Sorry it took me so long guys! I finished the prologue a long time ago, but I kept forgetting to post. But here we go, and I hope you guys like it. Once again, I would be thrilled to hear any comments you guys have.
~Prologue~
The silver she-wolf padded swiftly through the woods with her two pups beside her. Her pelt shimmered in the moonlight that filtered through the leaves of the trees overhead, making her look ghostly. Twigs and pebbles scattered beneath her feet, rattling and cracking to break the eerie silence of the night. She was exhausted, and she knew her pups must be, too. But she had to keep going. It was the only way to protect them.
The loud cracks of the Thunder-Sticks still echoed in her ears, along with the howling and whimpering of her dying packmates. She could still hear the Furless-Ones shouting to one another in their nonsense language. And worst of all, she could still hear her mate Sleet using his dying breath to say,
“Run, Koraya! Take the pups and just run!”
A soft whimper beside her distracted her from her thoughts. The smaller of her two pups, Seven, looked up at her. Her amber eyes were shining with exhaustion. “I can’t keep going, Mom.”
Koraya slowed her pace to a walk. The black pup looked relieved. Her sister, Ivy, shook out her dark grey fur and padded over to Seven. “Are you tired already, Sev?” she said, playfully nudging her sister.
Too tired to play, Seven merely nodded and lie down. Ivy looked disappointed, having wanted to play a for little while.
“We’ll stop to rest for the night,” Koraya said. She gently nudged Seven to her feet. “We might have to travel for a while to find a place, though.”
The three wolves resumed their journey, this time at a much slower pace. As the night wore on, Koraya became more nervous. She continuously swiveled her head around, searching with her eyes, ears, and nose for any signs of danger. Every sound made her jump.
Just as dawn was beginning to break, Koraya found an old badger sett. The stench of badgers was stale, at least two weeks old, but still potent enough to hid any wolf-scent. It would be safe and big enough for her and her pups to stay in until they were ready to move on.
“In you go,” Koraya said, nudging Seven with her nose. The tired black pup stepped into the sett, soon proceeding to tumble down the tunnel. When Seven was inside, Koraya turned to Ivy. “You next.”
“No! It stinks in there!” Ivy complained loudly, scratching at her nose as if to clear away the scent.
“But it will be safe,” Koraya replied calmly. “Now go into the den, I-”
She was interrupted by a loud snarl. Whipping around, Koraya came face-to-face with a huge white wolf. His face was twisted in an angry grimace. His eyes glimmered with hate and fury.
“What are you doing here,” he growled. “This is Pack of the Night territory, you loner filth.”
“I was simply looking for a place to stay. I was unaware that this was pack territory. My sincerest apologies,” Koraya said, dipping her head politely.
“I’m not accepting apologies today. Sorry.” The other wolf leapt at her, teeth gnashing and claws slashing. Koraya leapt out of his way, the snarl on her face illuminated by the moonlight. She attempted to drag her claws across the male's flank, just barely missing as he jumped out of range. Koraya felt the male collide with her, and she soon was pinned to the ground. He grabbed ahold of her throat and, despite Koraya’s desperate attempts to escape, clamped down until her body fell limp.
Dropping Koraya’s lifeless body to the ground, the wolf stepped towards Ivy. The young pup was paralyzed with fear. The only part of her that moved was her eyes, which continuously flickered from her mother to the white male. With a savage howl, the wolf grabbed Ivy by the throat and swiftly killed her with a strong bite.
The wolf howled triumphantly and took off into the undergrowth. He left unaware that there was one survivor of the family he had murdered. Seven.
The pup, having heard her mother and sister’s yelps of pain and fear, stumbled out of the sett. She let out a quiet whimper of terror upon seeing the motionless bodies of her mother and sister. Racing over to them, she saw that their fur was matted with blood. Their eyes were glazed with death. Her mother and sister were gone.
Blinded by fear and sorrow, Seven took off into the forest. She didn’t stop running until she smelled a similar scent to the one that hung over the bodies of her sister and mother. These must be the border markers, she thought to herself. She was comforted by the fact that she was safe from the wolf pack that had killed her family, even though she was not safe from the other animals.
No longer as afraid as before, the full magnitude of Koraya and Ivy’s deaths washed over Seven like floodwater. Her tail and ears drooped and her head hung low enough for her nose to brush the ground. She whimpered, begging the wolf-gods to protect them. Images of her mother and sister flashed through her mind, accompanied by images of her father, Sleet, who had died two days before.
Too exhausted to go on, Seven curled up under a bush and looked up at the sky. Somewhere up there, her parents and sister were with the wolf-gods in the Forest of Stars, never to see her again in the world of the living. Whimpering with sadness, Seven lay her head on the ground and closed her eyes. She knew not yet what was to come, but she knew one thing: she was alone.
