Chapter 2

I slowly approached the still wolf, and was relieved to see her breathing. As I got closer, I saw 4 small forms lying at her side. She had had her babies, I realized. Then why was she so still?

Cyrilla raised her head and looked at me, whimpering. I understood. She had a hard labour, and was too tired to care for her pups.

"The pups," I thought.

Reaching over, I felt their backs. There was a small white pup, female. Her back was warm, alive, thankfully. Then there was a large brown male. He was cold, dead. Another male, also dead. I came to the last one, a large black male. To my relief, he was also alive.

Two alive out of four. Not great, but it could have been worse.

I gently removed the dead pups, and moved the live ones closer to Cyrilla's belly. Hopefully these two would survive.

Suddenly I heard growling and snarling coming from the entrance of the den.

I heard Jack voice also. "Anna," he said, sounding slightly nervous, "Is everything OK? Um…. Do you mind asking your wolves not to kill me?"

"Oh no," I though, scrambling out of the den. I came up to see Jack backed against a tree, with three angry wolves eying his throat with eagerness.

"Hey! Back off guys!" I said, striding towards them.

The wolves didn't look too happy, but they listened and gave Jack breathing room. After he had caught his breath, I told Jack what was wrong with Cyrilla.

"We should probably give her some vitamins to help her get her strength back. I have some for the dogs, I'll go get them."

"Thanks Jack," I called as he walked back towards home.

I turned back to the den. Maybe I could help Cyrilla care for the pups until Jack came back.

Once Jack returned, (with much growling from Agre, Thoos, and Dromas), we gave Cyrilla the vitamins and the pups some milk. The new mother soon started to perk up. Soon she was able to walk around the den, gently nuzzling her two squirming pups as she did so. When she came to the two dead pups, lying in the corner where I had placed them, she let out a long whine. I could understand her sadness. Usually if a wolf pup died, it was because it wasn't strong enough to survive. The mother does not care about those pups. But both of these pups were strong, and Cyrilla knew that if she had done better, she could have had four pups instead of two.

Jack and I left, wanting to let the wolf pack see each other again.

We were almost back to the house when I voiced a question that had been nagging at my mind.

"Jack, how did you know where to find me, and that the wolves were in trouble?"

"Well," Jack replied, "When you came charging down to the forest on that horse, with the 2 wolves behind you, I knew something was up. I returned the horse to Beckah, by the way."

I nodded. "Was he OK? I kept worrying that he would break his leg in a gopher hole."

"He's fine," Jack said, "But you needn't have worried about any gopher holes." Jack looked at me, eyes serious, "You were flying, Anna, and you had that horse in the air with you."