Ian walked up to the nest to look for the last pup. He needed to kill it before he could head back. When he got to the nest he found the black-colored pup lying in the same spot. It did not move but it was still breathing.
Ian got closer to the pup, crouching next to it. He raised his knife into the air ready to kill the pup. Tears filled his eyes and his hands were shaky. But before he could bring down his knife onto the pup, he dropped it.
"I can't," Ian spoke to himself. He looked at the black pup once more as the tears flowed down his face.
Upon closer look, Ian could make out most of the injuries the black pup had. It had multiple bites and claw marks on its body. But they were too small to have been made by an adult wolf or any other creature.
Ian turned to the other lifeless pups and then back to the black pup. He thought to himself, "They must have done this to you. But why?"
The black pup was the smallest of the four pups. It was only the size of a head of lettuce. It was definitely weaker than the other three.
Ian was now conflicted. He knew he had to kill all of the pups before heading back, but at the same time, he felt bad for the black pup.
"You must've had a hard time surviving this entire time. Being the runt must be difficult. Your siblings were way bigger and stronger than you. It's a miracle you're still alive. And now you're still fighting to stay alive. Even with your badly injured body, you haven't given up on life. But now, here I am having to choose whether you live or die." Ian sat down next to the wolf pup and started to think.
He started to think about what would happen if he did let the black pup live and what would happen if he killed it. There would be the chance it would want to get revenge. But if he took it in then it wouldn't want to get revenge.
Ian gave the pup one last look before saying, "Okay, I'm going to let you live. If you can keep going and not give up for the next few days, then I will take you with me" Ian pulled out a bottle of water and began to give some to the pup.
He poured a small but steady stream onto the pup's mouth, hoping it would drink some. To his surprise, the pup did start drinking the water, but it took small gulps. It was too weak to drink a lot.
After a moment, the pup stopped drinking the water and lay still on the ground. Only its chest could be seen moving from its breathing.
Ian stared at the pup for a few seconds. He had hope for its survival. He reached his hand down towards the pup and began to pet it. He gave slow, long, and caring strokes so he didn't hurt the pup.
The pup felt something running across its fur. It didn't know what it was but it knew it wasn't dangerous. It slowly began to move its head, leaning towards Ian's hand. When it reached it, the pup started to lick his hand. It gave him a few licks before laying down again
Ian was amazed. He didn't think the pup had enough strength to move, let alone lick him.
After a few more seconds of petting, Ian finally decided to head out. He stood up and began to walk out of the cave.
When Ian stopped petting the wolf, it tried to move again. It moved its head upwards to face Ian. As it did, it also tried to open its eyes to see who was showing it such kindness. It managed to open them slightly but wasn't able to see who stood in front of it. all it could see was a large shadow standing over it.
But there was one thing it was able to get before Ian left. A faint scent. It took a moment to intake the scent and to process it. It was going to remember that scent even if it was the last thing it could do.
Eventually, Ian got too far away for the pup to see or smell. At that point, the pup had used too much energy and passed out.
Once Ian left the cave, he activated his power and sprinted towards the campsite. It took him only a few minutes to get there but when he did he saw that mostly everyone had returned. Erik and two other groups were the only ones still not back.
Ian walked towards his tent to see if Kevin and Emmett were in there. But when he got close enough he could hear their snoring.
"I can't blame them. It has been a long day and the sun has almost fully set." Ian paused for a moment. "I'll leave them be for now."
Ian walked over to one of the many campfires set up and sat down next to it. He pulled out some jerky he had and began to eat it. His face had conflicting emotions as he went over what had happened throughout the day. As he sat and ate, a few guys came up to him.
"Ian, how you doin'? I heard your group got into some trouble." The man who spoke to Ian was his old boss Charlie. He was holding a mug of beer in one hand.
"I'm fine. We just ran into some gold-rank wolves and needed help dealing with them." Ian did not look away from the fire.
"Interesting. Hey, mind if we sit with you?" Charlie asked as he handed Ian a bottle of water.
Ian looked at the bottle of water and then up at Charlie. "Sure." Ian took the water bottle and allowed Charlie and a few others to sit next to him.
The group of hunters spent the next hour talking, eating, drinking, and resting. Afterwards, Erik and the two other groups showed up. Each member of the groups was carrying six wolves. Erik on the other hand was pulling a rope that was connected to 30 wolves.
When they made it to the campsite, Erik spoke, "Alright everyone, I hope you enjoyed your break 'cause it's time to get back to work."
Many of the hunters were confused upon hearing this. They had just finished hunting all of the wolves but now there was more work to do. The only people who weren't surprised by Erik's announcement were the guards who joined the hunters.
Erik threw his pile of wolves in front of the hunters and said, "We have two days before most of the wolf meat begins to rot. So we are going to spend as much time as possible processing all of the meat we can."
As Erik spoke, more and more people began to understand what he meant. Even so, many of them were not happy to hear this.
One hunter stood up and asked, "How do you expect us to process over 1000 wolves? It would take at least two weeks to process that much."
Erik faced the hunter and went on to say, "Before coming on this trip, I spoke with Liam about how we planned to process so much meat. The plan is for us to process as much meat as we can until Liam shows up with wagons to help carry the rest. We don't want any meat to go to waste."
"So are we supposed to spend all night processing the meat?" One hunter stood up to ask.
"Yes. We will spend all night processing what we can. Liam will arrive in the morning with a few others who will help us carry everything back home. Until then, we will do what we can here. But don't worry, you will all be compensated for your efforts."
A lot of people were discouraged by Erik's words but they all accepted their fate. No one was going to argue with Erik. Especially none of the guards. For them, arguing with Erik is a death sentence.
Erik made everyone line up so he could separate them into new groups. Once everyone was standing in front of him, he said, "Okay, I'm going to need everyone who can control fire to be in charge of cooking, smoking, and drying the meat. You will also be in charge of keeping the fires fueled."
After Erik spoke, seven people stepped out of line and moved to the side.
Once the group moved to the side, Erik continued, "Next, I need four groups of two to chop up the wolf bodies and separate the hides."
Six people volunteered but he still needed two more. Erik looked through the people standing in line and picked two of his guards to help. The two guards did not complain and did as they were told to do.
After the second group was formed, Erik said, "Next, I need four who will process the wolf hides."
This was one of the easier jobs so many people tried to volunteer for it. Erik looked through all of the people who wanted to volunteer and picked out four of them.
"Finally, I need four others who will clean the meat that has been cut up. Preferably people who control water." Erik looked at the remaining group and picked out two of his guards and two other hunters whom he knew controlled water.
Once the groups were formed, Erik told them to get to work. After the groups began to do their jobs, Erik turned to the remaining people and said, "The rest of us will go back into the forest and gather as many wolves as we can to bring back. We will be doing this for the rest of the night."
Many of the remaining group looked annoyed but did not voice their opinion. They all just started walking towards the wolf den.
Ian was a part of this group and was making his way towards the same direction. But before he made it into the forest, Erik stopped him alongside Darren and his group.
"What seems to be the problem?" Ian asked Erik.
Erik looked at the four and said, "Sorry, but you guys can set this one out. You guys are the youngest and weakest members of the group so I won't ask you to do extra work. For now, you all can go to sleep. We'll need you to be at your best for tomorrow."
"Is that why you didn't wake up Emmett and Kevin?" Ian asked
"That's part of it. But, there's no time to waste. For now, go rest. I'll see you guys in the morning." Erik turned and walked away.
Darren and his group did not complain. They turned around and walked towards their tent.
Ian stood around for a moment before also heading towards his tent. He didn't want to wake up Emmett or Kevin so he quietly got inside and fell asleep.
Back in the cave, the black wolf pup woke up after being asleep for almost two hours. Its stomach growled with hunger. It gathered all of the strength it could and picked itself up
With its badly injured body, it walked slowly out of its nest. The black pup was extremely hungry.
In the past, it would eat the leftovers of its siblings. But now not only were they dead, but its parents were too. With how badly injured it was and how weak it naturally is, the black pup wouldn't be able to get food on its own. Regardless, it had to eat if it wanted to live, but there was only one thing lying around for it to consume.
The black pup slowly walked up to the body of its green sibling and began to eat it. Since it was the closest thing to the nest, it chose to eat it.
However, the black pup had no idea it was eating its sibling. It had been knocked out throughout the events that transpired in the cave. Its eyesight was poor due to how weak it was. And because of how hungry it was, it didn't care enough to check. All it knew was that there was something edible for it to eat, and so it did.
It spent the next half hour eating as much as it could. Due to how small the black pup was, it would take it a while to finish eating one of its siblings. Once it had its fill, it walked back to its nest and fell asleep.