Shortly after finding their scent and concentrating on sticking as close as he could to the group he was nearly caught when his father began flying through the sky. It seemed like he was scouting their surroundings to make sure it was all safe.
Ryan was barely able to keep up with the use of his Powerful Legs skill. Luckily since they also had apprentices in the group they seemed to be going slower than they would have otherwise. About 2.5 hours of running through the forest he was able to reach a cave entrance where different smells were intertwined.
He began to try to catch his breath and laid down resting his aching paws since he had ran at full throttle. He sighed and laughed on the inside "Never thought that I would end up cursing my own clan for their speed advantage, it might have been an easier trip if they were slower."
After taking a 3-minute break hiding in a bush he stood up and prepared to sneak himself to the entrance and take a peek at what was going on. The thing that he didn't expect was that suddenly he heard something land from above. He froze for a second but almost immediately tried running forward to escape whatever it was that was behind him.
Sadly he was caught and lifted by the skin and fur of his neck and placed in between a circle of 9 wolves. He sniffed at the air and found that they seemed to have a leafy smell, that and their sudden landing even though they didn't have any wings gave him a pretty good idea of who they were.
The biggest one who had a smokey figure started to become more solid and looked at him with curiosity "My what a surprise, I'm amazed that a pup who seems to be about a moon old is present at our gathering. Then there's the fact that you have dirt on you and the way you were sneaking around which tells me that you weren't meant to be here, were you?"
Ryan looked at the grey wolf and sighed as he shook his head "No my father told me that I couldn't be here since I was too young. The thing is that I've heard about you from some of the apprentices from my pack. I couldn't wait to meet the great warriors that they kept talking about so I decided to take the risk and come here. I take it that you are wolves from the Tree Clan?"
The grey wolf gave a small nod and began pushing him forward "Nice that you know your clans now let's hurry up, I'm sure that Moon Heart will be thrilled by your achievement."
He looked at the wolf and sighed as he took the lead surrounded on three sides by wolves. When they entered the cave he was amazed by the difference in physiques between wolves, some seemed to be on steroids, others had sleek fur, he saw that most of the wolves present were bigger than the ones on his pack.
While Ryan looked around he started to feel the stairs from the crowd, while he looked around he saw his father, mother and the others from his clan look at him with a hint of anger. He stopped as soon as he saw it but what he received was a shove from behind pushing him towards a large rock where his father and 4 others were standing.
Since he couldn't climb it the grey wolf grabbed him from the back of his pelt and lifted him up and took him right next to his father. Being stared by so many made him drop both his head, ears, and tail as he heard the Tree Clan leader begin to speak, "Moon Heart, just look at who I found in the entrance hehe. I have to say this pup has guts, you sure that he isn't from the Tree Clan?"
His father let out a big breath and shook his head "You wish Stone Mist, this little guy is the biggest trouble maker that I've seen in my life. His name is Viper Pup and it looks like he has decided to disobey my order of staying in the camp."
The grey alpha laughed and nodded "Yeah that's what he told us, according to him he wanted to see the great warriors that he has been hearing about from the apprentices. You know that I hate pups but this one intrigues me."
The biggest wolf on the rock walked towards them, his black fur seemed to blend in with the darkness that surrounded the cave. "Unless your camp is close to here, him making the trip is pretty amazing. He also seemed to keep your pace since it hasn't been that long since you and your members arrived. Once you teach him to follow directions then we might be looking at quite the warrior when he grows a bit more."
"Speaking of which, is it me or does this little one have an unusual amount of muscle?" They all turned around to look at a large red wolf that also made its way to them. Ryan simply listened to them and cursed as he thought "Shit if our training is given away then we might lose our advantage of surprise. If they also train their pups at a young age then it would balance our powerup."
He took a deep breath and lifted his head, ears, and tail, he waived it like crazy as he looked at the red wolf who had spoken. "Do you really mean it? I've wanted to grow and be as strong as Fire Claw. Since I'm small I've been running a lot. Do you think that soon I can be as strong as him?"
The red alpha looked at the pup and then scanned the cave until he found the large and bulky body of Fire Claw and laughed, "So that's who you are inspired by huh. Well, you have a long way to go but if you keep working hard then you might catch up to him." The wolf then turned and looked at Moon Heart "Hey what if I trade you something for him? This pup has a fire inside of him that only we, the Blood Clan can cultivate."
The white Alpha looked at him and shook his head "No, he might be a troublemaker but he is still part of our clan and that is where he will stay."
"Hey, can we stop wasting our time on a pup and get this meeting started."
They all turned around to find 2 other leaders that had stood in total silence. The alphas sighed and they began walking towards them. "You Mountain and Swamp Clans are no fun, why are you so serious all the time. It's not like we meet like this every day so lighten up buddies."
The two wolves looked at the grey leader who had just spoken and rolled their eyes at him "This whole meeting just takes place to see if we show any weakness Stone Mist. You know better than I that as soon as you all see weaknesses between us then you will all start fighting for a chunk of our territory. So excuse me if my Swamp Clan isn't as naive as the Tree Clan."
Ryan felt himself be picked up again and taken outside of the cave. There he was released and when he turned around he was face to face with his mother.
"What did we tell you? You have gone against your father, the alpha, and embarrassed us all. Do you know what the others are saying? They are there saying that we can't even tell when we are being followed."
Ryan looked at her and nodded "Technically I didn't go against his wishes, only yours since I couldn't find him and instead asked you. Also if you're worried about what the others think then let me at them, if it wasn't for the Tree Clan coming in later than us then none of you would have noticed me."
Star Light shook her head and looked at him seriously as she bared her fang-like teeth "You will go there with me and keep your mouth shut the whole time is that clear?"
He nodded and together they headed back for the cave where the alphas were announcing any problems that they might be facing.
The red alpha looked at the Swamp Clan Alpha and showed a hint of amusement in his eyes as he began to talk "Well about 3 or 4 days ago, one of our patrols attacked a human shipment close to our border with Swamp Clan. Since then the human hunting activity has been increasing so I just want to give you guys the warning and an apology."
Ryan could immediately feel the atmosphere get tense as he started seeing wolves with sleek fur growl at the ones on steroids.
"Enough! Aren't you ashamed to be acting like that in front of a little pup who came here to see the wolves that he thinks of as great warriors? Start acting like the grownups we are and suck it up. I'm not saying that what the Blood Clan patrol did was right, but they already have done it and neither one of your clans will find an answer if you attack each other."
The atmosphere began to ease up as all the wolves looked at the Tree Clan leader and then at him and his mother. Ryan had to admit that the wolf was pretty slick using his words like that. He turned around and whispered to his mother "Can this be used to lessen my punishment?"
"NO"
The rest of the meeting went pretty smooth; the leaders mostly talked about how their hunting was and other things that made them sound well off. They were always so vague on everything that he didn't see the point of actually having a meeting. Ryan wanted to start socializing with the others but he was grabbed by his mother. The other wolves might have thought that it was because she was afraid that he might slip up and reveal something so they stayed away from him.
After the end of the meeting, his clan almost immediately began to head back to the camp. When they arrived his mother looked at him and pointed at the den with her paw "Go and get some sleep tomorrow in the morning we will get some time to talk."
He nodded and slowly headed to the entrance of the cave where he could see 11 pairs of eyes looking at him with curiosity. He sighed and shook his head "I got in trouble, now let's get some sleep."