"Clumsy's Story" is the first in a series of stories taking place in the Alpha And Omega "universe", but with a different wolf pack with all-new characters.
The wolf pack in this story lives just south of Jasper Park, where they don't have the protection from hunting by humans that living in Jasper would give them.
His real name is "Swift", but everyone calls him "Clumsy", except for his mother Joan, and his sister (when she's around Joan, that is).
Any time anyone in the pack makes a mistake, they're told "Swift move, there!", which always gets a laugh, since everyone knows Swift is "Clumsy".
You see, "Clumsy", er... Swift was supposed to be an Alpha. He had been pre-enrolled in Alpha School at birth and was to go there that year, in the late Fall. But as the time approached for him to go, he showed no sign of growing out of the "bumble-puppy" stage and growing into his feet. If he'd continued to grow until his body size matched his foot size, he would have been big, almost huge, practically a "moose". But that didn't happen, and neither did Alpha School for him. To say he was a disappointment to his mother might have been close to the truth, but she would never say that. He was her son. She loved him no matter what.
"Clumsy" had two redeeming qualities: he was fairly clever (if clumsy and unlucky), and he was good-natured and friendly to everyone. His almost constant tripping over his big feet kept everyone amused, so they tolerated his being around, as long as he didn't scare the prey (he knew enough not to even be in the area where a hunt was going on) or try to eat from a kill before his turn (dead-last). He most certainly wasn't much of a "ladies' man", in fact, the three one-year-older Omega girls didn't mind having him around because he was just too clumsy and awkward to successfully hit on them. He made them laugh. They felt safe around him. He was never thought of as "marrying material".
Lucky was charming as well as smart (and, well, lucky!), and she knew some good jokes, so everyone liked her. She was the one who almost always found some food when she was hungry, whether it was a rabbit that just happened to jump in front of her as she walked along, or a cache of left-over meat that everyone else had somehow missed. She shared with her brother and Joan when she could, since she wasn't a selfish girl, but when there's not enough to go around, you've gotta look out for yourself, since when you're an Omega, no one else will. "My name's "Lucky". And I am. I'm an Omega now, but I don't plan on staying an Omega all my life. I'll be an Alpha someday, or at least a Beta, you'll see."
Joan, being Mom, tried to make sure that "Clumsy" and Lucky got enough food, but with their being Omegas, and old enough to look after themselves, there wasn't much she could do. Joan sometimes went on the large prey hunts, but "Clumsy" and Lucky didn't, since that wasn't the Omegas' job. Being Omegas, they were the "last to the table", so to speak, "Clumsy" even more so, since, unlike his sister, he wasn't able to charm his way into the "buffet line" before everyone else had their fill. Poor "Clumsy" was an "Omega's Omega", which meant that he was almost always hungry. Since their pack was fairly large, with fifteen members (four of which were Alphas (Joan was one), six Betas, and five Omegas ("Clumsy" and Lucky, as well as three three-year-old females), not even scraps and bones were usually left by the time everyone else had eaten. He had to eat "bitter berries" more often than not, just to fill his empty stomach.
This morning, three of the Alphas and the six Betas were out on a caribou hunt and weren't due back until after nightfall. Joan was doing some "housekeeping" in the den.
"Clumsy" was running, feeling good about life and reasonably not hungry, since he'd recently eaten some meat his sister Lucky had found and shared. The wind was blowing through his mottled light and dark gray fur, his greenish-brown eyes were bright with excitement, his ears were laid back, his tail was straight out behind him, his tongue was lolling from the side of his mouth, and he was doing pretty well this time about not letting his feet get in the way (almost living up to his real name, Swift). He charged into a clearing with tall grass all around, and continued running. He leaped over a branch in the way, sailed through the air, legs flailing wildly, and head-first into a hole in a hollowed-out tree trunk. The hole was just big enough for his face, so of course he was stuck. His eyes had closed instinctively as soon as he saw where he was headed. What was in the tree? A honey bee's nest! He was lucky in one way, though: with his face stuck in the nest, he couldn't open his mouth to yelp (though he could still whine loudly), so he didn't get any bees inside his mouth or throat. He hung by his face with his hind feet on the ground, pushing with his front feet in a vain attempt to get his face out of the hole. After what seemed to him like forever, he finally managed to pull his face out of the nest, yelping and screaming. He made a bee-line run for home, with the last few of the bees stinging him on the backside as he ran.
Amazingly, he actually found his way home and into the den. His mom, bless her, tried to help him as best she could: without a word, she went and quickly found some berries growing nearby that she instinctively knew had healing properties, chewed them, came back into the den, and started licking his face, especially around his eyes, to spread the berry juice and pulp on it.
"Awww, Mom," "Clumsy" whined as he tried to pull away, "I eat enough of these berries without you smearing them all over my face!"
"Be quiet and hold still, dear. These aren't exactly the same berries you usually eat. They're special medicine berries. Extra bitter!" Joan said, gagging slightly. Her mouth was still full of the berries and juice to treat "Clumsy's" facial stings. She finished applying the berry treatment, which would draw out the poison from the stings and help his face heal faster, as well as keep his eyes from swelling shut, but would also stain the fur on his face dark blue for a month! His face was swollen for a couple of days, but it would have been longer without the berries. She spat out the remaining berries, pulp, and juice. "Take what's left and work on your backside. You're too old for me to be doing that for you!"
"Clumsy" sniffed at the chewed-up pile of berries and wrinkled his nose. "Eccchhh!"
"You've eaten meat that I've brought up from my stomach for you. Don't get squeamish on me now!" Joan growled and snapped at him.
"It's not that, Mom," he whined, "It's just that they smell so... BITTER!"
"I told you that before I started smearing them on your face. Now pick them up and get busy! You don't want a sore backside for a week or two, do you?" She gave him a direct no-nonsense look.
He sighed. "No, I guess not." He took as much of the berries as he could into his mouth and started to his work, while Joan went outside to give him some privacy. When he was finished, he was berry-stained from both the front and the back.
A few minutes earlier, Lucky had followed along, trying (unsuccessfully) to keep her brother out of trouble, when she'd heard his muffled whines. "Oh, "Clumsy", what have you gotten yourself into this time?!" she called out as she rounded the corner of the path just in time to see him pull out of the nest with the last of the bees angrily following. While they were busy stinging poor "Clumsy" as he ran off (yeah, it was just his luck to find the one-in-a-million bee's nest where all the bees left come out to attack instead of staying to defend the nest!), Lucky shrugged and started to feast on the honey and larvae there. "I'm not gonna get myself stung trying to help him. The worst is over, anyway. Since he's already broken it open and distracted all the bees," she thought, "I might as well have a little of the goodies before anyone else finds them." Then, of course, after she finished her snack, she had to lick all the sticky honey off her muzzle. By the time she got home, Clumsy was already stained blue front and back.
"Lucky," Joan growled as Lucky trotted into the den, "you were supposed to be looking after your brother! Why did you let him come home on his own after his accident?!"
"Sorry, Mom" Lucky said, though not quite sounding it, "but the honey and larvae in the nest were just too good to resist." She licked her lips at the sweet memory. "There's still plenty left, if you and Clum..." she ducked her head apologetically "err... I mean, Swift want any." Joan glared at Lucky, warning her to remember her brother's real name.
"There was, like, 50 bajllion bees in that nest," "Clumsy" grumbled, doing his best to glare at Lucky, which wasn't very effective, what with his face being swollen and berry-blue, "and I got stung by every single one! I should hope there'd be something left there! You took your sweet time eating while I had to find my way home on my own!"
Lucky knew better than to laugh at Clumsy's swollen, blue face and behind while Joan was there, though she couldn't hide a smirk.
Joan took "Clumsy" back to the bee's nest so that he could try to eat something, since there was nothing left to eat at their den, not even scraps and bones. "Clumsy", of course, didn't feel much like eating anything. "You should at least have a little honey, dear," Joan told him, "it'll help you feel better." He wasn't too thrilled about sticking his face back in the nest, even with all the bees dead, but managed to lick up a little bit of the honey to help get the bitter taste out of his mouth from the medicine berries, despite his face being pretty badly swollen by then. Joan then cleaned up the rest. "Waste not, want not," she said as she went to eating. "Besides, I need something to get that bitter taste out of my mouth from those berries, too."