Apologies again for a very delayed update. It ended up being a very busy semester (guess teachers don't care we're in a pandemic anymore). I finally have some free time on my break now and plan to have a long writing spree to catch up. It would feel wrong not to finish this book since it's the last one in the saga, so I am doing my best to continue it. Please expect daily updates until January 12th, and then updates will become weekly again.

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"Greeting me this morning, huh?" Copper Rock asked.

Golden Flower had been adjusting quickly to the early training hours. This morning, she had even beat Copper Rock to the large boulder they would meet at in the morning before venturing off into the woods. Now that she was finally living the life she desired, she could barely sleep at night when she thought of the excitement of training that awaited her the next day.

"I already ate and everything," Golden Flower told Copper Rock.

"Good for you, then," he said. He eyed her for a moment. Golden Flower was about to ask why, but for a moment she thought she knew. Hadn't it been just the other day that she was looking up at Copper Rock, and now they were about the same eye length?

Dogs really are different, Golden Flower thought. She wondered if she would be larger than her mother by now. If her mother truly was a dog, as she suspected, then it would be possible, considering she was almost the same size as Copper Rock. She supposed her father's genes allowed her to grow so big. He had to be a true wolf through and through.

As Copper Rock began to lead Golden Flower into the forest, one of the wolves also heading into hunt bumped against Copper Rock and knocked him off his balance. While the wolf tried to play it off as an accident, Golden Flower had seen him deliberately change course.

"It's fine," Copper Rock murmured.

Golden Flower had been becoming more attuned to these small instances of prejudice against the dogs. If the realization she had recently made was true, that her mother was a dog, then that would mean she was half-dog, and while her wolf-like appearance did not make anyone believe she could be a dog, she was frightened to share her identity. But perhaps she could trust Copper Rock...

No. Golden Flower shook her head slightly, trying to remove these thoughts. Her mother had left the pack for a reason. Perhaps it had been because of prejudice, and perhaps it was best to keep her mother's identity a secret. Still, Golden Flower would be lying if she said she didn't lay awake at night wondering how her mother fit into a wolf pack. Was she related to Copper Rock and the alphas? Or had she come from somewhere else?

"You've grown pretty quiet," Copper Rock noted.

Golden Flower let out a large yawn. "Maybe getting up early wasn't the best idea."

"Well, some hunting exercises should wake you up," Copper Rock told her.

He led her into the meadow nearby where tall, green grass stretched into the sky. It was one of the parts of the forest that fascinated her the most. On a clear day, there were clouds strewn across the sky, and you could see the mountains hugging this part of the forest.

"This is a great place to hunt for rabbits," Copper Rock explained. "Many of them have burrows here. In fact..."

Before Golden Flower could react, Copper Rock had leapt into the brush. There was some slight scuffling, and then he emerged with a rabbit in his jaws, which he finally made limp with one more bite on its neck.

"There should be many wandering around right now since it's springtime," Copper Rock explained. "Have a look for yourself."

Golden Flower lifted her nose in the air, attempting to sniff out the rabbits nearby. There certainly were many here, but they would be hard to see through the brush. How Copper Rock had caught sight of one was beyond her.

She trudged slowly through the brush, keeping her eyes out for any sign of movement. When she did see the grass move slightly, she leapt, just missing a rabbit in her paws. She chased the being through the brush with Copper Rock following behind her until it let out a squeal and leapt into a hole. Frustrated, she dug her paw into the hole, but Copper Rock's tail on her shoulder stopped her.

"Leave it be. You won't get a rabbit that way. Their burrows go deep."

"Still," Golden Flower murmured.

"There will be other opportunities," Copper Rock assured her.

She sighed and looked up. She had never come this far into the meadow before, and never before had she looked down below. The meadow stretched down a hill until the forest began to disappear altogether, replaced by odd-looking dens placed close together.

"What...what is that?" Golden Flower asked.

"The humans live below here," Copper Rock said. 

Golden Flower had heard the term once or twice. The humans were dangerous to wolves and liked to walk on two legs. Even stranger, they had no fur to keep them warm. It was not a threat her mother used often, but her parents had still made her and her siblings aware of the fact that sometimes humans like to come hunt in the forest. Never once had any crossed their territory. In fact, Golden Flower had come to assume that they were myths.

"Strange," Golden Flower murmured.

"Well, I suppose wherever you were from, there were no humans nearby," Copper Rock said. "You know...the alphas came from there."

"They did?!" Golden Flower gasped.

Copper Rock nodded. "Dogs are not usually wolves. We usually belong to humans as pets. I never lived that life, but my mother and father briefly did. They've told me the story before. It was my mother who liked to hear the wolves howl each night and longed to go into the woods. So she and my father did just that."

Golden Flower sympathized in a way. She knew what it was like wanting to be with the wolves but not being able to. She admired the alphas' bravery in creating a life for themselves here suddenly. Those dens below sure looked cozy and were probably hard to give up.

"Have you ever wanted to live with them?" Golden Flower asked. If she was half-dog, did that mean that she had come from those dens as well? And did that mean she might have an innate longing to go back?

"No. I'm a wolf," Copper Rock said. "I've never even met a human. This is the life I want. Although I suppose if I ever got tired of it, a human would gladly pick me up off the streets with my adorable face."

Golden Flower chuckled some. 

"Shall we get back to rabbit hunting, then?" Copper Rock asked.

Golden Flower nodded.

When training ended mid-day, Golden Flower returned back to the dens, ready for a nap. As she tiredly wandered back toward the group of wolves lounging around, she bumped into a large black wolf.

"So sorry!" Golden Flower murmured. She recognized the wolf immediately. Panther's Screech, the one that had kept guard that night when her father had come and taken her back from the pack. 

Panther's Screech only grumbled, but for a split second, Golden Flower locked eyes with the she-wolf. Golden Flower had never noticed it before, but the black she-wolf had an uncanny resemblance to her father...