~Return of The She-Devil~

[SHEPARD.?!]

Vullgar stayed in the tree tops this time, just observing his child. He didn't feel that it was time to attack yet. He would wait a while, seeing if she got the idea if he left or not. He could sense another wolf coming but didn't peel his eyes off Raven for a moment.

Stripe looked at Savior and nodded and helped nudge his sister inside. She was weeping and he understood why. He walked into the den and saw his mother laying there tired. Had she slept at all since they traveled, arived? He walked over and curled up next to dorito. "We got in a fight with Raven.... *yawn* thats all..." Stripe finished before he drifted to sleep on the floor in the ball shape he was in.

[dorito]

Raven just lay down in a patch of grass and licked a cut on her side and messed with her twisted ankle. She would accept his antagonizing without cracking. Another thing she had inherited? Her mother's great acting skills.

As she licked her paw, she whined in a pitiful voice and looked up dismayed. "You know, it's not exactly fatherly of you to attack your own puppy for no reason..." she whined, lowering her head and curling up to go to sleep.

The night was cold... She hadn't noticed until now, and she actually quivered a bit, curling up tighter. She was the smallest puppy, and she was more vulnerable to temperature than her siblings.

Back in the den, Dorito just groaned at what Stripecub had said about fighting Raven. "Where is she now...?" She asked, yawning. But, before he could answer, she began to drift off into sleep.

word count: 167

[Aryus]

Savior trotted through the brush and saw a small clearing, he poked his head though the bushes and heard Ravencub whine pitifully. Savior rolled his eyes, then scanned the tree tops for Vullgar, not seeing him, which didn't surprise Savior, he crouched down in the bush and watched the cub. Savior was just curious to see how far would Vullgar go. He also wondered why Vullgar was attacking this pup and not the others. He also figured that Dorito was to lazy to care about one of her pups, and this is why Ravencub might die in the jaws of her father. Would Savior do anything? No, probably not, he wanted to bite the scruff of the little brat too for what she did to Nightcub and Stripecub. But Savior's better senses came to him and he got to his paws and slowly inched back out of the brush to go back to camp.

Nightcub watched her mother fall asleep in the middle of asking where Ravencub was, Nightcub sighed. It was no use, Dorito would be asleep, but mostly Nightcub didn't care about her sibling. Heh she's with father, she won't die she thought and closed her golden eyes. She started to drift into sleep when Raven's words whispered into her ear, tempting her.

[*Glintfur*]

Dark was scooped up by his mother and he barked in protest, but was forced back into the den as he watched more of his siblings leave. When his sister came in he was throughly surprised. Blood was on her back! A sudden barks and she was gone. Why couldn't he go outside, but they could? Was it because of his strange appearance? Everyone told him that he was probably the most regular of the bunch except for his golden markings. None of Dorito's cubs had such shimmery fur. Once or twice his brother's or sister's would go by him on the sides and he'd be flung a different way even though they hadn't touched him, just the air between them. It confused him to no end.

Soon he heard snarls and saw blood spill outside. His siblings were fighting one another and here he was, stuck in the stupid den. Even his mother left. Why was he always forgotten? Infuriated with himself, he walked straight to one of the corners and sighed. Suddenly, he noticed his mother left again and this time it was her growling that he heard. Ears up, he went to the opening of the den to look. His mother was fighting that male! Blood was spilling everywhere, from his siblings fighting, to his mother and her subordinate.

He whined loudly as he saw so much destruction. Finally, his mother went inside the den and he looked at her to make sure she was okay. Suddenly, the male came and angered her enough. They lashed at each other and soon a pup came and told Dorito what had happened and that one of the pups had left.

All these events had scared him and he couldn't take it anymore. When Dorito began to fall asleep, along with Nightcub, he looked at them. They were so peaceful when you didn't see how fire burned in their eyes. All his siblings had something evil lurking within that fire, ambition. Today had been the end of it for him. He couldn't stand this insistant fighting anymore. From everything he had peaced together, perhaps all Dorito's pups had inheritated something, but what had he? Nothing except gold markings that didn't come from his father or mother. I'll never be like them. I'll never gain any type of leadership here. I'm acting more like the runt than my sister, he thought distressed.

Dark padded towards his mother and rubbed his head against her. If any looked at them right now they would see Dorito and a puppy, not Dorito and her puppy. He then licked his sister very lightly and began to pad away. As he made his way as quietly as possible out of the den, he looked back one more time. He had finalized his decision. Whoever this Snowstorm was he was going to find him. Clearly Snowstorm should be the alpha of Black Valley if his own father allowed all this. Dark had pieced together everything he had heard and finally understood enough to know that this Snowstorm person had the heart of a Black Valley wolf, but it wasn't tainted like his siblings, father, and mother's were. The male that had greeted them hadn't tried to kill them, only tried to gain respect.

It seemed to him that only his family was corrupted. He would not be another replacement of them, a duplicate when he grew. For so long he had thought of leaving, or wished it. His siblings, well most of them, felt it too, but would never leave what they could inheret.

Taking a deep breath of the urine smell of Snowstorm to remember the scent, he silently padded off to find the now lone male and Sarci and his owl. Everything that his father had uttered was in his mind and he would use it to help find this Snowstorm. What his mother had taught to him about fighting and territory around these parts would be the only knowledge he'd have, but he'd survive some way or another.

The forest began to swallow him up and only a flick of his golden ears in the moonlight showed he had turned his head to look once more into the camp that would be inherated by his siblings. Then the forest swallowed his being up and would only show him again when he decided to come back and he was hopefully raised to be the opposite of his siblings.

As he went, he couldn't help, but feel the clawing sensation that something horrible was going to happen in the next couple of years that he wouldn't be here for. The sound of his paws left to be replaced by the crickets of summer, only a wolf of canny hearing would be able to hear his whispered goodbyes and prayers to the heavens.

His plan was to cross the river and follow it while interweaving in it and out to disguise his scent and that's what he did.

Word Count: 860

[SHEPARD.?!]

Vullgar kept close eyes on his cub still. He mearly blinked after she whined her plea. His mission didn't stop, change, or get removed from his head at all. His flame eyes flashed with wickedness. Jumping from a random tree suddenly, he stood in front of her. He lifted his paw to his chest and flexed his claws. Lifting his head and closing his eyes and talked really loud in the childest voice he could make. "Oh daddy! Daddy! Why are you beating me so hard! I'm so weak and pathetic, I'll snap my twig of a spine!" Opening his eyes, they glittered with evil, and glared at the wimpy figure he'd call his daughter.

"Hard being thrown around without your helpers isn't it? You want to release them right now and tear me to shreds don't you?" Raising his head and letting his evil laugh ring through the forest again, Vullgar almost couldn't stop. Suddenly his head came down and his eyes opened, peering through his mask at his kin. "I can see it in your eyes. It's just like your mother when she attacked Snowstorm for killing your unborn brother and sister. Laughing again, he didn't last as long and he actually sat down afterwards.

"You'll need to be alot less thin if you want to defeat someone of my skill, and bigger size." Right then and there, he got an idea. You could see by the delight in his eyes and the light bulb over his head. "Hey... um, what's your face. Imagine if you were to murder the greatest of greats leader, and take crown of three packs at once. . ." That's right, Vullgar thought more and more of his devious plan. He would train Raven to perfection, then have her kill Aryus with her mad powers and strength, then, Vullgar would take crown as ruler of three packs as one.

Stripe dreamed lightly of a cloudy place, where he felt lighter, like a ton of weights had been taken out of his body. He looked around, and there was no one else there. Just him. He felt no sense of fear, no sense of pain, no sense of danger or death. Was he in heaven? Suddely everything went red and a dark hill came out, and on top was a orange figure. It looked like Vullgar, or Dorito. He couldn't really tell who it was, but by the color, it had to be someone in his family he knew. The figure and a wide, clear grin on their face, and giant bat wings were spread out beside them. White circles for eyes, you couldn't tell if it was looking at you or not. Blood started dripping from it's cold jaws mysteriously. Stripe started to feel pressure on his neck, like if he was being choked to death. But it was slowly, not the death sentence Ravencub would have given.

Waking up from the sense of pressure on his chest and throat. It was still there, the pressure, and it was getting worse. He couldn't breath. He couldn't tell were he was because his fision was blured. Was he having some attack? Or was it a seizure? "Ma...... Ma........." The pressure got tighter and he couldn't speak any more. It hurt to much. His world started to turn black and he pressed his paws to his neck, as if he were trying to grab an imaginary rope. His eyes started to go back into his head as his lungs started to burn.

[dorito]

Raven glared up at her father with disapproving eyes. He was utterly mad... And a bit of an asshole. She limped up to him and glared deeply into his eyes and a wide, evil sneer crawled across her face. "Oh daughter! Daughter!" She mocked him in her dark voice, "Why are you ripping my limbs apart? I'm so stupid and powerless, I'll snap my twig of a neck." her smile instantly vanished as she glared at him intently. "Listen to me. You are one hell of a terrible father, and I am trying my hardest to refrain from ripping your throat out and watching the blood dribble from your mouth and listening to you gagging for breath as you slowly die a painful death. Now, I am not saying I inherited any of mother's terrible genes, but I am saying that if you don't watch your back from now on, I'll snap it in half... And my name is Raven... and about training to kill someone to become leader... Such a trainer is impossible to find... Unless you are volunteering? Still, why on Earth would I possibly become you're apprentice? You are insane, you are stupid, you are weak, and you are worthless." She growled, glaring deeply into his eyes for a moment before limping to a tree and laying down under it, making sure not take her eyes off of him.

As Dorito dreamed, she was once again in a barren, grey wasteland, completely void of life, where the trees where barren and the rivers where dry. She suddenly saw Stripecub. He was running to her, but a black fog covered him up. She wanted to run to him, but was immobile and unable to help her son. And, almost as quickly as it appeared, the dark mist vanished... And there he was... Stripecub was there... But he was a rotting corpse of sorts. You could see bone and rotting flesh, he had no eyes, and there where flies. Dorito screamed and tried so desperately to move, but couldn't as he walked toward her. Suddenly, she heard him say something, but couldn't understand it. Then, she thought she heard gasping, like some one was suffocating. Suddenly, Dorito woke up.

She immediately spotted Stipecub and her heart skipped a beat. She saw him on the ground, his eyes rolling into the back of his head. She immediately ran and found a small, bowl shaped rock and filled it with water from a puddle and carried it back to him, assessing the situation. What could she do...? What was going on? Asthma? Heart attack? Seizure? The list was endless...

She bit her lip nervously until it bled. She couldn't lose another puppy... She already lost the black puppy to Snowstorm... And before she came to these lands, she had had a small litter of 4 puppies, 2 stillborn, the other two where deathly ill, and Dorito tried so hard to save them, she worked tirelessly trying to keep them fed well, trying to keep them warm and comfortable. But... They where just too sick to make it. She cried for days, weeks, months, mourning her puppies. She always would come back into her empty den praying to see a happy litter of puppies playing together... And when she didn't, she would collapse and break down into tears. She was NOT going to lose this puppy.

She woke up Nightcub and paced around in circles, terrified and furious with her self for not being able to think. She flipped him on his back and delicately pushed against his chest trying to stimulate breathing. She hesitated about doing mouth to mouth... That would be the weirdest, awkwardest thing ever... But there where no other options. She heard from a wolf she used to know that you where supposed to blow into the nose on wolves though, not the mouth. She quickly put her mouth over his snout and breathed out heavily three times before pushing on his chest again.

She was not going to lose a puppy ever again.

Word Count: 707