‘...’ – speech in wolf form

“...” – speech in human form

Chapter 2

   We began to head off north and slightly west, while Otsani tried to get her head around all that we had told her so far. After about an hour, she seemed to be alright with the information overload and was soon back to her usual ways of prancing about and sprinting off ahead of Blake and me before hiding behind a rock or tree and jumping out onto Blake’s back in a playful manner.

   As Sani was only young and had only spent her short life in the forest, she tired out much sooner; after awhile, Blake and I slowed down and helped her onto her father’s back before trotting onwards until it grew dark.

   We were now in the openness of the plains without any shelter. Curled up with my daughter right beside me, I wrapped my tail round us and let Blake curl up in front of me. Before settling down, he looked around us. ‘Do you think we’ll find them any time soon?’ he asked while sniffing the air.

   Twitching my ears, I watched him closely. ‘You need to be patient, who knows where they are. And anyway, they might have come together by now and they could be anywhere over either territory,’ I added; then Sani shuffled under my paw and I dropped my head down to cover her up again.

   ‘Yes, I was wondering about that. This won’t be easy and I’ll worry about exhausting out the both of you.’ He reached over and rubbed his muzzle along my cheek. ‘I can run ahead tomorrow and you can follow up at a slower place. You’ll be able to follow my scent easy enough and our bond will help as well.’

   I felt a small tension on my heart as he said this, telling me he was saying it because he cared. ‘You know she won’t like that. She’ll always be your daughter, maybe more than she is mine.’

   His ears pricked up and then rolled back over his head. ‘What is that supposed to mean? She adores you. You have no idea how much, I can tell the way she looks at you and how she follows you. I know that I take her off sometimes and play around with her a lot, but that’s just to keep all her childish ways from you.’ Dropping his head, he suddenly seemed etchy around me. ‘Sorry, that sounded like I keep her from you on purpose. It’s not like that...’

   ‘I understand, Blake...’ I softly interrupted him, reaching out a paw to his. ‘It’s alright, I don’t mind; besides, I like watching her chase you and play fight with you. You’ve always been the more patient one with youngsters than me, and I’m happy to let you continue.’ I smiled broadly to him and him back at me and I suddenly felt internally warmer compared to the chillness of the night around us.

   We once again settled down for the night, Sani already fast asleep behind my tail and Blake shuffling ever closer to put his head beside mine.

*****

   Just as he had offered, Blake ran ahead; and to her upset, Sani was stuck with just me trotting along at a slower pace. Now and again we could hear the faint howls from the north as he tried to communicate with any nearby wolves that would respond in a friendly reply.

   With every other howl, Otsani tried her best to howl back just as loudly; letting her howl to her heart’s content, I jogged beside her and watched on proudly as she leapt up into the air sometimes before sprinting off without warning.

   ‘Sani, slow down. Your dad will be perfectly fine on his own,’ I explained as I sped up after her.

   She slowed down once more. ‘Sorry, mama. I’m finally getting excited.’

   ‘Well, you’ll be more excited when you meet the rest of your family,’ I added. Her eyes widened with surprise, to which I chuckled. ‘You didn’t think you just had me, your dad and your grandparents, did you? Hehe, no. I have a brother and your dad has a sister who has a son herself.’ I nudged her side softly as she started getting twice as excited as she was five minutes ago. ‘And there’s more if you extend the family out a bit, but you’ll get to know everyone eventually.’

   Barking at the thrill of that news, Sani began jumping every few paces and I had to settle her down to just jogging again before she became exhausted too soon.

   By the end of the day we had managed to find Blake lounging beside one of the streams that joined onto the main river, a few miles away, and we were both rather tired as it took me awhile to figure out which way to turn (at some point I had lost his scent only to pick it up again after running on straight instead of curved).

   Lapping away at the cool water, I noticed that Sani had developed a deep curiosity with the meandering waterway and so I sneaked up behind her and nudged her in with a push of my muzzle on her flank. Falling in with a high pitched yap, she splashed about before realising she could swim without any instructions from Blake or me.

   Helping her out, I swiftly apologised. ‘I’m sorry, sweetheart, are you alright?’

   She shook her body vigorously before turning on me with bared teeth, but it did no good in scaring me. ‘What was that for?’

   ‘That’s more or less how your father made me get in the water, so I took the chance while you’re young still...’ I hesitated.

   Rolling around on her back, she tried getting as much water of her short fur as possible before sitting on her haunches and licking her front legs clean. ‘Will we reach them soon, papa?’ she asked.

   Blake turned his head towards us and he cocked upwards to listen to the empty air. ‘I think soon. I’m not quite sure but somewhere a mile or so back I thought I caught the remains of a scent or two, but I can’t be sure as we haven’t been around them for awhile so scents aren’t a familiarity at the moment.’

   ‘I really hope we come across them soon, is there a possibility we could have missed a trail?’ I asked while scanning Sani for any injuries she might be hiding (I was very protective while we were out in the open).

   ‘There is a small possibility, yes; but I doubt either you or me would have missed passing through a scent trail of twenty or forty wolves,’ he stated. ‘I’m sure after tomorrow we would have found them and Sani will be playing around with Jasper and Samson and whoever else. Hehe, and you and I can finally get a proper night’s sleep.’ He winked at me cheekily and I couldn’t help but turn my head and smile to myself and feel the blood rush to my cheeks.

   I walked over and sunk down on the grass beside him and tucked my head under his chin before whispering to him. ‘I miss being able to just sit and talk with you.’ I pulled my head from under his and looked him gently in the eyes. ‘But I wouldn’t change what we now have.’

   We both turned out heads and watched Sani as she sniffed about in the grass on her side of the stream.

   ‘And neither would I,’ he whispered back into my ear and then licked at my muzzle. ‘But it would be nice to just make a night of you and me, though we can start thinking of that when she’s settled in with the family. And we won’t want to force her into fitting in too quickly, just give her the time to do that herself; all we can do is watch on and keep her out of harm’s way.’

   I leant back into his side more as Sani came trotting over with her tail still dripping. Lying down in front of us, she looked around and I tried to figure out what she might be looking for; not being able to work it out, I asked her. ‘What is it, Sani?’

   ‘It’s just so... open, compared to the trees being everywhere,’ she replied. ‘I’m not sure if I like it.’

   ‘Ah, you’ll get used to it. We don’t always spend time out on the plains; it depends where Alpha takes us. Or in the case of the new pack, Alphas.’

   ‘I don’t understand that part. New pack?’ she asked.

   I let Blake answer this. ‘Our packs being separate wasn’t the best way for us to live, we spent half the year with hers and half the year with mine. And when you were on the way...’ At that, Sani screwed up her face and Blake chuckled. ‘Well, we knew that that would be no life for a young pup like you; and it meant neither of us being with our family while the other one was. So your grandad Jared came up with a plan that we bring the two packs together into a bigger one, then we would all be happy, hopefully,’ he added sceptically on the end.

   ‘We have no idea whether that’s happened yet or not,’ I continued. ‘But we’re hoping that it has. And then you don’t have to do this running around again.’

   ‘So it’s my fault?’ she asked, sounding rather upset.

   Blake bolted his head up at that word. ‘Fault? Not at all. It’s better for everyone; after all, your mum and I aren’t from the same pack anyway and we didn’t completely like the idea of switching families either.’ Blake shuffled behind me and I pulled away from leaning on him. ‘Oh no you don’t,’ he commented and put his paw over me and pulled me back into his side; but he pulled too hard and I ended up on my back with him staring down into my eyes.

   ‘Blake... what are you doing?’ I asked wearily.

   ‘What does it look like?’

   I rolled my head back so my scalp rested on the ground underneath me and I stared at Sani who was wagging her tail enthusiastically over the grass behind her. ‘Stop showing off and let me up.’

   He reluctantly hopped off from above me and I rolled over and sat up. ‘Sorry, I couldn’t help it. You alright, Sani?’ he added to her as she ran around in a quick circle with her tongue hanging out.

   ‘Yeh, I’m alright. I thought you were fighting or something,’ she explained softly.

   ‘We have our arguments and fallouts now and again but we have never had a fight. And that isn’t about to happen any time soon.’

   We all smiled and then, with Sani running up to me and sitting next to my belly, Blake and I embraced each other like we always used to and it felt like it always did, only this time there were three of us instead of two and that made it so much better.