This is dedicated to my dog.   

Alpha licks Rocky's face while he is sleeping, her slobber glistening on his face. "Get up,  get up, get up!" Rocky puts his paws to his chest and whimpers, as if he is waking up from a nightmare he will never forget. "I am, I am!" Rocky says in his high pitched pup voice. Alpha puts her muddy paws on Rocky's thick coat of gray and black fur and laughs playfully. "Quit it! Your getting my warm tummy all wet and cold!" Rocky complains. "Then sit up, baby!" Alpha teased. Rocky turns over and stands up on all fours, shaking his fur to get rid of the mud. "Boy, where have you been that made your paws so filthy?" Rocky asks Alpha. "She went down to the stream with Beta." Achak says, pausing his drinking to tell them that. "Again? You two are like two peas in a pod. You're never apart! Why don't you play with your fellow pups instead of hanging out with our mother?" Luna asks, clearly wanting attention from Alpha. "Shut up." Alpha snaps, growling and stepping closer to Luna. "She is not our mother. She adopted us. Our real mother didn't want us." Achak's ears perk up. "That isn't true! She didn't have enough time for us!" Achak paused and his ears drooped when he had realized what he had just said. "I'm sure there is some reason our parents threw us away that is good, Achak. They loved us, I know it." Luna reassures Achak. Achak nods, but everyone can tell he is still sad. "Let's stop talking about this. I'm hungry." Rocky interrupts, feeling nauseous and uncomfortable after the conversation. "Did you catch any fish, Alpha?" Alpha struts in front of Rocky proudly. "What do you mean did I get any fish! I am the fiercest hunter in the whole pack, plus I am the oldest of all the pups!" Alpha grins as if she just outsmarted all of them. "I caught one fish, thank you very much." Alpha tries to keep the confidence she once had. "How many did Beta catch?" Achak asks hopefully. Alpha doesn't speak at first, but Rocky breaks her silence with his stomach growling. "Fine. She caught eight. Happy, now?" Alpha asks, her long, light brown fur glowing in the sunlight. Achak smiles. "Very much, miss attitude. So if he caught eight...then each of us can have two fish." Alpha looks devastated. "What about my fish?" She asks. "Oh, right! That fish is probably small, so it won't make much a difference if one of us has an extra." Achak glances at Alpha, hoping she got the insult, and Alpha scowled. Achak continues. "Why doesn't Luna have he extra, since she is the youngest and needs to grow." Luna smiles. "I'd like that very much, since I skipped dinner last night due to my tummy ache." Alpha growled. "You didn't have a tummy ache, you just refused to go to the bathroom outside at night because of the dark!" Alpha spat. Luna whimpered. "Who knows what could be out there? It's pitch black!" Alpha still wasn't satisfied. "So your saying when you had an accident on the cave floor that was the right thing to do?" Alpha came at Luna, clawing the air as Rocky held her back. "It got all cleaned up this morning! Calm yourself!" Rocky pleaded. Luna whimpered again, stepping back one inch at a time. Suddenly, the rock that was blocking the opening to the cave started to move. Beta picked up the rock and came inside, carrying a whole group of fish in her mouth. " Alpha, while you were gone, I got six more! Followed by one chicken!" The four pups cheered with joy. "So that would mean...sixteen fish, or should I say fifteen in a half. So we can each have four fish, and Beta can have the chicken." Achak says. Alpha growls, her nose twitching and her teeth gritting together. "I'm the leader of the pups, right Beta?" Alpha asks Beta, who was currently sorting out all the fish in the paper plates the pups found in the wild. "Well, technically, I am the leader of the pups, Alpha. You are just one of the pups I take care of." Beta mumbles with a paper plate in her mouth. Alpha tries her best not to cry as Beta nuzzles the plates to all the pups. Rocky gobbles down all four of his fish in seconds, but Alpha just shakes her head. "I'm not hungry. I'll prove to you I'm the leader of the pups. I'll go keep watch for predators." Alpha gets up, marches to the boulder, moves it, walks outside, and finally closes the hole back up.

To be continued lol