pup. The youngster flushed and looked down again, not before throwing me a saddened and pained glance as he nodded and fixed his gaze on the floor.
The elder turned back towards us, now sitting on its knees a few steps away from us. I warily eyed him, knowing that a wolf could cross that distance with one single jump. This creature though, slowly took its time and stopped every time either Nyra or me growled at him.
He slowly reached out and held his paw towards us, underside facing us. I blinked and watched his paw with fascination; there were no paw pads! How did he run around then? I thought back of how the two youngsters caught us and realized that they only used their hind legs to run with. How strange…
A howl in the distance made both me and Nyra shoot up on our paws, Nyra supporting my weight as I leaned against her. Dad was calling us, howling out to reach us.
“Where are you?”
Nyra immediately wagged her tail and howled out as I joined in, crying out, “Here we are! Here! Here!” Hoping that he would hear our high-pitched calls. Our howls weren’t answered and I sagged down in defeat as Nyra kept her ears perked up. I looked around, only noticing now that the creatures were mumbling against each other, looking towards us while the Elder turned his head towards his pups, not moving the rest of his body.
“Their pack seems to call them. Are you two happy now? They might be never found again if the pack moves on and they’re too young to survive without their parents.” The two males flinched as if the elder struck at them, their whole scent changing as it filled with sorrow and regret.
I flinched when something cold touched the wounds on my paw and I whimpered as Nyra growled, stepping closer to the elder as he was rubbing some herbs on my wound before slowly wrapping it up with something. He kept his eyes on Nyra, as she stood a few steps away from him and showed him her teeth.
A few seconds later and he let me go and I looked at my paw. It seemed like he used something made of plants to wrap around the wound and some vines were holding the material against my leg. Nyra nudged it with her nose and sniffed it before she looked up and wagged her tail slightly at me.
The youngsters stood up after a word from their elder but before they could say anything else, another howl sounded, this time closer to us.
“Coda! Nyra! Answer me!”
I stared at Nyra and yipped, wagging my tail before howling out to respond dad.
“We’re here! We’re here dad!”
Our ears were pricked up as all the creatures were deadly silent before we heard the beautiful voice of dad call to us, making Nyra yip in excitement as I walked towards her. “We’re coming to get you.”
The two youngsters looked at each other as the Elder slowly walked towards the entrance of the den and opened it before he stared at the two. “Fix this!” He snapped, pointing at the two young men with a stick before pointing to us. The men swallowed slightly, fear tainting their scent as we heard distant howls and barks coming closer and closer.
Slowly, both of them made their way to us but Nyra and I ran as fast as we could towards the entrance and through it, winching slightly at the sunlight that stung in our eyes. Warmth behind us alerted us of the two creatures stepping out behind us before they slowly sat down again.
A warning bark made me turn my head towards the source and my eyes scanned over the strange arrangement of dens we just escaped; skin of prey draped over long wooden sticks, standing up straight in the ground and forming a cone with the top left open. I finally found the source of the bark, as Dad peeled away from the shadows, closely followed by the rest of the pack.
I yipped with excitement and took a few steps forwards, looking back when I heard movement. The elder male had joined his two pups and was looking at the pack with respect in his eyes. Dad’s snarl grew in intensity, making the elder turn his head away from him as it lowered himself to the ground.
A warm tongue brushed over my fur, making me look up at the worried eyes of mom. “Where have you two been? We’ve been looking everywhere for you!” Mom scolded as she started nudging us with her nose. Dad stepped up beside her, keeping his eyes trained on the three figures in front of him.
“The pups are not to blame Kyala…I can smell the humans on them. They didn’t leave the pack boundaries on their own will. They took our pups.” He ended with a snarl, slowly approaching the three…humans. The two young male humans were fidgeting on the spot, growing more and more afraid as father approached them.
Mom nudged my hind leg, making me whine painfully as she accidently nudged the wound. Father spun around at the pained sound and growled deeply from his chest while Fergal and Keeran kept a close eye on the humans. Both of them nuzzled the plants that were wrapped round my leg.
“The elder wrapped this around it. It feels less painfull.” I added when father’s eyes blazed with anger. He turned around to look at the older human, his gaze softening slightly before he looked at the two youngsters and walked up to them. The youngsters froze, slowly looking up at dad as he was three pawsteps away from them.
He growled lowly, warningly and I knew if these humans would try the same thing, father wouldn’t be so lenient. With a low snarl aimed at the two, he turned around and guided us towards the others. I glanced back at the elder, who was smiling at the pack and stopped for a moment.
Nyra joined me as she sniffed the bandage and wagged her tail lightly before we both looked at the elder and wagged our tail, yipping slightly as thanks. The human produced the same amused sound as before, shaking his head slightly before we turned around and followed the pack towards our home.
We were free again!
So, the pups are free and mostly unharmed :D
Hope you liked it ^-^
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Now i'm off to write the next chapter xD