Red.
It's one of the few colors that she can see, and a color that she can smell. Red is coated on her dark grey pelt, matting the fur to her skin. Some of the red belongs to her. Some of the red doesn't. Red is on the other of her kind in front of her, the one that carries the musky scent of male beneath the sharp, thick, metallic smell of red. Some of the red that belongs to him is on her, just like some of the red that belongs to her is on him. She sees her red on yellow teeth when he pulls his lip back in a snarl, dark eyes cold and unforgiving.
Behind her, one of the small ones wails. There are three small ones - the fourth died as she was brought into the green and brown that could not be seen but is called home. Now, she - Mother - is defending the three small ones that are left, coated with red as she stands between the small ones and the male.
Where is her male? Where is the Father of her small ones? He is nowhere to be seen, instead replaced by this stranger with Mother's red on his teeth. Mother misses her male, misses Father, the scent of his white pelt and his voice as he cries to the sky. Mother has called for Father many times since this stranger's arrival, but Father has not shown himself. His white pelt is not visible among the brown and green that cannot be seen.
The stranger lunges. Mother feels yellow teeth clamp over her throat. More red spills from her grey coat and paints the bleak grey world with bright color. The small ones wail even more, but Mother cannot answer them.
White. It's a color that Mother has associated so much with safety, and as the strength fades from her legs she rushes towards that color. Not towards her male, not Father. But it's White.
So...yeah.
I discovered that there is a WolfQuest fandom here. Then I discovered that people actually wrote for it. Then I remembered that WolfQuest is losing its funds and is shutting down pretty soon and thought, hey, why not write a little one-shot for the heck of it?
So that's what I did. At 3:46 in the morning with only Arizona tea to keep me up, I wrote a WolfQuest fic. Didn't understand it? Here's what happened:
A mother wolf in Slough is defending her three pups from a lone stranger, and her mate is nowhere to be found. She's badly losing the fight, and at the end, she dies. There. Those of you who didn't get it will hopefully get it now. Want the pups' fate? Use your imagination.
This little blurb is starting to get longer than the actual fiction. I'll stop now. Feel free to leave a passing review.