As Aleu climbed up onto the Large drifting sheet of Ice, she was helped up by two of the wolves nearest to her. The one she recognizes as the large brown wolf named Nuk, but the other she did not yet know. "Thank-you for your help." she sates curtly, though gratefully. The two wolves nod to her in acknowledgment. Aleu looked back at the now increasingly small shoreline, upon which her Half husky father still stood, looking outward toward them, as the distance between them grew ever larger. "Good-bye papa;" she said half to herself.
Aleu then thought it would be a good time to make a more official goodbye, and what better way to do that, and to encourage the wolves around her that everything would be fine, than to break out into a long chorus of howling. And so she took a deep breath, tilted her head skyward, and let out a long, drawn out, though beautiful howl as goodbye. Almost immediately, all the other also took up their own place in the chorus, and began letting loose their own respective howl, as they began the long journey to their new home, wherever it was that fate was to bring them.
In amongst the singing wolves, a familiar ethereal form in the shape of a chubby, brown field mouse appeared near her foreleg, as he too joined in the singing. Aleu already knew full well that as Muru was her spirit guide, no one else would hear, or see him. Then, almost as quickly as he came, Muru disappeared once again, leaving Aleu with her new friends and family in the making. By now, the shore was almost completely out of sight. As such, Aleu said, mostly to herself, one last goodbye to her father, and all that she had ever known. "Good-bye papa, I'll see again someday;" she whispered, as one small tear collected in the crux of her eye. She allowed it to fall to the frozen sheet beneath her paws, almost as though it were the last thing she held onto from her old life.
Unknown to Aleu, several of the wolves have since been watching her. The two wolves who pulled her from the icy sea water were the first to come up behind, and talk with her. "My lady," the less known wolf starts, "That was a truly inspiring start to this journey which Nava and you have started us on, however, I believe that most of them are waiting for your next command." "Mm-my command!?" Aleu stammers at first to the two large males. "Yes indeed, alphess" he starts to reassure her; "You have taken on the role of our leader, so now most of them look to you now for guidance, and leadership." Aleu hesitates for a single moment to gather her thoughts. "Alright then," she asserts, now feeling more confident; She take a step to a hump of ice slightly raised above the rest of the berg. "Attention everyone!" she starts. "I know all of you must be very nervous, and maybe even a little afraid of our current situation. However, I don't think I need to remind you all very much that you are powerful wolves, and if we work together, we will get through the difficult journey which probably awaits us. If we stick together, and help one another, we will be just fine."
A volley of cheers rings forth from a large portion of the gathered canines. "Now then, first things first," she commands, "We need to keep alert for any sign of bad weather, land, and other large ice bergs. If we collide with one, it could end very badly if we aren't paying attention to it. As such, we need to place a watch during the night while the rest of us try to get as much rest as possible." She scans her audience for potential volunteers. "You there, with the dark blue fur," she points to the unknown wolf who helped pull her forth from the water. "Would you take the first watch?" Then, Aleu pauses momentarily, as she realizes, that she is caught up in the strapping young male's luminescent blue eye's. "Wow!" She thought to herself. "He looks like such a powerful, and influential male. I should really get him on my side." The male wolf responds respectfully, and in a very polite, and official manner, hoping to set an example for the others to follow: "It is my honor and pleasure to serve you, and my clan my lady." He says to her, with a deep bow of his head. "Alright everyone, you heard your leader; Try to get some sleep. Gale, If you have no objection, you will take second watch in 2 hours." "Yes Nagu. Wake me when you need a rest." Said a deep tan she wolf with a eyes like the ocean, and three white stripes leading from her nose to her cheeks, and forehead.
Aleu, overhearing this, decided to take the opportunity to speak with the male wolf, who apparently was named Nagu.
"So, your name is Nagu, is it?" She questions. He answers her, "Aye ma'am; I am the grandson of our previous alpha, Nava. As such, I have a great deal of knowledge and experience, and everyone here respects me for it. I am here to serve you now however, so if you ever need help with anything at all, I know enough about leadership that I should be able to help you." Realizing just how powerful this wolf was, she responds to his offer of companionship with equal respect; "Thank you Nagu. That means a lot to me. I think things will go much more smoothly if I actually have someone to advise me when I'm uncertain of something." "It is my pleasure and honor my lady. Nava knew there was something about you, something special, and I believe he was right." "Well it's good to know some of you believe in me. I get the feeling that not everyone is as confident in Nava's choice as you are though." Aleu confides to him. Nagu reassures her, "Well though that may be true, just remember; a good Leader is never truly alone. There are many wolves here who would willingly die for you. There is me, and there is also Gale over there;" he points with a nod. "She is a good, loyal wolf. She will not easily let you down. Then there is Nuk, who you already know." He says, as Aleu glances over to her large, sleeping friend. She smiles a little to herself, thinking how much cuter he is while sleeping; Almost like a fluffy teddy bear.
Her reflection on her thoughts of Nuk are cut short however, as Nagu takes on a more ominous tone. "As for the wolves you should worry about, there is Night-shade, over there." He nods in the direction of a deep purple-brown wolf staring at the two of them from across the burg; her dark brown and red iris's and over large pupils seemingly burning through Aleu's very soul. When Night-shade caught them looking her way, she turns away, pretending to go to sleep. A shiver runs along Aleu's back to her tail tip, making her fur stand on end slightly. "Ugh; She seems like she's already thinks of ways to hurt me." she says, half sounding like a frightened pup. Nagu notices her reaction, and speaks to Aleu in a reassuring tone, though still with a hint of ominous warning, "Yea, her eyes tend to make you feel like that sometimes. She's a very ambitious wolf, and if she thinks she can take an opportunity to gain power in some way, she usually takes it." Aleu gulps, knowing that Nagu's statement was not meant to sound pleasant. "However, she is loyal to her clan, and so long as we all work for the betterment of the clan, there probably won't be any issues."
Hearing this gave Aleu an idea. "Nagu, what are the first few things you think would be best to accomplish when we reach land?" Nagu takes a moment to think on what would be need most. "Well," he starts, "When we get off the ice everyone will likely be cold, and stiff, and we're all already hungry." He takes another moment, pricking Aleu's interest, and her ears, as she looks back to Nagu. "I think when we get everyone safe onto land, we should find the strongest wolves, and send out a scouting party to find shelter, and a hunting party to see if any food can be found. We will also need some source of water." Aleu thought on this for a moment. "Yes, that makes a lot of sense. Thank you Nagu. It's good to have someone with more wisdom than me to talk to." He nods to her in the affirmative. "You should get some sleep my Alpha. If we come upon land tomorrow, you will need your strength to lead everyone to the safety of the shore." She thanks him again, and walks off to the side a ways, and before she knew it her eye's were heavy laden with sleep, and so she dosed off like that in the presence of her new ally, Nagu, under the light of a massive full moon.
Aleu's sleep is not at all steady, or peaceful. The ice, stiff, and lifeless beneath her seemed to sap every-bit of warmth from her body. She awoke shivering, to the masculine, and wise voice of Nagu asking if she was alright. "Oh... sorry," she replied, now awake, though still shivering. "It's just this ice is terrible to sleep on." He looked down on her with a hint of amusement. "You know my lady, there's a reason why everyone else is sleeping close to one another." Aleu looked out over the mass of wolves. Nagu was right. No single wolf was seen. They all had arranged themselves in groups of two, and three. "Oh..." she replied, now feeling slightly embarrassed. "I Guess that makes sense too." Nagu's look changed to one of slight pity. "You know, if you still want to sleep, my shift is almost over. We could keep each other warm." At this Aleu's eyes widened a little, but her ears flooded back with embarrassment, and she felt the burning heat of blood pulse through them, and her cheeks. She looked down slightly from his eyes, "I'd like that." she finally managed after what seemed a minute. She smiled to her self, then looked back up at Nagu. He smiled back, just long enough to show he was happy to be there for her.
He then padded over to the still sleeping Gale. After he pawed her gently and whispered into her ear, she opened her eyes, yawned, and stretched. They said something else to each other just out of Aleu's hearing. Gale looked her, gave a small smile, and nodded curtly to Nagu. She walked over to where Aleu was still laying. "You really should try to get some sleep my lady, I'm sure you'll find Nagu will make it much easier for you." She said with a humorous twinkle in her eye. Aleu noticed her humor, and once again felt the burning in her ears and cheeks, though now she somewhat liked the thoughts it brought with it. She smiled a little in acknowledgment of Gale, who smiled back, nodded curtly to her, as before, and walked off to take up her post. Just after she left, Nagu followed up, and lay next to Aleu, his fur brushing her own. She felt a comfortable warmth flow into her as they began sharing their body heat. Now much more comfortable, Aleu lay down her head onto his forelegs, and he lay his own on top of hers. "Tomorrow will be a big, and difficult day." He warmly cooed to her as she lay there becoming more drowsy by the moment. "Yes, but if we work together, it won't be a problem." she replied, almost asleep now. Together, they found sleep in almost no time at all, and this time, Aleu was able to stay asleep.
Two days had passed since that one cold night. Since then, Aleu had met several of the wolves, and made close friends with Gale. It was almost morning on the third day on the ice berg, when the wolf Night-shade, and her older sister, Marigold, cried out in unison from the far side of the ice sheet, "Land! Everybody, were almost to the ice bridge! And there's land just beyond it!" A wave of Excitement passed through the wolves, who were previously fast asleep, as they came to. Everyone rushed to the side hoping to view the end of the journey. This was a big mistake. As the combined weight of the wolves moved over to the one side, the entire ice sheet began to tip. From the far side, Aleu, Nagu, and Gale were only just awakened, but now stared on in horror as they could see what was happening. The three of them cried out together to the mass of wolves to get away from the edge. Many of them, upon hearing their leaders, looked behind and also saw what was happening. All the wolves hurried away from the edge, just in time. With a heavy splash, the airborne side of the berg collided with the water, generating a large wave, cause the entire berg to begin moving at a much faster pace toward the ice bridge.
All the wolves saw this effect, and they all knew what it meant. At their current speed, the ice berg would smash into the ice bridge, and if the ice bridge itself wasn't destroyed, their own ice berg would certainly be. And so, everyone looked to Aleu, waiting for her next order. Seeing this development, Nagu took the opportunity to nudge Aleu into taking the next action. ""My lady, I think they are waiting for you to decide the next course of action." Said Nagu. Aleu, took a deep breath, and made her decision. "Everybody, as you can clearly see, this situation has potential to be quite dangerous. We may only get one chance to run onto the ice bridge, and make a break for the shore line." She paused, looking around at their transfixed stares, as they hung onto every word she spoke to them, out of fear, for they all knew she was right. "Now, when the iceberg hits the bridge, there will probably be a very big jolt. It may even be useful to use it your advantage to get a head start, because as soon as we do hit that bridge, it may start breaking up itself, so we'll need to run to the shore as fast as we can."
She paused again, this time seeing some of the wolves murmuring to each other little phrases like, "She's right about that!", and "This could actually work." She also heard a bad phrase or two including, "that mutt is going to get us all killed!".
She took no mind to the negatives, however, as the bridge was very near now, and they had no time for arguments, or hesitation. "Alright everybody! It looks like where we will hit is pretty large, so as soon as we come to a stop, use your momentum to jump onto the bridge! Ready!?" Aleu looked to her friends Nuk, Nagu, and Gale, hoping to get some reassurance. Just as she had hoped, they all gave her the same look of loyal determination, and confidence. Their trust in her gave her more confidence of her own. She looked back to the approaching mass of ice, and tried to time it. "Five; "she thought to her self. "Four; " Getting closer. "Three; " "Get Ready!" She shouted aloud. "Two; " "Run for the Edge!" She Commanded, as they did so. Finally, the last number and the moment of truth. "One!"
The ice berg collided with a larger, but thankfully equally raised berg, and a teeth jarring force passed through all who were on board. Had they not been in motion already, it might have caused many to lose their balance, and maybe even fall over the edge, hurting themselves. As she ran along to the edge of her berg, side by side with her friends, she prayed a silent prayer to any spirit guides close enough to hear her; "Please help us all to get through this! I don't want to get anybody killed under my lead." Then, Aleu could swear she heard a whisper in her ear which sounded like Muru. It said to her, "Keep running Aleu. Keep leading." Spurred onward by this reassurance, she jumped off her berg, just as a massive series of cracks broke it apart, flinging heavy, powerful pieces of icy shrapnel whizzing above their heads! She thought this would be a good time to re-state what the voice had told her, for all to hear. "Keep running everyone! Keep running!"
They kept running, and now the entire clan had almost reached the shore. However, Aleu noticed a gut wrenching sound coming from behind her. "Is that what I think it is!?" she asked herself, and Nagu between her rough panting breaths.
Once she was on a reasonably large sheet of ice, so she wouldn't fall in, Aleu took a moment to glance behind her. Sure enough, all the ice bergs were being cracked, and pushed away from one another, because of the effects of the crash. It was a very fast approaching breakage, and was almost upon them. However, they were almost to the shore now. They were not fast enough however. The breaking ice caught Aleu, and several others, separating them from the safety of the unmoving bergs and from the other wolves in the pack. Aleu had to dig her claws into the cold, hard ice to keep the jarring forces from knocking her off her paws. After a moment, the jarring motions subsided enough to let her walk again, but too soon, she, and the others let their guard down. She looked back, just in time to see Nagu, Night-shade, her sister Marigold, and Gale. Immediately, much smaller berg traveling much faster collided with them, and split their berg clean in two. Aleu was knocked off of her feet, but she got up again, quickly enough to see that the three she wolves had been knocked onto the edge of the half she was on, and Nagu was still on the other half, though he immediately started jumping his way trying to reach the four of them to help. Aleu Wasted no time, and went over to help Night-shade; She promptly chastised Aleu, saying, "No, not me, her! Save her! Save my sister!" Aleu did not hesitate, however. She gripped Night-shade by the scruff, and pulled. At that moment, Nagu had made his way back, and promptly stated, "I'll get Gale!" Hearing this, and seeing Night-shade, now standing, tending to her larger sister, she decided to help. However, just then, Nagu slipped on the wet ice, and began to fall in with Gale. Aleu reacted swiftly, biting hard into his tale, and pulling. She and Nagu managed to pull Gale up, and just then, as they were turning to aid Night-shade, they saw the final moment of Marigold. The berg had drifted too close to another, and they were too late to help. Marigold knew her time had come, and so pushed her sister away from the edge, pushing herself into the water as she did so, with a single instant remaining, she looked to her sister a look of goodbye, and the ice bergs slammed together fused by the force of impact. Marigold was dead.
The four remaining wolves simply stand awestruck at what was just witnessed. Stricken with horror, Aleu freezes, just staring at the place where one of her wolves had just been, unable to fully grasp how quickly things had gotten so bad. At this point, Aleu vaguely notices how sound, and even time itself seemed to be going slower. However, despite Aleu's state, there was no time to waste, so very quickly, Nagu regains his composure, and immediately awakens Aleu from her trance-like state. "My lady! Can you understand me?! Please, we must go now!", he pleads. Aleu heard his voice as if he were far off, however, hearing his words, she quickly remembered that they were all still in very great danger. Seeing that Aleu had finally come to her senses, Nagu turns to Night-shade, who is still staring at the place where her sister used to be. "Night-shade" They begin to plead. "Night-shade please, there's no time to grieve right now!" "Grieve!? GRIEVE!? I didn't even get to say goodbye!" she responded venomously. "You could have saved her! This is all your fault!" said Night-shade, before turning tale toward the shore, and dashing away, before either Aleu or Nagu could say anything.
Nagu starts toward the shore, but quickly realizes that Aleu is not following. Suddenly terrified, he quickly turns back, but is relieved to see her still standing, at least. "My lady, we really must go. It isn't safe! We..." he starts, but is interrupted as another volley of collisions too close for comfort start up again. Aleu, only now being jolted fully aware by the jolt of the closest impact, makes a motion for Nagu to go ahead, while she followed close behind.
Within minutes, Aleu and Nagu are finally close enough to the shore that the dangers of the ice bergs had passed. Just ahead, Aleu smells the sweet scent of pine boughs, and so she looks up, and there, on the shore is her pack safe, and waiting for their leader to return. She and Nagu step off of the final ice berg, and Aleu stumbles slightly upon the soft sand, now something almost completely alien to her paws, having spent several days at sea on a block of ice. She turns now, to see her pack. The remainder is all safe, though somewhat ragged, sickly, and some even shivering. Off in the distance, she barely sees Night-shade, silhouetted against some dark foliage, seeming to shake a little violently. Aleu assumed she was weeping for her deceased sister. Aleu decided to herself that she ought to try to make amends, and she started off in the direction of Night-shade. However, seeing what she was up to, Nagu intervenes. "Wait, my Lady; This may not be a good time to speak to her. She simply needs to grieve, and she blames you. You should wait for another time, perhaps after her friends have calmed her a bit." Aleu glanced back to Night-shade, and saw that he was right. Already, several other wolves had crowded around Night-shade, and seemed to be trying to comfort her. "Sometimes bad things happen Alphess. When they do, you must simply cope, and then fix what went wrong at the right time after. Now may not be the right time. Night-shade is a powerful wolf, and she may attempt to avenge her sister's death." Said Nagu. Aleu responds, "do you think it's my fault? Could I have saved her?" she asks desperately, turning now to look him in the eyes, now feeling tears start to well up. "No, alphess. I believe you made a choice between Gale and I, and Marigold, and I for one thank you for having saved us. However, all this aside my lady, the rest of the pack still needs you to lead them. So, what are your orders?"