Arroooooo!
A large black head lifted from the grassy ground, black ears swiveling into the night air attentively.
Arooo-wooo!
Large, almond shaped blue eyes shone bright like the moon in the night, blinking slowly at the end of the mournful cry. After the cry ended, the wolf parted her lips and tilted her head to the moonless sky, letting her building sorrow escape in the form of a long, pain-filled howl.
Arwooooo!
The sorrowful howl was joined by many others, sending their condolences to the one who had lost another loved one. The wolf's heart twisted and she lowered her muzzle to sneeze miserably into the lush grass, ending her cry short.
Too many death-songs had been sang that moon cycle. Too many of her kin have fallen to the No-breath. How many more would run to join the Star Kin before the humans would leave? Why had they come in the first place? The humans had the rest of the Hardland to breed and hunt, so why invade the peaceful forests and bring the No-breath with them?
The wolf gazed sorrowfully into the dark sky, watching the stars run their night dances and blink blissfully in their paradise. A sigh escaped her lips. The Star Kin looked so happy in their Softland. No need to eat or drink; no threat of Lifebite; no Humans invading to separate the packs. The Star Kin had the promised forever-life that every wolf could get after living their cycle.
The wolf whimpered and lowered her gaze while wrapping her large black paws over her muzzle, struggling to hold back the salty wet that fell from her eyes and into the grass.
"Wind, why do you water the Hardland?"
The wolf's head lifted to turn to the speaker; a wolf bigger in size and with milky white streaking his brown muzzle was padding quietly to where she lay, amber eyes dully looking at his younger familiar.
Wind blinked a greeting to the elder before answering:
"I mourn for my lost kin, Mudfall. My soul cries for the end of another life cycle."
The older wolf, Mudfall, let himself rest on the grass next to Wind, his wise eyes looking into the sky. "The end of a life cycle is sad, but it also celebrates the travel of our kin to the Softland. We howl the death-song to bid them a peaceful forever-life."
"Yes, Mudfall, but so many have completed the travel this moon cycle. Doesn't it hurt you to sing so many death-songs in so little time?" Wind asked with her blue eyes watching the wolf next to her.
Mudfall rumbled a low, wheezy laugh, turning his broad head to face Wind. "You are young and have not sang many death-songs. Yes, many more than normal have been sung in a moon cycle, but I have lived long enough to appreciate the beauty of each song. Every breath drawn while the sound of sorrow and love is released into the sky are breaths given. The Star Kin gave us our voices so we can sing together and share our feelings."
"But our kin who go to the Softland cannot sing," Wind pointed out with sorrow edging her words, "Why do we sing when they cannot join? Why sing to them when we no longer can share their pain and sorrow, or joy and peace?"
"The Star Kin can sing, and they do, they're language is just different from ours," Mudfall replied kindly, "Their song lasts for all time. The reason they are so happy in the Softland is because they can sing forever without their throats burning or breath running. They can share their feelings to the Hardland as well as their packs. Do you know why we cannot sing to the Softlands directly, or understand their songs? It is because we have not felt how it is to fly, and we have not tasted the sky-water. Our voices are bound to the Hardland."
"Can you hear the Sky Kin's song?" Wind asked in wonder.
"We can all hear it. The only difference between you and me is that I know it is their song," Mudfall answered with a thin smile, showing the tips of his yellowed teeth, "I cannot tell you where to listen for it because you would not understand, but as you grow you will learn to recognize it."
"How can you be sure?"
Mudfall's grin turned into a kind smile as he answered Wind's question, "I am sure because you share something special with the Sky Kin that eve I do not share. Just trust my words and you will learn."
Wind sighed, "Ok, Mudfall."
Mudfall nuzzled Wind's ear with his nose, breathing softly on the sensitive black fur. "Good girl. Now, the night is still new. Do try to sleep," the old wolf rose to his paws and started to walk away back to his place deeper in the trees, "And do not neglect to use your voice in the death-song. Saying goodbye is necessary for life, no matter what soul you carry or body you use."
Wind watched respectfully as Mudfall vanished in the shadows before returning to her mournful position on the grass.
Time passed and Wind could not sleep, no matter how she lay or how long she closed her eyes. The feeling of death was hovering in the air, seemingly suffocating her, making it hard to breath.
Finally, with the night almost over, Wind felt sleep start to fall on her and she willingly let it come, letting a tired sigh hover in her throat.
Arroooooo!
Arooo-wooo!
Wind twitched awake, startled by the death-song. As a habit she rose her head and opened her mouth to send the song flowing farther into the sky, but no sound came out. Wind consciously lowered her head without letting a note rise, feeling sick to her stomach. She had heard one song too many and was done singing. She refused to join in the song again. It was too sad, too horrible to sing to the spirit taken by a No-breath.
Other voices started to sing in response to the first howls, rising softly over the trees and around the island. Wind felt her hackles rise and a growl wrinkled her muzzle. How could they all sing to something so sad? How could they just sing the same thing over and over again?
Wind wrapped her paws over her head, clamping her ears down against her head and blocking out the death-song. Never again would she sing that overly used song. Never.
[...]
"Wind, the time is nearing and we have sang in agreement. We must warn you of the future. You will come upon a human. This human is to save its home and its kin."
"No matter what happens, do not hate the humans, they are only trying to find a better home. Their Hardland is slowly dying. Do not judge them harshly for they are merely trying to survive."
"Remember that they do not know what we do and are not connected as we are to the Hardland."
"The human you will meet will not only save it's kin, but, in time, ours as well."
[...]
Wind awoke with cramping forelegs and sore ears. She had fallen asleep with her paws still over her head.
With a grunt she moved into a stretch, pushing her forelegs out in front of her to work out the soreness of her muscles. Irritably she flicked her ears back and forth, trying to rid the delicate skin of its soreness. As the stretch neared it's end, Wind's jaws opened wide in a large yawn, her pink tongue curling in her mouth.
"Hmmmn... Mudfall, are you awake?" Wind asked over her shoulder as she sat back on her haunches lazily. Her question went un-answered and she turned the upper half of her body to look into the trees, "Mudfall?" Still with no reply, Wind stood and padded over to where her older companion usually slept. She approached the spot with her head respectively lowered and tail sweeping the ground. She reached a spot where Mudfall's scent was strongest, marking his nest, but she saw nothing of the elder. "Mudfall? Mudfall, where are you?" She called deeper into the trees, her eyes sweeping the forest around her in search of the wolf.
When there was still no sign of Mudfall, Wind's head shot up high in alarm and she immediately started to sniff the air for any trace of where the elder had gone. Mudfall, despite arguing otherwise, was reaching an older age and had started to stay with Wind as he needed more caring for and could not live alone as well as he used to. The old wolf had always told Wind if he was going anywhere. He hadn't done so overnight, and he was missing. To Wind, this meant trouble.
"Mudfall?" she called out louder while heading off in a direction she could smell her kin's scent strongest, "Mudfall? Mudfall, where are you?"
Wind dreaded the thought of her companion and mentor alone in the trees with the No-breaths hiding anywhere. She had never seen a No-breath before, but she imagined it as something long and quick, like the white streaks that scar the sky when the Softland cries. The image of Mudfall lying dead with a No-breath hovering over his body made Wind speed up her pace until she was running between the trees, shouting Mudfall's name over and over again with increasing fear.
"Mrgh... Wind, you badger, stop tramping through the forest like a startled rabbit." a voice cut through the forest, making Wind stop dead in her run. She rushed over to where the voice had spoken and found a familiar grey wolf lying lazily in a large patch of moss and clover glaring accusingly up at her with half-closed blue eyes.
"Oh, Storm, I'm so worried! Mudfall's not in his nest and he always tells me when he goes on a walk! What if a No-breath got him? Storm, I can't bear to hear another death-song."
Storm shifted onto his back, letting his long, thick, grey underbelly fur to fluff out. "Mudfall can still take care of himself, he's not so old he can't take a walk without another wolf right there at his side. Just give him the day to enjoy the quiet he no doubt has found."
Wind growled at the un-helpfulness of her kin and quickly turned around and stalked away from him, holding her tail high to show her displeasure. No sooner had she done that she smelled the strong scent of Mudfall and she launched herself through the underbrush in the direction he had gone. Leaves and branches snapped at her face and sides but she pushed the sharp pains aside to focus on finding her pack-mate.
With a final bound Wind stumbled into a clearing and gasped with relief at the sight of Mudfall sitting silently staring up at the blue morning sky. His ears and tail flicked her direction, motioning permission for her to approach.
"Oh, Mudfall, I was so worried," Wind whispered once she was sitting next to the elder, "Why didn't you tell me you were going on a walk?"
Mudfall stayed silent, not looking away from the clear sky.
"Mudfall?"
"You didn't sing."
Wind blinked with surprise, unable to think of a reply.
"Last night, when another one of our kin traveled to the Softland, you did not sing the death-song."
Shame suddenly rose into Wind's heart and she hunched over her paws, staring at the grass to avoid Mudfall's eyes which had moved to rest on her. "No, I... I did not."
"Wind, there will come a time where you will learn to love and respect the death-song. We have been singing it for may life cycles. You should not feel badly towards the song."
Wind glanced up at Mudfall and winced when she saw the hurt expression on his face. "Mudfall, I can't sing the death-song again... I can't bear to hear it. What's the point of singing to our kin when we can't understand their song? It just leaves us to wonder what they would say from the Softland. It's too sad."
Mudfall's expression changed to that of disappointment before he replied. "I cannot make you understand the importance of the death-song; that you can only learn on your own."
Wind lifted her head to reply, but movement behind her interrupted and both she and Mudfall rose to their paws, noses sniffing the air.
Something hard and sour, overpoweringly strong, and extremely bitter slammed into their senses, nearly numbing their sense of smell. It was something Wind had never experienced before, and she stumbled backwards, rubbing her nose with a paw.
"Wind," Mudfall grunted, hackles raising and a snarl spreading over his muzzle, "Run."
As soon as he had made the command three humans crashed from the forest, shouting and waving their arms. The screams hurt Wind's ears and she rapidly turned to escape into the forest, vaguely noticing Mudfall's breath panting into the fur on her hindquarters as he followed.
"What are they doing here? The humans never venture from their Big Roars!" Wind panted to Mudfall.
"I'm old and have knowledge far past your own, but I don't know this much!" Mudfall grunted, obviously getting winded, "Just... keep running! The humans will give up qui-gurck!"
"Mudfall? Mudfall?!" Wind slid to a stop and turned to run back when she realized the wolf had vanished. "MUDFALL!" She had to skid to another stop a moment later to avoid crashing into her mentor who looked like he was lying limply but suspended in the air. His legs were scraping weakly at the ground, dull claws pulling up clumps of grass as he struggled weakly against the invisible hold. Wind stared, gripped by fear, at the elder who was gasping for breath that sounded like it wasn't going anywhere. His tongue that was lolling from his parted jaws looked alarmingly purple.
"M-Mudfall! Mudfall, no!" Wind nuzzled her nose around the wolf's neck trying to find what it was that held him aloft and stopped him from breathing. The metallic smell of blood filled her nose and she pulled away with her muzzle spotted with crimson blood. "Mudfall!"
"N-N-... No-breath..." Mudfall rasped bubbly, blood starting to drip from his mouth, "N-No chance..."
"No! No, Mudfall, No! NO! Not you!" Wind cried out, the salty wet starting to drip down her muzzle again, "Please!" she ran around the older wolf, sniffing for anything that could help her save him, "Mudfall, you can't go now! Your cycle isn't done yet! It can't be done! Who will I ask questions too?! What will I do without you as my mentor?!"
Wind's questions went unanswered and Mudfall's struggling only became weaker and his breathing attempts shallower. She couldn't do anything but watch as her only pack member slowly started his travel to the Softland. It was agonizingly long watching the elder suffer from the invisible No-breath, slowly becoming less and less responsive to her nuzzles and whimpers. Finally Mudfall stopped moving and Wind could smell the coldness of his body. Mudfall's life cycle had reached its end.
"No... Mudfall, no..." Wind fell into the grass, salty wet drops soaking her muzzle fur and dripping into the grass. There she held her vigil, silently staring blankly into the grass.
"Oh, Wind..." Storm's voice interrupted the deafening silence, "I'm so, so sorry," he padded to sit next to Wind who didn't move, "Mudfall was a great mentor to you. It's horrible that his life cycle ended with the No-breath like many of his kin."
Wind grunted in reply, closing her eyes to try and stop herself from listening to her surroundings.
"Arroooooo! Arooo-wooo!" Storm howled forlornly into the sky, followed by the many other voices of his kin that joined into the death-song.
Wind grimaced and put a paw over her face, unable to do anything more over her grief.
And thus went the next few minutes. Storm sang the death-song with the distant kin while Wind ignored the voices and silently grieved for her mentor.
[...]
They would pay. The humans- all of them- would pay for invading her Hardland and ending the life cycles of her kin. She would drive them back to their Hardlands and make sure they knew to never come back.
Wind, her heart full of anger and hate, bounded over bushes and around trees, heading towards the unforgettable human smell. They had taken Mudfall with the No-breath, and a Big Roar had bitten Storm. Both of her closest kin were in the Softlands when she should have been the one to make the travel. Wind couldn't shake the guilt that coursed through her mind, not through the whole Moon cycle since her last death-song. The humans had stopped stomping through the forest and many had left, but only after it was clear to Wind that few of her kin were left. Every night since Mudfall's travel the voices singing the death-song decreased to minimal, lonely cries.
Wind could not sit still any longer, her rage was too much to ignore. She would seek out the humans and take revenge.
Her pads hit a hard, hot, scratchy surface and Wind paused her run to look down at the ground. The grass had been torn up in a long, snake-like path and was replaced with a black substance that reeked of humans and stung Wind's nose.
She growled, disgusted at the substance before her ears were hit with a loud, deafening roar. She looked up, eyes wide, as two blinding lights sped closer, and grew ever brighter. A Big Roar, and it was running along the path right for Wind.
She told herself to move, but her legs didn't listen. The sight of the Big Roar had initially paralyzed her, leaving her rooted to the spot.
Just as everything seemed covered by the Big Roar's bright eyes, evening returned, and Wind was left blinking blindly at the empty black path. Sounds of tree roots being pulled from the ground and a horrible, screeching sound like a very loud bat screamed into the air before everything fell silent.
A death silence. That's what Wind heard. The sound in the air when a life cycle passed.
Then something started to howl into the darkening sky. It was not Wolf. No. It was much higher and louder, and the notes didn't stretch as long as a wolf howl, but, instead, broke sporadically apart.
The cry was not familiar, but Wind could hear the pain and sorrow that was so often included in her kin's songs. This howl was the death-song of a human.
Wind rubbed her face with a paw and padded, curious in the direction the Big Roar had went, easily following the torn up grass and broken underbrush to the edge of a short ravine where pieces of shiny objects lay scattered along the grass, reeking of the sour black stuff on the ground. At the bottom of the ravine, merely ten bounds down, lay a jumbled mass of shiny hard stuff. Tiny glittering shards that looked like stars were scattered across the rocks, and many other things that Wind had never seen before were strewn around the broken Big Roar.
The strange death-song continued and Wind started her slow descent down to the Big Roar, carefully placing her paws so she did not slip on the fake stars and fall to the bottom of the ravine.
Before she even reached the Big Roar, Wind could smell a strong scent of blood. Human blood.
She reached the bottom of the ravine and started to circle the Big Roar, trying to pinpoint the source of the death-song. Halfway around, nearing what Wind guessed was the Big Roar's face, Wind saw blood pooling around more fake stars, and something was sticking from under the shiny stuff. With a closer look, Wind realized it was a human hand, and the rest of the human was covered by the Big Roar. She circled around to the other side and found another human in a similar position as the first. Both held the death scent.
But the death-song was continuing, and Wind decided to keep moving around the Big Roar until she found the living human.
Wind tried to smell out the human, but her nose was clogged with human and Big Roar scent. Her ears were still ringing from the Big Roar's roar, and her vision still held white spots from when the Big Roar glared at her.
The way she found the human was pure luck. Her nose had brushed something smooth and it smelled less like a human, and more like a pup; milky and sweet. The object moved, bumping Wind's nose, and she knew immediately that she had found the source of the death-song.
Carefully Wind managed to pull the human pup from the Big Roar and had it placed on a patch of moss. The pup hardly had any hair on its head and its colored pelt seemed loose and baggy compared to other human pelts. It's skin was pinker and seemed softer than the adult humans. Blood was dripping from cuts on the pup's arm and leg.
Wind stood, shocked, at the sight of the human pup. The two humans under the Big Roar were no doubt its parents. No wonder the pup was singing the death-song so loudly.
Wind felt a feeling of guilt set in her stomach and she suddenly felt like she was going to be sick. Because she had gotten angry at the humans, this pup was without its kin. It was alone in the Hardland, just like Wind was.
"Oh, Star Kin, what have I done?" Wind whispered to the sky, "What have I done?! I'm no better than the humans!" She looked back down at the human pup, watching it continue its death-song and release large drops of salty wet which slid down it's flat face and splattered onto the moss. "I-it's just like me. It mourns for its kin and waters the Hardland with salty wet."
Wind stayed standing, not knowing what to do for the human pup. She racked her mind for anything that could help, and remembered a dream she had received the night before Mudfall's life cycle ended.
"I-is this the human?, the one I was told I was going to meet? But, how will it save its kin? It's hurt, and has no kin around to help it."
Wind let her gaze sweep around the ravine in a vain search for any living humans. The sudden ending of the pup's death-song made Wind turn back to it. Her heart fluttered when she realized that it was nearing the end of its own life cycle, silently falling into sleep.
"No... no, not again..." Wind muttered, nuzzling the pup with her nose to try and wake it up, "Not again. What will happen if its cycle ends? What will happen to its kin? What of me and my kin?" Wind paced, horrifically flustered and afraid. "What do I do-ooooo!" Wind drew out her cry in a howl of anguish, pointing her muzzle to the night sky.
A breeze ruffled her fur, seemingly brushing her pelt in the way a pack mate greets another. The air traveled around Wind for a moment longer before rushing out of the ravine, sighing its sound of running through the rocks and echoing against the walls. Wind perked her ears, suddenly gaining a thought.
"Awooooo! Roooo-arooo!" she sang to the sky, throwing her questions into the drawn out tones.
The wind whistled through the leaves above the ravine, and hummed as it sped between the trees.
The human must live. You must share your life cycle with the pup.
Wind nodded, not fully realizing what she was hearing, and looked down at the pup.
With a low, drawn out note, Wind padded over and wrapped herself around the pup, resting hear head on the pup's front and completing the circle with her tail brushing her muzzle. Wind sighed, softly ending her small song of forgiveness, and closed her eyes, willing her life cycle to reach to the pup. She felt a small tingling under her fur and in her heart, then Wind forgot.
[...]
I stared up at the full moon, blissfully enjoying the clear night air aboard the SHIELD heli-carrier. No one was around. Even the nightly guards seemed to be elsewhere, leaving me to stand alone with my thoughts. My three friends were on my mind, for they just left to Utah earlier that week, and I was already feeling the loneliness of them being gone.
With little urging from the wolf spirit, I transformed into a wolf. Something inside me was urging for me to let out my feelings somehow. The stars that twinkled above my head held some new meaning when I was a wolf. The foreign feelings was something I embraced. They felt new, and made me feel like I had a new purpose in life.
Sorrow suddenly filled my heart and I fell into it, allowing instincts to take over and show me what I could do.
My mouth opened, lips parting to allow sound to escape. Something started to rise in my thick throat, vibrating deeply before changing to create a long, clear, note. The howl grew louder until it was seemingly echoing from the wind. The cry felt good, and I let my heart our itself out into the night sky.
"Arroooooo! Arooo-wooo!"
The howl sounded less like an animal howl and more like a song. A loud, sorrowful song that called to the stars and cried to the moon.
A death-song.
A song that shared one's pain to another in a strangely perfect melody.
It was a song that was born from the earth and sky itself.
It was not a song meant to make others feel sad.
It was meant to express love and the hope of seeing kin again.
I didn't know where the realization came from, or even why I had it, but the wolf spirit inside me seemed to relax and feel content for the very first time, so I kept singing, knowing I would be seeing my friends again. For the first time I was speaking to the heavens, and I could hear them speaking back.
Well done, Wind. Well done.