Chapter 3: Yesterday, Part Two

Kantu stood at the entrance to the alpha's den, taking in the scents of a new day. He liked to watch the sun rise more often now that he was a full member of the pack. It gave him a sense of hope and fulfillment, and today was a special day for him. Today was the day he was going to hunt with the pack for the first time since he had completed the rite of adulthood a few days before, and he was excited.

"You're up early again, son," came the pack alpha's voice from behind him.

"Sorry papa. I couldn't sleep any more, I'm too excited."

Dakarai chuckled. "Look, Nightfall. Our son is ready to take on the world."

Nightfall yawned and looked out at Kantu, her piercing blue eyes shining out from the darkness of the cave. "Be nice, my alpha," she said with a smile. "You remember your first day hunting with the pack, don't you?"

Dakarai laughed. "Okay, you got me there. Son, I was just as excited as you are on my first day hunting with the pack. I even got up with the dawn and watched the sun rise like you did."

Kantu grinned. "I can't help it, papa. I know I can hunt and help the pack to find food. I just can't wait to be a part of it."

"You will do fine, my son," said Nightfall reassuringly. "Your father has trained you well, and you have proven yourself already. Now go and prepare to join the hunting party, you will be leaving soon."

"Thank you mother, thank you papa," Kantu said as he got up to leave, his reddish-brown coat glowing in the new sun. "I won't let you down."

"We know you won't, my son," Dakarai said. "We're proud of you and we love you. Now go and give your mother and I some time alone," he said with a grin, as Nightfall kissed him.

Kantu chuckled to himself as he leapt down from the alpha's den, ready to start the hunt as an equal member of the pack. He had been waiting for this day for months, ever since his father had begun to train him in the ways of the hunt. He idolized his father, and wanted to be as important to the pack as he was.

"Ready to go, Kantu?" asked the leader of the hunt. "Yep!" Kantu answered, trying to contain his enthusiasm.

"All right, let's go. We'll be hunting on the northeast side today, one of our scouts spotted some caribou in that direction last night."

A few hours later, the hunting party still hadn't found any caribou. They continued to search through the northeast, but they didn't find so much as a scent. Kantu began to doubt whether they would find anything to bring home tonight, but he dutifully followed the hunt's leader, determined to do his part for the pack.

The hunting party entered a small clearing in the woods and stopped to rest for a few minutes. Kantu sniffed the air and didn't smell any game, but he could smell a storm coming. "Do you guys smell that?" he asked. "It smells like a storm... a big one."

"He's right," said the leader. "We need to find a kill and get home as soon as we can. It's time to split up so we can cover more ground. I'm putting you in groups of three, and if you don't get a kill before night falls, you're ordered to return home. Hopefully one group will find something to bring back to the pack."

They split into groups of three, and each group left in a separate direction. To make up for his inexperience, Kantu was grouped with two of the more seasoned wolves, a large grey wolf and a smaller brown one, and they went north into the forest. After traveling for a couple hours with nothing to show for it, Kantu was beginning to get discouraged. "Shouldn't we have found something by now?" he asked the larger grey wolf.

The grey wolf smiled at him. "Not every hunt is a successful one, Kantu. Sometimes there is just no game to be found. At times like these, we just hope that one of the other groups found something to bring ho–"

"Shh!" The smaller brown wolf suddenly tensed up and Kantu and the grey wolf fell silent. They put their noses in the air, and there was something... something elusive nearby. Kantu didn't know if it was game or not, he couldn't tell. The wind had begun to pick up and they couldn't identify it, or where it was.

The brown wolf moved slowly and quietly forward, and Kantu watched him intently to see if he could spot whatever it was they were smelling. The wind had turned against them and it was hard to smell anything. Suddenly there was a roar, and Kantu saw the large grey wolf to his left get thrown against a nearby tree like he was a toy. Kantu's eyes widened as he sat in shock at what he had just seen. He turned to his left and saw a huge grizzly bear lumbering towards him.

"Move!" shouted the brown wolf, as he leapt towards Kantu, pulling him off to the side. Kantu snapped back to reality and started running. "Wait! what about–" "No time! Run!" shouted the brown wolf back to him. He looked back to see the bear turn around and go back to where the grey wolf had been.

"No!" he shouted. "We don't leave our brothers behind!" He turned around and began running full speed back towards the bear.

"What– Stop! Come back!" shouted the brown wolf, but it was too late. "$^&*#" he thought, and turned around to help Kantu.

Kantu arrived to see the bear about to deliver a killing blow to the grey wolf, and he jumped as high as he could and landed on the bear, clawing and biting. The bear roared in surprise and pain, and turned around trying to dislodge the wolf from his back. Kantu held on and bit the bear's upper back, causing the bear to roar in pain again. He clawed his way up and delivered a vicious bite to the bear's neck, hitting the jugular vein and causing the bear to become enraged.

Blood began to shoot out of the bear's neck as he spun around trying to grab Kantu, and the brown wolf watched in amazement as it looked like he was going to take the bear down. The bear backed up against a tree to try to get Kantu off his back, but Kantu saw what he was doing and leapt off the bear's back before he made contact with the tree.

"Get him away from here!" he yelled to the brown wolf, as he jumped down and began to lead the bear away from the area. "I'll draw the bear away, get him to safety!" Kantu sprinted away from where the grey wolf was struggling to get up, and the bear lumbered after him. The brown wolf ran up to the grey wolf and began to help him up, and they both turned to see Kantu slip on a patch of ice and slide back towards the rapidly approaching bear.

The wolves looked on in horror as they saw the bear reach Kantu as he was scrambling to regain his footing. With a mighty roar, the bear grabbed Kantu by the leg and threw him against a tree. Kantu cried out in pain as the bear picked him up again and in his fury bent the wolf backwards.

The two wolves heard his spine snap from where they were sitting, and Kantu fell lifeless to the ground. "Oh great Aniu, no..." whispered the grey wolf. The bear roared one last time as he began to lose his balance, faint from loss of blood. He grunted and fell to the ground, as blood continued to flow out of his neck wound.

For several excruciatingly long moments, the two wolves sat and stared at Kantu's unmoving form, not believing what they had seen. The bear's wheezing breaths slowed and eventually stopped as they sat watching, shocked into submission. The grey wolf eventually looked away, and a tear rolled down his face.

"Call them," he whispered.

Without a word, the brown wolf lifted his muzzle to the sky and howled with all his might. After a few moments, they heard a response. The others would be there shortly.

The hunt leader was the first to show up with his group. They arrived and saw the bear in a pool of blood and began to cheer, until they noticed the grey wolf standing over the carefully moved body of the alpha's only son, Kantu. "What - what happened?" asked the hunt leader.

The grey wolf spoke with his head bowed down. "He saved my life. He saved both our lives. And he killed the bear."

"I've never seen anything like it," continued the brown wolf. "He jumped on the bear and ran up his back. He took a bite out of his neck before the bear could throw him off, then he jumped off and lead the bear away from us. And then..." he hesitated as the sound of Kantu's body breaking echoed in his mind. "And then he slipped on some ice and the bear caught him before it died from blood loss."

All the wolves that had arrived listened to what happened in silence. They knew what this would do to their alpha.

"I will carry him home," said the grey wolf. "I owe him my own life, a debt that now can never be repaid. It's my fault that the alpha's son is dead, and I will take the blame."

The wolves carefully placed Kantu's body on the back of the grey wolf, and a number of the other wolves began to drag the bear home. After a long silent journey, the hunting party finally made it back home. Night had fallen, and the rest of the pack had just started to wonder where they were when the wolves dragging the bear arrived and dragged it into the feeding circle.

The pack gathered around the kill, and Dakarai made his way down to inspect it. "A grizzly! There's enough meat on him to feed us all very well," he said. "Who's the brave one that took this beast down?" The members of the hunting party could not face him, and hung their heads.

As Dakarai turned to ask the hunting party who it was, the grey wolf appeared behind them, bearing Kantu's body. He slowly walked towards Dakarai and bent down, gently placing Kantu's body on the ground in front of his father. Dakarai stared at Kantu's unmoving form, then slowly at the grey wolf.

"My alpha," the grey wolf began with great sadness in his voice, "Kantu saved me from certain death. I was careless and allowed the bear to approach me undetected, and Kantu came back to save me. It was the bravest thing I have ever seen in my life. It was he who took the bear down, by himself."

Dakarai was visibly trembling now. "I owe him a debt that I cannot repay, my alpha," the grey wolf continued. "I am not worthy of the sacrifice your son made for me, and I am sorry to my very soul for the loss of your only child. My life is yours to do with as you wish." He lay down flat on the ground and placed his head between his paws.

There was complete silence, as no one dared to move or speak. Dakarai was shaking violently now, and tears were beginning to roll down his face. "No... Kantu! Kantu!" Nightfall's voice came from behind the alpha. She ran up next to Dakarai and began to lick her son's face. "Kantu... please..." she began to sob. "Please come back to us my son... please..."

She dropped to the ground and buried her face in her son's fur and cried and cried. Dakarai could not contain his sadness any longer as he lay down next to his mate and sobbed into her neck, devastated at the loss of his only child. The two of them wept over the loss of their son, and the rest of the pack remained silent and motionless, heads bowed down in respect.

The grey wolf remained where he was, with his head between his paws. "I'm sorry, Kantu," he thought. "I should have died, not you. Now look at the pain I have caused." He flattened his ears against his head and closed his eyes, and listened remorsefully to the sounds of his alpha and his mate crying over the loss of their son.

Finally, Dakarai wearily sat up. He wiped his face with his paw and sat there for a moment, then he turned to address his pack. He spoke softly, and his voice cracked as he spoke. "The least we can do right now is to honor my son by feeding the whole pack with his kill." he lowered his head. "I'm... not hungry. You may begin without me. Please do my son this last honor and... and..." he turned his head, unable to say any more.

One by one, every wolf in the pack lined up to pay their respects to their alpha and his fallen son before eating. As they walked past Kantu's body, each one of them nuzzled their alpha as a sign of respect and a gesture of comfort. Not a word was spoken as they paid their respects, then took part in feeding. Nightfall was inconsolable and would not leave her son's body.

The grey wolf had not moved either. He remained in a position of submission, unwilling to show the slightest sign of disrespect. Dakarai saw this, and walked over to him. "Mulu, please eat," he said gently.

"My alpha, I am to blame for your son's death," the grey wolf said without raising his head. "I do not deserve to eat from the bounty he provided for us."

"I don't think he would see it that way, Mulu," Dakarai said. "He died defending another member of my pack, and he wouldn't want you to blame yourself for what happened." He sat down next to Mulu and nudged him with his nose. "I don't blame you either. He did what he did for his love of you, me, and our way of life. We don't leave our pack brothers to die."

"He told us to stay there while he drew the bear away," Mulu said sadly. "If... if I had gone after the bear instead, then maybe..."

"Then maybe you would both be dead," Dakarai said, more harshly than he intended. He closed his eyes and sighed. "I'm sorry, Mulu. I don't blame you. My son was my beautiful shining star, but he knew as well as you do that in my pack every wolf's life has equal value. And you know that if given the choice I would also gladly give my own life for any one of yours, just as he did. We are too few in number to believe any differently if we are to survive."

Dakarai got up and turned to sit in front of Mulu. "He died doing what he had to do, and that's enough for me. It should be enough for you too."

Mulu looked up at Dakarai, and saw the pain in his eyes. "Yes, my alpha," he said meekly, not willing to push the matter any further. He got up and approached Nightfall, who was still quietly sobbing into her son's coat. "I am unable to express how sorry I am, my lady," he said. "I owe your son my life. I will never forget what he did for me."

Nightfall didn't respond, and Mulu lowered his head and walked over to the bear. He wasn't hungry either, but he tore a chunk off with his teeth, then slowly walked back to his den as the first snowflakes of the oncoming storm blew through the air.

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Next: Chapter 4 - "Late Last Night"