Chapter 24 - A Pup's Journey pt.2

Once the partial moon left the sky, the pup's mother took the rest of the adults to go fight the Alpha Deer. There were few kin left in the cave, only a few other pups like her and two pups that were about half way to adolescence.

They were in charge for the time being, but both had semi red eyes and walked around frantically.

*growl* *bark* One of them said, but it was not nearly as coherent as her mother when she talked.

Something the pup had noticed over the last few partial moons was that only her mother was so fluent when speaking to her. All the other pups had a limited vocabulary related to food or pooping. The older pups just thought about playing while the adults wanted to kill and eat.

They did not talk to her for very long and were always nervous or agitated, pacing around while whining or growling. If the redness in their eyes got dark enough, they would attack others. It was very scary being in the cave now, especially when her mother wasn't around so the pup hid in the back of the cave behind a rock most of the time.

However today, she wasn't going to hide away. Her mother was going to fight the Alpha Deer to the death but with her mother gone, was there really a reason to keep hiding? Would she have to keep hiding forever? And how would she get food?

She was not old enough to hunt on her own and the little bits of meat her mother gave her were too tough to eat. She thought about using the strange box again, but shook her head no when remembering what her mother told her.

Even so, she didn't want her mother to die, she wanted to help in any way she could.

She waited patiently, as the agitated adolescent pups grew more frustrated over time. Eventually, one of them snapped and the two began to fight. A strange glow similar to how the moon at night might glow appeared on the claws and teeth of the older pups as they attacked each other.

The fighting caused the wind to kick up and blow the other pups away, making her fearful. She had not been awake when her father went on a rampage so this was the first time seeing such power.

It scared her.

Eventually, the older pups ran out of the cave and continued to fight. Taking this as a sign, the pup stumbled into action and left the cave as fast as her little legs could take her.

She was still unsteady on her feet, but she persevered, continuing to get back up even when she fell down. Determination was painted all over her adorable face as she went past the other pups and came to her first big hurdle.

The outside.

She had only known the cave for her entire life. Whenever she asked, her mother said the 'snow' was too cold and dangerous for her and she had to be older before going out.

Even so, the pup took a deep breath and stepped onto the freezing powder. It sent a shiver down her spine but she got used to it as she continued to press on. It didn't nearly feel as cold as her mother made it out to be but it still was a little chilly.

*arf* *arf* The little fluffball announced as she stumbled about in the snow.

- - -

*arf* The little pup said as looked like a snowball rolling across the ground.

The snowfall had begun to pick up a bit, making it colder but she had to push on. As she followed the tracks that led out of their cave toward the battlefield, her stomach started to growl more and more.

*whine* *whine* While she was hungry, she was still determined to help her mother.

Her little steps made it hard to walk amongst the tracks and the freshly falling snow made her sink into the ground, also making it harder to move. Even so, she didn't stop.

Eventually, what would have taken a few minutes at most for the adults to get to, took the pup a few hours to trek, as she came to a clearing and heard a big boom in the distance that made her ears hurt.

She stuck her head down to the snow and tried to cover up her ears with her front paws at how loud it was. More booms continued to go off but she eventually worked up the courage to still check.

As she peeked around a boulder along the tree line, the scene before her made her stomach contents come back up. Still, she couldn't turn away at the battlefield of corpses that littered the ground.

Dozens upon dozens of both wolves and deer were sliced up, dyeing the white snow a dirty red. It terrified her, reminding her of the red eyes everyone had. But that wasn't even the worst part.

There was one wolf she recognized.

*arf!* The pup cried as it stumbled through the snow and blood as fast as she could.

On the ground, her mother laid in a pool of her own blood and the light in her eyes were gone. Her eyes weren't red, but they had glossed over as she was no longer there.

Her world came crashing down and she didn't even notice a giant deer fighting some strange hairless creature. Even when the giant deer screamed in pain and the hairless creature said something that made her shiver in pure terror, she didn't stop trying to talk to her mother's corpse.

*arf* *arf* *whine* She pleaded but received no response.

Water fell out of her eyes again and her chest felt like someone was biting it. She didn't know what to do anymore and she felt like nothing would work to salvage the situation.

As she was wallowing in sadness, she remembered what her mother said about the box, and to only use it in an emergency. While that wasn't exactly what her mother meant, and she would not consider this an emergency, the little pup didn't hesitate to think about the strange box to make it pop up in front of her.

She remembered the rest of what her mother said and worked as fast as she could.

*arf!* She barked and the strange box disappeared for a moment before being replaced by a second, bigger box.

While she didn't know what was happening, or what this new, bigger box was for, she suddenly felt much better. The cold didn't hurt so much and she wasn't as hungry as she was before, even though it didn't go down by much.

*arf* *arf* She tried to tell her mother that the box would help her.

However there was still no response. Her world came crashing down again as the box she thought would save her mother did nothing. The false hope was devastating and she started to think that her mother lied in order to give her hope.

She wasn't sure but was interrupted by the box changing again. This time however, it was different.

She couldn't ever understand what the box was trying to tell her, but this time she could understand it.

*woo* *woo* *bark* *bark*

*whine* *arf* *arf* the pup's spirits lifted instantly as she bounced against her mother's face innocently in an attempt to wake her up.

However her mother's body didn't move an inch.

This confused the pup, but the strange box changed again, as it felt like she heard her mother's barks in the back of her mind.

*woo* *whine* *growl* *whine* The mother asked concerned.

The pup continued to look confused as she 'heard' her mother's voice even though she still looked dead.

*whine* *whine* the pup seemed to ignore the voice of her mother she 'heard.'

*woo* *whine* *bark* *woof*

*woo* *whine* the pup started crying again and snuggling into her mother's face.

*woo* *woo* *whine*

*grr* *grr* the pup growled 'ferociously' as it looked around confused.

*woo* *grr* *bark* *woof*

The pup who was 'listening' to her mother's 'voice' looked around to see the Alpha Deer and what she assumed was the Hooman fighting a dangerous battle. The Alpha Deer was missing one of its horns and was unable to stop the Hooman from attacking its butt.

*woo* *grr?*