Prologue

There was a time you knew of the cats, surviving in the wild. Their clan, which they depended on, helped them to survive their harsh lives in the wilderness. But beyond the clans lied much more, greater than they could imagine. Little did they know, the true survivors owned the night, basking their fur in solid moonlight. You may have seen them, in your dreams, a flash before your weary eyes. Or maybe howling at the white, glorious moon that sits in the sky before you.

Maybe their was another world out there, but your paws could never dream of touching it. This is the world where cats do not belong. This is the world where as soon as a single cat would step into, their would only lie a pile of remaining bones. This is the world where the wolves thrive.

Unlike the world of cats, the wolves have four separate clans with many different packs or tribes within them. There's the Midnight Souls, who spend most of their time in the blackest night. They are known for their speed, for they embrace the deep forests. The main pack are the Blue Howlers. They hold all the meetings in the Midnight Soul territories. Then there's the Frost Guardians, who have inhabited the snow filled mountains. They can race quickly through the snow and can last for miles without growing tired. The head clan are the Winter Soldiers, who unusually use weapons left on the mountains from humans. ( Yes, weapons... DON'T QUESTION MY LOGIC! )

The third clan symbolizes speed, they live in beautiful forests covering vast moors. They are known as the Cloud Runners. They can jump from great hight and land gracefully atop trees. They appear so high, they claim to be level to the clouds hight. Quite peaceful for the head pack, the Shadow Hunters.

Then finally, where the story takes place, the golden dunes of the Four Great Territories, the Desert Flyers. This is the clan where learning to fight with human weapons originated. They are known to be feared, due to their strength. Some even say they have wings, or talons like the eagles, leaping over the broad dunes of sand. The main pack is known as the Golden Talons.

But our story does not start at the head. It starts in the smallest pack of the great clan. It went simply by the name: The Free Heart.

Amongst the small tribe was a young wolf that was named Zion. His fur a darker brown shade, but his face shown lighter. Golden-amber eyes with a bright spirit, even after both parents died in a dreadful sandstorm. He was so young, he could barely remember them. Perhaps that is the reason why he had such a heartfelt character.

No matter, on with the story!

Chapter 1: A Noisy Morning.

The sun had just risen, it shown right in his eyes. How annoying!

Zion arranged his paws to rise up, but felt a heavy weight holding him down. Curious, he reached his head around to find a beautiful grey and white wolf laying on top of him. She was sound asleep, mouth just open enough to leave a damp spot of drool lying on his fur. He felt his face grow hot and laid himself right back down.

Laira had always been a heavy sleeper, staying drowsy in the morning when she should be hunting. She must've come to him at night when it got cold. No wonder he didn't wake up in the night to curl up. Around these few days, the afternoons would be hotter and the nights colder than usual.

He ignored his random thoughts and moved Laira's muzzle with his own to gently wake her up," Laira, get up. Come on, don't be lazy."

Laira slowly opened her brown eyes and stared at him for a moment. They didn't say a word, just fixed at each others eyes. Laira suddenly leaped up, embarrassed.

"Wha- I'm sorry! I - it just that you looked so cold, " she sat down quickly.

Zion got up as well, " No, it's alright, " he timidly shuffled his paws, " But, you did almost drown me in drool," Zion smiled. He gestured to a spot of his golden coat, which was covered in drool.

Laira became more familiar, padded over to him and bumped him purposely, but playfully on the side, "Shut up!" she snickered when she caught him by surprise by knocking him over.

Zion barked and jumped onto her, but she was prepared, even just when waking in the morning. She rolled over and let her back paws push him playfully away, but was ready to stand up. But she jumped at him too soon to recover her balance and was unstable, so even if he touched her, she would easily trip over her paws. Realizing her mistake, she attempted to turn around, but found herself between Zion's paws. He bit her ear teasingly while he pinned her down and she managed to get a paw free and remove him from herself. They both carefully got up without stumbling and faced each other eye-to-eye. But before they tackled each other, an older wolf who somehow teleported into the den, knocked them both down at the same time.

' Ame?' Zion felt the place where his uncle had hit him.

Ame stared down at them, " What do you two think your doing? Your waking everyone up with your ridiculous noise! Your almost adults, so starting like one! "

" Sorry Ame, it wont happen again, " Laira apologized.

Ame sighed," Thank you. Now please instead of fighting, go hunt as a pair. Battle lessons are later," He left the den with a glance behind him to wait till they glanced at each other, got up and exited outside.

Staring at the hunting pile, there lay a fat hare in the dirt. It was all that they had, but staring at it made him drool. Seeing this, Laira rolled her eyes and nudged him away, "Come on," she mumbled in a annoyed sound. Pulling himself from the hare, he trotted after her, still fixed on the meat. It was obviously taunting him, it wasn't fair!

'You win this round,' he thought, wanting it to spring back to life so he could chase it down and bite it's miserable head off.

Walking along the hunting trail, it was quite cold, but he knew it would be steaming hot later. Laira sighed heavily, dragging her paws across the earth.

" I know were going to have to hunt a lot today. Did you see how small the pile was? Oh wait, you were staring at it earlier, never mind," Laira corrected herself.

Zion knew that Laira was a wonderful hunter. She could hear an eagle flying over her and catch it from the air in a second. Not even laziness could stop her from hunting for her clan.

" I'm just glad we only have ten mouths to feed, including me and you, " Zion stared blankly at the sky.

Laira growled, " Don't say that! What if another pack decided to conquer ours if our pack wasn't big enough to fight? There's a big chance they would treat us as omegas!"

"We'll with me, you'll be safe, " Zion held his head confidently.

Laira turned her head slightly, still her eyes in contact with his," You can't protect everyone, Zion." And they continued to walk along the path. About a little while later, he felt like talking about the situation a little more, a red hawk flew from the sky and landed in the tall grass only a a few wolf- lengthens away.

The two slunk into the grass as Zion and Laira peeked over to see the hawk tearing violently at a mouse.

Laira gave Zion a smug grin, " Welcome to the food chain, " and clicked her head to the side to show where she wanted him to go. He nodded and sunk slowly and softly moved through the grass. He spotted Laira's shadow and watched her admiringly as she looked as if she was gliding across the field.

They managed to come to a spot where they surrounded the hawk, and knew that it was the perfect moment to strike. Slowly, Laira crept toward the hawk while he stayed put. Laira was only a flash before his eyes when leaping, the hawk astonished. It was amazing that it managed to fly out of her reach. Luckily Zion was right there to catch it. He brought it down by sinking his claws into it's neck, and it died before it touched the ground.

"What a messy catch," Laira snickered teasingly.

"Hey, at least I caught something, " he defended, eyes narrowing.

"We caught something, " she corrected.

Zion rolled his eyes, but agreed with her, "All right, but I did most of the work, " he assured pridefully.
She looked as if she were to argue, but didn't.

"Alright, sure," Laira continued to pick up the mass of feathers, dig a hole and bury it. He sighed. It was going to be a long morning.

It had been well over an hour of hunting. Laira managed to make an impressive catch: An antelope, a wild cat, and a donkey.
I only caught a rabbit and managed to find a small zebra. But I was still proud of myself.

On the way back, I helped Laira carry the donkey, it was heavy and I longed to drop it, but then I'd seem weak in front of her.

Through the full mouth she was carrying, Laira managed to speak," I can't wait to get back and see the proud look on the tribe's faces! We'll be able to last at least a few days with this, " she said pridefully.

"Yea, " he agreed, " Me neither! "

The weight though felt like it was carrying him down, he wanted to sit down, even if it was just for a minute. And the hot weather wasn't helping either. So he came up with the best excuse a male wolf could make.

"You look like your tired, Laira, " He stopped, " Why don't we sit down for a minute? "

She looked at him in disappointment, " Really? Is that the best excuse you got?" but even so she set the meat down," But sure, I could go for a rest."

Zion sighed quietly in relief. They both sat down and managed to find a small pond nearby, dragging the donkey behind them. As they neared the pond, Zion felt unsettled. He stopped to look around, but did not sense anything. Both he and Laira bent down to drink the water. While lapping at the refreshing pond water, he looked at her beautiful brown eyes. She, too, peered into his eyes. She looked so goofy staring at him while lapping the water, he couldn't help laughing. Apparently she found it amusing to her while watching him, because she laughed as well. They both had such a good time, they stayed longer than they thought they would.

Later, he found himself lying down with Laira, staring at the open scenery, her head rested on his shoulder. The pond glittered at the still-rising sun, and the outline of the tall grass was golden from the sun's glare. The long land, although a dry desert, looked gorgeous enough he could just sit there for hours just looking at everything around him.
He felt so peaceful here with his best friend. He didn't know, maybe she was more than a friend. Just maybe-

And by then, the sharp call of the crow nearby startled him, and forced his fur to jump a little. Laira snapped awake as well. Although the crows and wolves were different species, they were sort of pals. They understood mostly what they were doing and saying. This particular crow had taken a liking to Zion, and liked to follow him around. They talked to each other sometimes, but only when alone. Its kind of embarrassing.

But this was no embarrassing matter.

"What did you just say?!" Zion barked at the crow, Colin.

"Krrraaaaaaaaaaw!" Colin crowed even louder.

"What? " Laira got up, who couldn't understand much crow, " What did he say?!" she looked anxious.

"Cougar!" Zion barked once more, " And it's getting-"

Growling, the large cat found itself discovered, leaped from the dead grass and roared loudly. Laira yelped at the sight of it. She had seen a cougar once. And that was when one took the life of her only family: her mother. He saw her trembling, but not due to fear. Zion could feel the pure rage quaking from her, reminding him of her oath, 'I will kill all cougars who dare come in my direction, or any-wolf.'

Barking fiercely at the cat, Laira spat disgustfully. Zion knew that cougars were dangerous, and couldn't bring himself to face his pack if anything happened to her. So he had to do the hard part: Getting her away from the cougar.

" Laira listen to me, " Zion kept his glare at the cougar," We have to leave now."

"No way am I letting this filth leave my sights," Laira's eyes flared, " I want it to look me strait in the eyes when I kill it, so that it will always know who killed it."

"Laira, we can't take it on right now, you'll get hurt," Zion tried to stop her from attacking it.

" Didn't you tell me that you'd always protect me?" Laira snarled.

"Stop this nonsense, we have to leave! Look, Colin will distract it!" As he said that, Colin pecked at the cat's head. Yowling in frustration, it waved it's unsheathed claws above it.

"Please, run!" He looked at her with pleading eyes.

There was a short pause, but she saw in him and knew the right answer, " Alright, what are you waiting for, lets run!"

Zion forced a smile and they both raced away. But they had to leave Laira's catch.
'Maybe he'll go after the donkey instead of us' Zion thought.

He forced himself to look back, but only felt panic. The crow had been ignored after a while and as Zion had feared, the cougar ran right past the dead donkey and ran after them, gaining more speed than Zion ever had.

"Don't look back!" he commanded Laira.

She slightly whimpered," We can't give up, look there's a gorge strait ahead!"
And that was all he needed to hear. They both aimed for the narrow crack in the rock wall. Colin flew above them, then flew ahead and above the gorge to scout ahead.

He never felt his muscles burn so much, he had never ran so hard to try and keep up with Laira. He couldn't let her know he was afraid, he had to stay strong. The wind crashed over him, and the sun gleaming bright on him, and urged him to slow down. But they were almost to the gorge.

Leaping through the crack, they raced over the boulders, being careful not to slip. Luckily, he heard the sound of scraping claws over the rocks, the sound of a slipping cougar.
Pride and relief flooded over him as they reached the top. It was mostly a clear path from there, just crazy twists and turns throughout the open-sky cavern. Two large sets of walls stood beside he and Laira, trying not to bump into the sides.
He saw Colin calling above and continued to run. But he felt anxious, he felt like the lion was breathing strait on his tail. Unsettled he checked behind him to see where the cougar was. He was relieved to see it wasn't there, it tripping over the rocks helped them gain some ground. But it wasn't far behind, yowling in frustration.

Just then, he heard Colin's calls turning the other way. They were calls of warning. Worried, he turned the corner only to find...

It was a dead end.

There was absolutely no way out. The rock sides were steep, and unclimbed before. The two wolves halted, worry filled Zion to the brim. 'What now?!' he panicked.
The cougar was already gaining on them, and there was no was out. He felt like he wanted to fall down a say, " Take me," because he knew it was coming whether he liked it or not.

Out of breath he growled slowly, " Our- only chance- is- to fight it," he gasped.

Laira, who could barely breathe, faintly nodded.

The cougar quickly turned the corner and skidded to a halt, taking in deep breaths. Realizing they were trapped, licked it's sweaty nose victoriously. Zion and Laira waited for it to approach them so they could catch their breaths, and then...

Zion howled a lively battle cry and charged at the cougar. The sudden movements startled it and he tackled it to the ground. The two rolled repetitively, followed by vicious bites and scratches. 'I should have brought my dagger', he thought, regretting his decision, ' I could've finished this thing in one blow!'

The cougar was the one who overpowered him, claws yearning to slash at Zion's neck, but held them with his back paws. Laira smashed the cougar with her body and sent it sprawling off him. The two wolves stood firm and furious, but the cougar immediately smashed Zion over and took both of them by surprise. He knocked his head on the stone-cold floor, his vision turned blurry.

His hearing rung in his ears, only listening to the yelps of a petrified Laira. He could see the blurry shape of the cougar cornering Laira, who was too afraid to move. All he could do was lay there.

'Get up!' He commanded his legs, but only stirred. He started to choke up,' Get up, NOW!' and still made no real movement.
'I can't let her die, I can't! I promised!' he felt his tail only twitch.

He saw his vision slightly clear for a second, watching the cougar draw closer to her, Laira's eyes wide in fear. The great beast lifted it's paw to slash her neck-

It was only a flash of light, but he found his teeth sunk deep down into the cougar's neck. It yowled in fury and pain. Zion bit down harder, the screaming cougar reaching on it's back to shake the wolf off. But Zion bent back and opened his blood filled mouth, ready to strike. He bit down as hard as he could until his teeth met together. No more screeching as the cougar crashed to the floor. Laira could only stare at the dead cougar.

Zion's vision recovered and is hearing cleared, only to find Laira run into him and cry in his blood soaked fur. He watched her in astonishment, waiting for her to call him a stupid dog, or some remark, but only silence behind her whimpering. He smiled down at her, resting his head over her shoulder.

"Didn't I tell you I'd always protect you?"

Me:Yawwwwwwn, that took a pretty long time! But I'm actually quite proud of myself. :)

Please check out my friends in real life Sky of Stars and deanplaysguitarforcas. Also check out my online friend ShonenMinecrafter1, cause' their awesome!

Zion: Just shut up and leave a comment already, okey?

Me: *shuts him in a cupboard* Never mind him, just ignore him, kay? Alright, then have a nice day! Peace out!

Zion: Leh meh ouh oh heerrh!