As the early morning sun rose across the sky, a light red figure padded its way across the grassy forest floor. Dew still clung to the grass, and moisture had worked its way from her paws almost up to her knees. And as she cut across a small, asphalt road that wound it way through her territory, she felt a few sharp black points dig into the toughened pads on her feet. That would have bothered her most days, but today the only thing the huntress could think of was the growling she could hear from her stomach. Howling angrily at her, her stomach gave off another large rumble to remind her of her failure to find anything to eat in the past few days. Sticking to the shadows, the lone wolf traveled across her measly hunting grounds to one of her better feeding spots. Coming into a small clearing, the she wolf sat down on her haunches on the edge of the circle for a moment to think of what she should do.

This area was constantly being traveled along by roaming herds of elk, so most of the grass had died and left the bare earth exposed. Elk were too big for her, especially now that she was on her own, and even through her gnawing hunger she was sane enough to know that attacking a group of deer without her pack was foolish. But where the large animals frequented, so did the small. And she had her eyes set on something much smaller anyway. This area usually had several rabbits frolicking around in the up churned earth, searching for roots and leaving behind dozens of rabbit trails for her to hunt down at her leisure. Unfortunately, the early morning rain had washed away any tracks that might have been present.

But now there was also less clutter to confuse the hunter's nose, and hopefully that fact alone would let her track down a decent meal.

Sticking her nose to the ground, the red wolf breathed in deeply, trying to pick up a trace of anything that smelled enticing. Mostly all she could smell was wet mud, and some of the awful bitter greenness that came off of the trampled grass. Sweeping back and forth across the circle, the red wolf was worried that she wouldn't find anything here at all. She was about to give up, when she suddenly swept her nose across a small tuft of white fur.

Bingo! She didn't recognize the smell, but whatever it was it left her mouthwatering for a simple taste. Circling around the patch where she had first stumbled upon the odor, the wolf now kept her face planted to the ground while she followed the sent out of the clearing and across the forest floor. Letting her feet work on autopilot and do the walking for her, the she wolf thought to herself on what she had found. Ooooo… maybe it's a nice fox? Or a rabbit? No, no, much too nice for a rabbit… maybe it's a hedgehog? It smells a little bit like a hedgehog. Oh, I really hope it isn't a hedgehog, I hate eating around all of those little spiky things on their backs. They make for a messy meal… and honestly, why are they even there? Those spikes can't help the hedgehogs much; they haven't ever stopped me from eating one of them. Maybe… maybe it's one of those tamed hedgehogs? Those ones that just go around squeaking to themselves all night, not learning to keep quiet. They're always a nice treat, whenever one of those stupid two legs get tired of them and thinks it's a good idea to leave one out here for me. They're so thoughtful to leave me those snacks…

The shewolf was so deep in thought that she didn't even notice when she walked past the sent for a few seconds. Circling back, she followed her nose back to a small burrow in the nook of a large oak's roots, barely large enough to fit her snout into. Growling to herself, she began to dig at the entrance to the hole, steadily increasing its size up to the point where she could fit her entire head into the space. Shoving her head forward as far as she could, she snapped at the darkness, hoping to hear a whimper or squeal of fear from whatever her prey was. Usually her meals gave themselves away in a moment of panic, trying to race out of their intruded homes and past her teeth to safety. She had never let one get away before, and she wasn't about to let today be the first.

Still though, even after she had forced most of her upper torso down into the hole, she still heard nothing. And it aggravated her to no end!

I smell… I smell whatever that is! I have to be right on top of it, so where is it!

As if to answer the wolf's question, she suddenly heard a skittering voice ask from somewhere behind her "what do you think you are doing to my home?"

Pulling herself out as quickly as she could, and feeling a large amount of dust and dirt get stuck in her red coat, she whipped her head around the clearing trying to find the source of the voice. Shaking lightly to get the dust out of her pelt, she whipped her head around wildly looking for her meal.

"I heard you and your insufferable sniffing over a minute before you showed up. Isn't stealth supposed to be the mark of a hunter like yourself?" The voice, still omnisciently unplaceable, mocked the wolf by sighing "I'm going to guess you aren't that bright… would I be correct in that assumption?"

Hunching down low, the she wolf flared her ears up trying to pick up more sound, pinpoint where the voice was coming from. All she could hear was a light chittering. Growling angrily, the wolf spun around in circles trying to find the source of the noise. In a barking growled she howled out "where are you, whatever you are?!"

"Well, I am certainly not down there where you could eat me." A high pitched chittering sound came from the top of the tree that the she wolf was digging under, again mocking her by finishing the thought with "although I doubt you could even catch me if I truly was within your reach…"

Looking up into the bows of the oak, the red wolf saw a twisting white figure peering down at her from the lowest branch, far out of her reach. From the huntress's position, all that was visible was the creature's pure white head, which peered down at her with obviously intelligent red eyes.

"I was brought here by you? I've never smelled a rat that would taste like you will before…"

Again the chittering sound came again, and now the she wolf realized that the titter was the creature's laugh. "Why, you would call me a rat? Wolf, I am no closer to a rat than you are to those shivering little fuzz balls the humans like to keep in their purses."

Hoping down from the branch and landing in a hollow in the oaks trunk, still safe from the wolf's fangs, the creature came into view and revealed its entire body. The wolf could now see that she, and the voice was obviously that of a female's, was definitely not a rat. While it did have the face of a rat, that was pretty much it. With a long slender body covered entirely in white fur, and four long limbs that clung to the wood of the tree, the wolf below finally knew what her prey was.

"Ah… you're a weasel! I've never eaten a weasel before!"

Apparently she was wrong again, because the weasel hissed down at her "Gah! I detest my stupid cousins, running around moronically and getting lost five feet from their homes. I'm proud to say that I am the only Marten to call this forest its home." After a moment of thought, the white marten added "at least… the only one that I have had the pleasure of meeting."

Sitting back down on her haunches and looking up at the rodent with a head cocked to the side, the wolf replied back while licking her chops "I don't really know the difference, but I'm assuming you'll taste just the same."

Looking upwards regally, jutting out her throat, the marten sighed down at her "well, I'm sorry to say that you will be denied that meal you were anticipating." At the very end though, she added "not to say that there isn't anything here for you though…"

"Huh… wait, I thought you wanted to be in the 'I'm not going to get eaten' category?"

Through slit eyes, the marten looked down at the wolf. "I am." Then pointedly looking at another burrow across the small circle of trees, she continued on saying "however, I do have some pesky, noisy neighbors that I wouldn't mind… disappearing."

The wolf's head snapped in on the burrow, and with the offer of food she completely lost interest in the marten. Hunching down low, so low that her chest brushed against the ground, the wolf slowly padded over to the hole in the ground. When she came up to the opening, a large, toothy grin spread across her face as she saw four pairs of beady eyes peering back out of the small hole in horror. They would definitely make a good meal.

"Well, that was a little brutal to be honest" the marten commented dryly from its perch, watching as the wolf happily licked blood off of its snout.

The she wolf just hummed to itself happily, feeling three dead rabbits all sloshing around her once empty stomach. In the chaos she had let one get away, but that was just a part of the hunt. And she was more than satisfied with her catch for the day as it was.

The chittering voice from the top of the tree rang out again, calling out to her. "So now… by how I think this works, you now belong… to me."

Not paying the chatter too much thought, the wolf laid down with her paws in front of her and responded back in an incredulous voice "what?! Me, a wolf, a proud hunter, belong to a little fuzz ball like you?! Ha! Get real!"

Stunned silence came from hollow where the marten had been sleeping, and the marten reared back on its hind legs for a moment while glaring down at the wolf below. The weasel's calm lasted only a second though, and a moment latter the wolf's ears flicked down when she heard dozens of high-pitched angry screeches get hurled her way. Hopping up and down angrily inside of her hole within the oak, the marten started angrily shouting "but that is how this works! I fed you! You're supposed to listen to me now!"

Lazily looking up at the white rodent, the wolf growled back "and what would ever give you that dumb idea?"

"That was how it worked with the humans!"

"Huh?"

Sighing loudly, as though she was explaining something that should have been obvious to even the lowest simpleton, the marten sneered "after my human feed me, we had a social contract! I stayed and caught mice for her, and in return she continued to feed me!"

Howling at the sky, the wolf started to laugh in its barking voice to itself. "Ha, I get it now. You were a pet, weren't you?! I thought there was something odd about you! That's how you're still alive with that albino coating!"

"Yes I was a pet" the marten chittered down at her. "What does that have anything to do with this?"

"It means you're not going to make it in this forest for more than a week! Look, I've got news for you chipmunk, but that's not how it works here! You're on the low end of the food chain. Rodents like you answer to predators like me! It's not the other way around! You should just be glad that you can stay up in that tree where I can't get you yet…" Continuing to chortle to herself, the wolf now the one to mock the marten, laughing "all you pets think you've got some advantage coming into our forest with all of your fancy-shmancy pampering and fetch tricks. You start to whine after about a day, within the first two you begin to starve, and then something comes and eats you while your belly aching over your old pillows and crates before seven days are up!"

Hissing loudly, the marten grumbled "I'll let you know that I've been more than fine for over a month!"

In mock sarcasm the wolf laughed "and I congratulate you for that! But you're just on borrowed time…" With that last parting statement, the wolf picked itself up off of the forest floor and turned to leave.

The wolf walked about a good ten feet before suddenly the marten was on a branch above her head, and shouted "wait!" She would have just kept on walking, but then the marten called out "your packless aren't you?"

Stopping dead in her tracks, without moving forward, the wolf growled "how did you even think to guess something like that?"

"It's not a guess; I've been looking for some muscle over the past month, and I notice you. You don't look so normal yourself, prancing around in red" the marten hissed. "And you aren't doing so hot out here on your own for yourself either! You're pathetic! You trace back and forth over the same three parts of the forest, totally oblivious to anything that isn't directly in front of your face. If I hadn't pointed those rabbits out to you, you'd still be pacing around my tree starving!"

Raising her head up high proudly, the wolf growled "look here pet! I don't need anyone or anything to tell me what to do! Now goodbye, and be thankful that I don't feel like continuing to hunt you down and eat you!"

Again the wolf began to walk off, and she closed her eyes to tune the marten out. Prey or not, the weasel had led her to food, so the shewolf had no qualms about leaving her alive for the day. After a meal like todays, she probably wouldn't have to eat again for a full week. But she only made it a few more feet, when instead of passing through the light underbrush of a bush, she felt something soft and warm brush against her snout. Opening her eyes, she saw the marten had decided to come down to her level, and was hanging upside down on a branch right beside her face, the space between them no smaller than two inches.

That is it! If she wants to be stupid, then I'm more than qualified to eat her, niceties be damned! She was about to snap at the marten and swallow her whole, when suddenly the chittering voice said "I can lead you to more food!"

That froze the wolf, and she thought for a moment on what she should do. Instinct told her to sink her teeth into the albino, and shake the marten until her long, flowing body hung limp. But something inside of her quelled her beastly side, and through shuttered, suspicious eyes, she simply growled "go on…"

"This is uncomfortable, degrading, and humiliating" the wolf grumbled as she felt the hair on her back be clutched at by four tiny paws. Every once and a while she would feel the rodent beginning to slip from its position on her back, but the marten would quickly adjust its hold before it fell off entirely. She honestly wished the little pest would just disappear, before anything or any other animal saw this absurd sight. A wolf walking through the underbrush, letting a measly white rodent cling to her pelt.

"I'll say. Your hair is course as hell, it itches just holding on. That mixed with how much your shoulders move while you stride is making this really uncomfortable!"

Rolling her shoulders angrily, the she wolf growled "so get off!"

"Nope… I'm still not entirely convinced that you aren't going to eat me, so I feel safe here for now." The marten hummed to itself for a moment, and then asked "so what is your name? I'm tired of calling you Wolf?"

As the wolf pushed through a bush back into the circular glade where she had originally picked up the marten's sent, she growled at the freeloader on her back "why would I need a name? Names are for pets, broken animals that need to rely on someone else to survive…"

"I think that is just a wolf thing. I've met plenty of birds and rats who had names."

"And were they pets as well, who lived wherever you lived?"

"No… they were dinner" the marten answered slyly. After an incredulous look from her ride, the marten added absentmindedly "an animals got to eat to live…"

"Well then rat… what is your name? I'm going to guess you had one if you think they are so important."

The marten squeaked angrily "marten!" But after that second of bravado, she sighed "yes, I did. Do you know that large mansion off to the east on the edge of this forest?"

The wolf growled silently in affirmation as a reply. Those humans were fans of hunting big game like herself, and had killed several members of her pack for nothing more than sport. Back when she hunted with her pack, when they took down an elk, they ate every strip of meat they could. Not like those humans. They just walked around, take a few pictures, and then leave the carcass to rot.

The marten continued on saying "I lived in that house. I belonged to this girl who lived in the mansion… although she left me. She got sent away, although I think she was sad she couldn't bring me wherever she was going. I owed no loyalty to anyone else in the house, so I didn't see any point in sticking around."

"Well I guess abandonment would be sad for a pet like you, but that doesn't answer my question" the russet wolf underneath the weasel growled.

"… I heard the name Weiss get thrown around a lot, so I'm guessing that is what I am called."

"Hm… boring name to be honest…" the wolf under the marten, Weiss, mumbled. A second later she winced when she heard a loud hiss and a quick nip come from between her shoulder blades. "Alright, alright… I guess it's not that terrible. If it really makes such a difference to you, and if this is going to be a thing" the wolf stressed, obviously referencing their unlikely partnership, "then you can pick something to call me."

Feeling Weiss shift around on her back, trying to get a good grip on her pelt, the marten leaned down so that she was next to her steed's eyeball and asked "you don't have any preference?"

"None in the slightest."

"Well," Weiss muttered, trying to think up something, "you could be Fang… or Claw…"

The wolf snorted loudly, sarcastically calling back "and by that logic I should call you fuzzy, or slender. Pick something that describes me entirely, not just one abstract aspect."

"That is a preference!"

Underneath her, Weiss heard the wolf huff "you should be glad that an annoying fuzz ball like you hasn't gotten eaten yet! Seriously, how did you stay in the woods an entire month without me hearing every single animal within a dozen leagues complain about you?!"

Ignoring the wolf's complaints, Weiss hummed to herself for a moment, kneading up tufts of the wolf's fur in her small paws while thinking. Looking down at what she was grabbing at, the marten asked "how about Red?"

Something sounded off about that name though to the wolf. "Hm… while I do like that one better, the name sounds…" the wolf hummed to herself for a moment before she placed a paw on what bugged her. "It sounds a little too masculine."

"I suppose," Weiss trilled lightly, now feeling closer to a solution. Thinking to herself, she suddenly thought of a name that sounded perfect. "What about Ruby?"

She liked that, although she didn't want to give Weiss the satisfaction of naming her. "I suppose it works, if you really must call me something."

And with that, now carrying a name, Ruby walked off into the forest carrying Weiss on her back. She would eventually get used to the weight. And Weiss was glowing with pride, wondering what her previous master would have thought of what she had accomplished.

The weasel had succeeded in taming the wolf.

Sorry this story is so rough. I've been super busy with schoolwork, but I also felt guilty almost letting two weeks go by without posting anything. So that guilt led to this. I belted this story out in about... 2 to 3 hours? So that's why its much about a thousand words shorter than the usual posts I would put up. And other than one quick read through immediately after i finished, I didn't go through my usual routine of "taking a day off from whatever I write before I come back and look for grammar issues and adding extra flair here and there."So there is probably going a lot of typos and problems above. And if you see anyy, tell me! Rake me over the coals with this story! I'll probably be able to do clean up by... Friday at the latest. But fi people like the story, then I'll come back and do more than just clean it up, I'll also add some exposition here and there so that the story isn't sooooo bare bones.

So, yeah, I don't know if I'm going to continue this story. I'll see if people like it and continue on from there. If nobody follows this story, I'll just imagine this was a pallet cleanser, and leave it at that. I was feeling a little burnt out with my other main story The Remnants of Us(which you should check out if you like my writing style, although theme wise it's not like this one. It's a really dark horror tragedy), so I thought a change of pace would be a good idea. Remnants is going to stay my main story until its finished, and it is still my favorite story I've written by far, but maybe I would also do this one as well if people were interested.

I put Blake and Yang in the story description because, if I do keep this going, I know they will show up eventually. If the story doesn't continue, I'll just change it to complete and remove their names while making the story a one shot.

So please follow and favorite if your interested in seeing more, and leave a comment giving me any feedback, criticism, or if you would want me keep this up.