Prologue
I starred at Duck, like she had gone mad, she just grinned one of her silly grins up at me. I laughed, “I’m a little surprised that you even had to ask!”
DUCK
I looked at him, smiled, and giggled, “You know Ghost… It’s only fair that I asked the question this go around.”
“And hopefully either of us never have to ask it again…” Ghost said, getting up, I too got up. My ears caught the sound of rustling in the bushes, and I sighed.
Ghost looked at me puzzled, “What was that for?” He asked.
I smiled and walked over to him and whispered, “We’re being watched…. We have been for a while…”
Ghost looked at me stunned, then to the trees, “Come on you guys, and get you tails out here now!!” He said a rough edge to his voice.
We stood, side by side waiting for the guilty party to come out of the bushes surrounding the clearing we were standing in, as each wolf stepped out, we smiled, “So… happy now?” I asked.
Everyone smiled, and grinned big grins, while Dew walked up to us, her face a picture of hurt and love both at once, “You know… I never thought I would see you two like this again… Makes me remember how much I missed it…” She said, running the last few steps to us and rubbing on us like a cat.
We smiled and laughed, “Dew…. We love you, and we’re sorry.”
She looked up at us, “I love you guys too.”
As the pack members around us finished giving their congrats, I looked up to the fading stars and smiled, “Nighttime sure is a wonderful thing.”
“Yes, but the night will be over soon and our pack members will be wondering where we all are…” Swift stated.
I looked to Shadow, “Go back to the den… and get everybody… it’s about time we reunited the packs…” I said, trailing off and smiling at Ghost.
“As the Eternal Knights of the Phantom Hills Pack….”
Chapter 1 – BIG NEWS… and Lots of it…
I watched out over the reunited pack members, as everyone got settled in for the winter, I was turning three soon and I wondered if Ghost was thinking of the same things that I was , but I highly doubted it…
“DUCK!!” Moon came running up to me screaming, “Duck!!” I jumped to my paws thinking something was wrong.
“What is it Moon…?” I asked, my eyes wide, for Moon hadn’t really ever yelled like this before, but the expression on her face was one of excitement, not of fear or a look of a worried wolf, so my heart stopped pounding for a few seconds.
Moon Stone lowered her voice, “Guess what?!” She said, in a whisper with a big grin on her face.
I looked around to the other females who had had this look on their faces every time each of them had told me the news, that I was pretty sure Moon would be blurting out soon, “Yes…?”
“I’M GONNA HAVE PUPS!!” She did a little skip, happy dance thing and looked at me, grinned again and raced over to Frodo.
I watched them, then got up and went over to Ghost, “Hey.” I said walking up to him and being greeted with a lick to me cheek.
“More pups I’m assuming…?” He asked.
“Yea… our pack is growing…” I said, looking to each of the females that were now carrying pups.
“Let’s see there’s Moon, Sef, and Swift… and I think Rose…” Ghost said, looking out at the pack members. “Our pack really is growing… big…” Ghost added, it sounded like there was a new found worry in his voice, but I wasn’t paying attention really, I was thinking about a strange feeling I had in the pit of my stomach…
I sprang to my paws, feeling an unexpected sliver of movement in my stomach. Ghost looked at me puzzled, “Duck… you ok?” He asked the worry in his voice again.
I looked to the ground, then to his face, “Yea… I think so…” I said, I didn’t want to know what was going on, but I had a pretty good idea… and so did someone else in the clearing that had her eyes on me, watching me closely, with great wisdom in her eyes…
“I’m going… for a walk…” I said, turning on my paws and practically sprinting out of the den site clearing…
GHOST
I watched Duck go, still puzzled about what had just accrued, “What was that all about…?” I asked, not really meaning to speak it out loud.
Sita came up to me then, a knowing smile on her face,
“1, 2, 3, 4, you’ll never know until they are here…
She looks as one, but holds many more...
You think she is crazy for her reasons,
But she hides it from you out of fear…”
She said, still smiling, she walked away leaving me absolutely baffled…
Chapter Two – Heart to Heart, Eye to Eye, Head to Head
I ran through the trees, scared out of my wits over what had just occurred. I didn’t know, until I heard the footsteps, but I was being followed…
I spun around to find a big grey-silvery male wolf starring back at me, I sighed, “I’m guessing you know…” I said, not really as a question more of a statement.
Moon smiled, “Of course I do Duck. You can’t hide anything from a Medicine Wolf…” He said, walking up beside me and sitting.
I smiled, “That’s what you think… But you just now found out otherwise you would’ve said something…”
Moon looked at me, “Yes… I just found out, but it’ll take your dimwit of a mate a while longer to… and believe you me, it won’t take long until it starts to show…” He said, casting a side-long glance at my stomach.
I cringed away from his gaze; I wasn’t one for starring, “Well… I’ll have to keep it from him as long as possible…”
Moon looked at me again, “Why do you hide it Duck? Having pups with the wolf you love, it isn’t such a bad thing, to be hiding…?”
I looked up to the sky and sighed, “Moon, I’m not like other wolves... My perspective is you are alone no matter what it is you are trying to overcome… I’ve been alone, never had a real family, since I was around six months old… and now being three,” I almost choked on the word, “it’s going to be hard to except the fact that now I have a family…”
Moon looked to the sky to; we both had a love for it, “You know Duck… it seems to me as if you are saying that it scares you to think that Ghost will hate having a family…” A paused, averting his gaze, “am I right?”
I looked away, as I felt the blood rush to my ears, “Moon… sometimes I have my suspicions that you can read minds…” I said, turning my head back to him, raising an eyebrow, after I had calmed down.
He laughed, a hearty laugh, “Duck, sometimes I wonder if you can even be considered part of a pack… You always stick to Ghost, and when there is a problem… you don’t consult anyone until its either too late, or they force it out of you…”
I looked at him bewildered, “Moon… it’s hard for me to be beside anyone other than Ghost… and wolves that I know well and not feel a little anxious… I… lost all trust in any and every wolf, the day my family was slaughtered…” I stopped abruptly, “Sometimes I wonder if you’re right…”
“About what?” He asked, looking over at me.
“Whether or not I can even be considered as part of the pack…” I said, trailing off.
He smiled at me, “Duck you may not be very sociable, but you have many assets that make up for that...” He said, in his husky voice.
I sighed and got up, “Thanks Moon… You’re still a puzzlement to me even after these last two years.”
“Are you going to go tell him?” Moon asked, even though he obviously knew the answer already.
I laughed, “Moon, you know the answer to that… I’ll keep it to myself thank you… and you’d be wise to do the same…” I called, over my shoulder, a hint of a challenge in my voice.
He laughed, and muttered something I couldn’t hear, and by the few words that I did catch, it sounded as if it was something he was better off if I didn’t hear.
GHOST
A few months had passed since Duck’s odd behaviors started, since then she had been, lagging behind the pack constantly, enough to drive any wolf insane with worry, she had been sleeping a lot more, I figured it was just the onset of spring, the time amount of day light also having an effect, until that is she started eating more than she had ever eaten before, there was also this odd milky scent that wavered about her. What drove me crazy the most, was everyone in the pack seemed to know what was going on, but me, What was I missing…?
Chapter Three – Revealed
I sat in the corner of the den, where I had been the last few days, Ghost had gotten tired of me not telling him what was going on, and had been bugging me about it the last few days. So I pretty much just locked myself up in the den to escape further nagging…
“Come on Duck… It’s not that hard to tell me…” Ghost said, walking into the den’s entrance.
I grunted turning my head away from him.
“Come one please.” He said, stepping closer to me.
I looked up at him, “It’s nothing Ghost…”
His eyes hardened, “Oh so its nothing when your lagging behind the hunting party and on patrols, your sleepy ALL the time, you could latterly eat a whole deer by yourself, and you have this strange m…” He stopped mid-sentence, the realization seeming to hit him, “Why… Are you… pregnant?” He stammered, watching my reaction closely.
I scowled, “So what if I am?!”
He raised an eyebrow, and his face grew serious, “What do you mean ‘So what’ this is something that I would like to know…”
“Well now you know…” I said, looking away from his face.
“Why didn’t you tell me…?” He asked, in a tone that could’ve been considered a growl.
I looked up at him, then to the ground, “I was… scared…” I whispered.
“Sorry… what?” He asked, a little confused.
“I was scared alright!?!” I said, jumping to my paws.
He looked at me, baffled.
Chapter Four – Family Forever and Always
“What do you mean you were scarred…? You mean you were scared of me…?” Ghost took a step back, away from me, causing me alarm.
I looked up horrified that he would ever come up with an answer as stupid as that, I jumped to my paws and rounded on him, “Are you nuts?!?” I paused, growling, “How stupid are you? I’ve NEVER, ever since I met have I been scared of you… I was scared of how you would take this… I’ve heard all about your past…. I know you don’t take well to families… And I know for a fact that you were hesitant about taking in Dew…”
He scowled, “Now listen here missy, just because I had problems in my past with my family, doesn’t in any way, shape, or forum, have anything to do with the family that you and I will have together, one of these days!!”
I looked up at him, and a smile slowly spread across my face, “Ghost… do you know how much I love you?”
A smile lit up across his face too, “Maybe I do… Maybe I don’t…” He walked up to me and licked my cheek, “Duck, anything that you have to tell me, that has to do with our family, or anything else, from now on… don’t be scared, I won’t get mad, or anything else, and if you thought that this would make me not want to be your mate anymore… your crazy!”
He paused, smiling down at me, “You do realize I’m very, very happy about this…? There is nothing I’ve ever wanted more than to have a family with you… Well… besides the fact that I never want to lose you again…”
I looked up into his amber eyes, eyes that always hold their own fire in them, “Ghost… you’re never going to lose me to anything. No matter the obstacle, we can overcome it… together. We’re a family, you, me, and Dew… Forever and Always…”
I looked over to the den entrance as Dew’s head rounded the corner, her eyes were lit up, and her facial expression was one to die laughing over, “YOU’RE… I’M… YEA SIBBLINGS!!!!” She ran over to us, and was bouncing up and down like a little kangaroo the rest of the night, as we officially announced the news to the pack. Everyone smiled, and grinned, and congratulated us. We were happy… but how long would that last…?
Chapter Five – Caught
I walked along the edge of the ridge line, scenting for the next turn the elk herd we were tracking took. I was out hunting with Moon, Arashelle, Kogasio, Lyanti, and Ariant, and we were hard on the trail of a decent sized elk herd. I was in the lead, the tracker of course, in our small party there wasn’t anyone with a better now than me, so I was appointed tracker…
I looked back at the wolves behind me as I heard them laughing and giggling, “Shhh!!” I begged, hoping that we would get one decent meal for the pack, before the snow, that we all felt was in the air, fell.
“Sorry Duck.” Lyanti said, smiling at Ariant. I flipped my head back to my work and continued tracking, disgusted by Lyanti and his tolerance for his annoying mate, Ariant. Everything was quite for a while, and I was starting to get worried that my friends had all dug themselves a grave and jumped in, but when I looked back, there they were, as happy as could be.
I sighed, once again being distracted from my work, I bent my head down and sucked in a breath, but the scent my nose caught, wasn’t one of an elk herd, but that of a Two-leg. I almost jumped out of my skin, Where had they come from?! There had never been any two-legs here! I screamed in my head.
I quickly spun around to warn my friends, but I was too late. Everyone started falling to the ground, as a strange stick with an orange fluff on the end of them, hit them all in the legs. I scrambled over to Moon, but his eyes were shut tight and he was snoring. I jumped, as I felt a puppy in my back leg. I fell beside Moon, and drifted off into the unknown…
GHOST
It had been a while since Duck and her hunting patrol had gone out, but they hadn’t come back yet, “Where are they?!” I whispered to myself, angry for letting her leave without me.
***
“I’ll be fine! I’m not a pup!” She growled, as she stood by the clearing entrance.
“Duck… It’s not you I’m worried about… It’s the pups…” I said, watching her carefully.
“Boy do I feel loved!” She growled, but I knew she was joking, “Anyways, I’ll be fine. See this is one of the other reasons I didn’t tell you… I knew you’d go all soft on me and be a worry wart…” She said scowling.
I laughed, “Well someone has to worry about you around here…”
“COME ON DUCK!!” Moon yelled from about 12 meters outside the clearing.
“Coming!” Duck hollered back.
She turned around and licked my cheek, “I love you.” She whispered, then turned around and bolted out the door without any further discussion on the matter.
I sighed and walked over to the boulder sitting on the edge of the clearing. I jumped up and slowly drifted off. My last thoughts had been about Duck and our little pups…
***
“Moon please… Please take care of her.” I whispered, my head tilted to the sky. “Please… Bring Duck, back to me in one piece…”
I sat up on Duck and I’s boulder for the rest of the night, hoping that I would see her lovely, shinning face looking back at me in the morning.