The pups slept contentedly that night while Penn kept watch over them. Despite the fire in the evening and the light smoke that filled the cool evening air, nothing suspicious happened overnight. Penn had made several trips around the secret gully between dusk and dawn but didn't find anything amiss. It was a relief. She'd been worried all night that her impulsive decision to let the children have a fire might have backfired on them all.
As dawn arrived, Penn stretched and let out a wide yawn. She would be able to sleep easy for a few hours in the early morning knowing that their fire had gone undetected. Cassidy and Jackson stirred shortly afterwards, and when they did, Penn settled down to sleep as soon as she saw them transform into their fur.
The two oldest pups kept vigil for a few hours in the wee hours of the morning while Penn slept. It was something they'd worked out after the first week of their escape when Penn was sure they were far enough away from Codax that she didn't have to be on alert every minute of every day. Cassidy and Jackson had proved to be vigilant guardians. So, Penn slept with comparable ease for a few hours each morning while they kept watch.
Right now, Penn certainly needed the sleep. They were about to enter the hardest leg of their journey - Mourning Cross - and Penn would need all her energy and instincts in order to help the Griffin orphans get through to the other side alive. The trail was treacherous. Even adult wolves would think twice about crossing it alone, let alone with eighteen children in tow.
It wasn't even fair to call the pass a trail. A trail implied it was used at regular intervals and was marked by a footpath of some kind. However, Mourning Cross was more or less a hazardous rocky stretch about ten thousand feet above sea level, which ran between two snow-capped mountains. Half the year the whole area was buried under several feet of snow and entirely impassable to anything without wings.
It was October now and the the risk of snow was very real. It would be one of many dangers Penn and the pups were likely going to have to face as they left the treeline and began the difficult climb up the eastern slope of the mountain. But, the dangers ahead were still to be preferred over the danger behind them. With thoughts of Codax on her mind, Penn fell into a restless sleep.
A few hours later Cassidy gently shook Penn awake saying, "It's time, Penn."
Penn blinked. She wished she'd had a better sleep. She felt groggy and sluggish.
"The children are all ready to go," Cassidy informed her in a quiet voice.
Penn huffed as she stretched out her back and her legs before shaking out her fur and having a quick run around their little campsite to sniff out if anything suspicious or dangerous had been sneaking around while she'd been asleep. There was nothing out there though. They were still alone.
Sure they were still safe, she gave a bark and led the children through the old pines to the stunted and sparse black spruce that sat like a collar along the grey granite of the mountain. This early in the morning, with a good sleep and full bellies, the children were in very good spirits, and followed Penn without delay. They even manged to keep up with the pace she set despite how steep the incline had become the nearer they got to the treeline.
But, several hours later, when the children stood at the edge of the black spruce trees looking up at the mouth of the pass, they fell silent with dread. Though Penn had talked to them briefly about the pass and what to expect, none of them were able to picture it. None of them had grasped how wide, how barren and how desolate it was. The howling wind and the wide open space, with no place to hide, frightened them all.
Penn could smell their fear even before she noticed their ashen faces and trembling limbs. She transformed into her skin, donned her dirt stiff clothes, and came to stand ahead of the group.
"It looks worse than it is," she told them even though it was a lie.
She lamented inwardly that the children were not comfortable in their fur. She knew it would be easier to make the crossing in wolf-form, but the children resisted living as wolves. It took her the first three weeks of their escape, but she had finally learned that forcing them into their furs and pushing them to behave like wolves did not makes wolves out of them. In fact, it usually resulted in meltdowns and a lot of crying. Consequently, there was no point in forcing the matter now.
What this meant was that a couple day journey in wolf form would now take the pups a week or more to accomplish on foot. It was discouraging what little confidence they had in their wolf form, but there was nothing Penn could do about it. She couldn't make wolves out of them if their hearts weren't in it.
Not wanting to drag out their alarm concerning the next stage of the trek ahead, Penn cleared her throat to get their attention once more.
With all eyes on her she began in her typically unyielding voice, "Here's the drill, we stick together at all times. No one wanders anywhere for any reason. You follow me and nothing and no one else. Everyone has a buddy. You must stick with your buddy at all times. Do you understand?"
She let her eyes fall on everyone from the oldest to the youngest. Of course the four littlest ones did not understand a thing, but it didn't matter anyway. They would be strapped to Penn, Cassidy or Jackson the entire trip and no one would have to worry about where the little ones were or if they were keeping up.
Cassidy stepped forward and smiled reassuringly at the others before looking at Penn and responding with, "Yes, Jackson and I have made it very clear to everyone. We've all picked partners to make the climb with."
Penn gave a nod of approval before diving into her next lecture, "You will listen to me at all times. If I give you a command you will follow it without exception. This trail is deadly and your lives will depend on you obeying me and watching me very carefully. Do you understand?"
The children looked around at each other anxiously, as was their habit whenever Penn was speaking, but they nodded their heads in agreement, which Penn acknowledge with a single curt nod. That nod was as close as they were going to come to getting a pep talk from her.
Cassidy clapped her hands together and spoke cheerfully to the children saying, "Everyone take up your packs and grab your partner's hand."
The children had left Griffin territory with the clothes on their backs and small backpacks filled with helpful supplies - food, water, extra clothing, flashlights, matches, pocket knives, rope, etc. However, their food supplies were long gone and much of their survival gear was useless. Still, the children would not part with the items their own parents or guardians had shoved hastily in these bags before they sent them off to an uncertain future.
Penn knew the packs served little purpose now, and it was pointless to keep dragging around half the things left in them. However, she was too tired to argue with the children about the impractical packs and just let them have them. The less she battled with the children, the easier it was on everyone.
Mia, the youngest in the group, who had taken a liking to Penn sometime in the last week, now walked over to the she-wolf and took her hand. Penn looked down at her and smiled easily. While she was not good with the children as a whole, and perhaps not so great with the older kids or the crying kids or the, well, almost any of the kids at any time, she had a soft spot in her heart for the two littlest pups - Mia and Lily.
Both pups cried a lot in the first three weeks but less in the last few days. And, Penn found they were more interested in her, in being near her, in taking her hand or petting her when she was in wolf form then ever before. In fact, she felt that of all the orphans, Mia and Lily were the least afraid of her.
Penn couldn't help but feel a little drawn to them as they were becoming comfortable with her. It also helped that the littlest ones didn't talk much. Penn found it difficult being around the chattier pups. She was simply unaccustomed to the noise level produced by pups after living in isolation for a decade. She rarely had to growl at Mia and Lily to be quiet. Consequently, she felt their presence near her was, at the very least, not disruptive.
She squeezed Mia's hand and then reached out her other hand for Lily's. She was exclusively responsible for the two smallest in the group during this leg of their journey. Penn gave their hands a little tug as she began the slow climb up the east face of the slope toward Mourning Cross. It was hard to know how long Mia and Lily would last, but, Penn was prepared to carry the both of them the whole way if need be.
"Lets move out," she called to everyone as she, Mia and Lily took their first steps on the cold grey granite above the treeline.
As the trail became treacherous, Penn strapped the youngest, Mia at two and half, to her chest and the other, Lily at three, to her backside. The pack Lara had given Penn to carry, a pack filled with Griffin documents and deeds, was given to Jackson to carry. He had to give his own, lighter pack, to Ace to carry, while he strapped Oliver, one of the four year olds, to his back. Cassidy, likewise, strapped her pack to her chest and made room for Mason, the other four year old in the group, on her back.
Noah, Ace and Archer were then responsible to hold the hands of Aiden, Riley and Layla who were just 5 and 6 years old. The five and six year olds were too big for anyone to carry any length of time in these dangerous conditions. So, the rest only needed to hold hands and ensure each other's safety at all times as they followed closely behind Penn, who walked at a snail's pace for their sake.
Penn was impressed with the pups as the conditions on the nonexistent trail worsened over the next week. Without needing to be prompted, the children banned together and doubled their efforts to ensure everyone was moving forward and that everyone was safe. No one, from the oldest to the littlest, complained or cried about the difficulty of the journey, which was a first. And, whenever things got tough, the children would encourage one another quietly to keep on going.
Penn watched them with interest and thought more than once that this was how a pack aught to behave and operate. The Griffin pack might not have taught its pups anything about survival in the wild, but it had taught them some very important lessons about team work, unity and self-sacrifice. These were all skills and philosophies that were essential to the smooth running of a pack, let alone one under duress.
Penn couldn't help but feel proud of the children as they worked together. They weren't even her pups and yet, she felt quite certain, if their Luna or their parents could see them now, they would be full of praise. It seemed the children had done a lot of growing up over the past four weeks, and there was hope for all of them despite the deadly mountain pass they were facing and the possibility that Codax had finally found their trail.
For the first time since Penn took ownership of the eighteen orphans, she felt hopeful that they would all survive.
Mia, the youngest pup who was strapped to Penn's chest, perhaps sensing the change in Penn's mood, suddenly wrapped her arms around Penn's neck and gave her a tight squeeze with her little arms. Penn smiled gently down at the pup and gave her an affectionate pet on her back. It was comforting that the little thing had taken a shine to her despite her rather cold and austere demeanour.
"Can we stop?" Penn heard Cassidy ask her over the cold howling winds on the pass.
Penn kept walking as she looked around for a sheltered place to rest. Now that they'd been walking on the pass for a week, the children were showing signs of extreme fatigue. They could only tolerate an hour's hike before they began to lag behind or send Cassidy to ask for an unscheduled rest. It was taking them much longer to get through the pass then Penn had originally calculated.
She worried the climb through Mourning Cross was going to break them. But, they were so close to the other side now that Penn wanted to push them to keep moving more than when they first started out.
"Please, can we rest?" she heard Cassidy ask again after a few minutes.
Penn looked over her shoulder at the young she-wolf and frowned.
"There's no shelter," she told the girl wondering why she couldn't see that for herself.
"It doesn't matter," Cassidy said with a wan smile. "Anywhere will do."
Penn let out a discontent growl. The children still didn't understand the basics of survival and it was frustrating having to explain every little decision to them. She saw Cassidy's face pale when she heard Penn's disapproving growl.
"We'll rest when there's shelter," is all Penn said in return.
She turned away from Cassidy and kept walking forward. Mia distracted her from her agitation by placing her cold hands on Penn's cheeks. Penn looked down at her little face, with its red nose and smiled. "We'll rest when there's shelter," she repeated softly to the little pup who only smiled.
If they stopped out on the exposed rocks the wind would cool them all down too quickly and soon the pups would be shivering with cold. It was better to find a place out of the blowing wind where they could huddle together and keep warm. The last thing Penn needed was for them to get sick on her. It wouldn't take much since they were already exhausted and half starved.
It was another half hour walk before she spotted a good place for them to rest. By this time their pace had slackened considerably and some of the pups were falling behind. Penn gave Cassidy, who had remained right beside her the entire time, both Mia and Lily to look after once they reached the natural shelter, which was a large angular outcrop of rocks that provided a buffer between them and the winds. Then she stripped down and transformed into her fur so that she could race back along the path they'd taken and help round up the stragglers.
Jackson, who had little Oliver on his back, had taken up the rear and was trying to quietly encourage Aria, Zoe, Liam and Jacob to keep up with the rest. However, his soft words were not enough to motivate the ten and twelve year olds and their pace became more of a stumble than a walk.
Penn came bounding along and barked repeatedly at them. The barking frightened the children and spurred them on. Once or twice Jackson frowned meaningfully at Penn, but she ignored him. His method was not going to get these tired pups to shelter, but her barking and snarling at their heels certainly would. It was more important to get them to the shelter than to coddle them. There was nothing gentle about survival. It was brutal. As brutal as their current surroundings, and quiet words of support were not going to cut it this time around.
Fifteen minutes later they reached the shelter and, instead of bursting into tears, Aria, Zoe, Liam and Jacob fell happily into the arms of the other pups who waited anxiously for them. They were all relieved to be hidden from the winds and to finally be able to rest their legs. Penn exchanged her fur for her skin and dressed again.
Penn looked over the kids as they huddled together. Some were still smiling and laughing with each other, which gave her hope that they still had some fight left in them, even if they were physically exhausted. A few others were nodding off to sleep here and there despite the uncomfortable setting and the noise of the wind howling all around their shelter. It was early yet, but Penn could see the children were entirely spent. They were never going to make it to the next shelter, wherever that might be, without extraordinary measures. So, this would become their home for the night.
Turning to Cassidy, who was always near by, she said, "We'll stay here for the night."
Cassidy looked exceedingly relieved. Penn thought the girl was about to tear up. She felt a pang of guilt, or regret, when Cassidy blinked back tears. Penn was pushing the children beyond their limits and if she wasn't careful, they really would break. That wasn't what she wanted. Even if she found the children, loud, annoying and frustrating, she didn't want to see any of them pushed to the edge like she'd been all those years ago. What she wanted was to see them safely delivered, in both mind and body, to their relatives in the Orthos pack.
"Go on," Penn said to the girl a bit gently, "tell them they can rest up till morning here."
Cassidy nodded her head eagerly and turned back to the children to give them the good news. There was silence for a moment and then a huge shout of jubilation. Resting early was a great reward for all their efforts and the children were happy to settle down despite the fact that it was still daylight.
Penn called Jackson over to her. He came without delay and didn't give her any attitude despite how she'd pushed the younger ones to hurry along just a little while ago. Penn appreciated that about the boy - that he didn't hold grudges.
"I'll scout ahead. You take wolf form and watch for dangers. Howl if you need me."
Jackson gave a solemn nod and stripped down, as Penn did, to take on his wolf form. Penn was in hers faster than he was in his. He still needed practice transforming. Someday, he'd become a natural at it as Penn was. Penn gave him a little bark as she lept from the shelter and trotted along the steep rocky slope. She would take these precious daylight hours and run ahead to scout out shelter and water sources for them along the non-existent trail.
The better prepared she was, the more distance they would be able to cover the next day. And, it was essential to cover as much distance as possible every day to avoid being trapped on the pass when the snow came. Plus, they still needed to keep as far ahead of Codax as possible. It was impossible to know when the snow might bury them or when Codax would find their trail. Either case would be a death sentence.
Penn let out a huff and pushed herself forward. Survival was key. Nothing else mattered on Mourning Cross.