Chapter 5: Omegas (written from October 23rd to October 25th, 2021)

The sun kindly slid down from the top of the dome. The fierce summer brightness tinged like a bruise, a shimmering blaze allergic to the land. Night was howling, announcing its assertive arrival. The eastern stars unveiled themselves from the blue. A modest cool penetrated the evening, adopting the dusk. It was a shred of the autumn soon to come.

A few leagues west of Mt. Victory lay a district of Omegas, the largest community of Omegas in the West. The district had no formal name but Winston knew it as Peterland, a designation given by his father. It was meant to be a degrading name as part of the policy of segregation. Since the creation of the Western Pack in 1997, Alphas and Omegas seldom interacted with each other. Most Omegas didn't bother ever leaving their districts, for the scars of abuse lay deep. The only time the higher rank chose to meet them was when they dropped off scraps, for the Omegas could not hunt. The only food that was given was leftovers, typically parts of the caribou deemed less worthy of consumption: hooves, ligaments, tendons, tails, and tongues. It was considered a good week to receive bones, a better week to receive ones with sizable quantities of marrow. As a result, they were less healthy and susceptible to disease, isolating them further from the higher rank who viewed them as germ-ridden. The pack leader had vowed to never enter Peterland, which made it the perfect place to hide Sanja, the owlet Winston had acquired. She did her best to perch on his withers. The route he took that would keep them away from patrols was a bumpy one.

During the meeting with Bronx and Tony, Sanja was kept in the crevice that she had fallen into since it was the only other place where Alphas weren't likely to notice her, but the jagged fissure could not be a long-term refuge. There was no way to give sustenance there, so Winston sought out Randall who lived in Peterland—the Sigma's true home was another secret he kept.

This Omega district was the last one to never be visited by the Western heir. To see them all was a personal goal that was finally achieved when he stepped through the Boulder Entry. The area immediately surrounding the two prominent boulders was excessively marked by a fetid fluid. It burned Winston's eyes into a frenzied sweat. Randall had mentioned that the entrance had been swamped years ago by a rare type of assembly called a urine mob, a large mob of Alphas that spray a thick layer of hateful or scornful scent marks for intimidation.

"YOU DON'T BELONG HERE!" one of the scent marks read.

"GO TO SLEEP WITH YOUR KIN, PETER THE TRAITOR!" said another. Most of them were far more scornful and obscene, but Winston could not read further. He shook his head in disappointment. He'd seen enough of the Alphas' derision.

Randall's den was one of the closest to the Entry. Winston and the owl entered without greeting.

"Goodness, Winston! Have you no manners?!" The Sigma's nap had abruptly ended. Randall wasn't afraid to remonstrate, but the sight of the strange bird held back additional scolding. Suddenly, the distressed look on Winston's face became appropriate. Winston wouldn't risk going into Peterland unless something grave had surfaced. The winged creature dismounting his withers could only be a true owl. It was no longer a rumor. Owls were in the Valley, and the proof now perched before him.

"So the old coot was right; owls are here."

"If Father were to know I came to this place... Let's just say death will be a blessing." Winston caught up his breath before continuing. He gestured towards the preening bird. "This is Sanja. She is from a grove in the mountains, she told me. I must keep her safe. Failure to do so may arouse war. Father won't hesitate to use her presence as a pretext." The gravity of the situation took some time to sink into Randall.

"I see," he replied with a slow nod. "She seems awfully young for a spy."

"Too young. She's not a spy, sir, not even if she wanted to because she can't fly! My father must've seen another owl."

"If I could cut in, Mr. Wolf," the bird interjected. Randall could now hear her glaring youthfulness. "I don't know anyone in the grove who would spy. Why on Earth would an owl do such a thing? From what my parents told me, our flock settled in the mountains not long before I hatched. That was four weeks ago."

"Your sense of time must be warped, young one. A few weeks is more than sufficient for something to happen."

"You're right. Sorry, Mr. Wolf."

"He is Randall, a good friend of mine and my personal trainer," Winston informed. "You will stay here where most Alphas can't find you. Please, Randall, would you provide her with shelter and food?"

"I will for as long as I can, but her parents must be found. The Alphas will return with scraps on the first day of autumn. They will smell her."

"Yes, and I won't be able to help as I'm expected to compete in the Great Games on that day. I must find the grove of pines in the Western Mountains where her clan lives."

"Winston, you have no idea where exactly it is. Normally, I wouldn't take rumors into consideration but that was when I doubted the owls' presence. Rumor has it that it's near the treeline, on a piece of flatland between peaks."

"So I'll go there. Aren't you the one who taught me to persevere on countless mountain runs? I've done well on every mountain you've thrown at me. I promise I will do fine."

"You don't understand, lad. That's not a promise you can keep. No mountain I've trained you on is anything like the Rockies that enclose our Valley. They make the mountains inside our Valley look like gentle hills in comparison. Mt. Victory, for example, is somewhere around five hundred feet. These Rocky Mountains can easily be over ten thousand. There's a reason you can always see the peaks. They're unimaginably massive. Their slopes can stretch horizontally for miles. That is how a cluster of pines can grow there."

"I can tell you that we boreals regularly touch the clouds from the grove," Sanja added. "The clouds here are so tiny, so distant... I'll never get used to it!"

"Thank you, owl. Frankly, I don't have the words to describe how treacherous it is. Most likely the grove is inaccessible to those without wings. Suppose you do find it. What's to say a pup like you will survive the cold journey homeward? No Valley wolf has survived the Rockies since the Black Mountain War. Such knowledge of the Sky Labyrinth has been lost, and you won't find any Black Mountain wolf to ask for directions. They are said to be extinct from a terrible plague that came after our ancestors won the war against them."

"What am I going to do then?"

"Relax, Winston. If Sanja's parents are good parents, they will find their chick. It's only a matter of time."

"Yes! Find me they will!" the owl exclaimed. "Their names are Heireth and Phillys, but my mum calls him 'Phillie.' My parents' friends always talk about how much I look like them."

"Good to know. Now, what is it that you eat, dear owl?" Randall asked. She jumped in excitement. Her energy was comparable to many wolf pups'.

"Oo! Oo! Voles! Foxes!"

"Well, there aren't many foxes here."

"I know a few vole spots," said Winston. "I'll get her something to eat."

"Yay! My gizzard is ready! Thank you, Winston! Thank you for everything!"

"Nothing to it, Sanja," he replied humbly. The owl gazed at him in awe. She was always told by her avian peers how dangerous wolves were, but in truth, they were not too different from owls once appearances were disregarded. Wolves were not born to be barbaric killers. Some were intelligent. Some were compassionate. Some were capable of complex feelings such as those of fear, grief, joy, and love. The one who called himself Winston seemed to have it all.

Later...

Night had fallen completely as the pup made his way through Peterland. It took an hour to track down a colony before an unlucky rodent surrendered to his jaws. He was on his way back, passing by several rows of dens but Omegas were not inside them. There were gatherings in the forest, groups of no more than five arranged in wide circles. Under holes of the canopy where rays of moonlight reached the ground, cheers erupted and filled the darkness, the chirping of crickets occasionally overcome by spirited laughter. What was going on? Was it a festival? A holiday?

In the center of the district, Winston approached one gathering and observed their behavior through a patchy shrub. He had never seen anything like it. Omegas were taking turns dancing! Dancing in its lupine form meant standing on the hind legs and doing various movements that were purely artistic. There seemed to be competitions. Whoever had the best moves according to the group received the loudest praise. This group, in particular, seemed to be a small family. There was one pup and her presumed parents. The parents had a mixture of light grey and white fur while the daughter was the whitest wolf ever. She glowed vibrantly under the moonlight. In a way, she was like a second moon. Perhaps, Winston thought, a moon spirit!

After the father finished his rowdy twirl and pretentious brandishing of his forelimbs, his daughter performed next. Winston leaned closer. A new feeling swept through him as she elegantly danced with her eyes sealed. She was concentrating hard, suggesting her dance had been meticulously rehearsed. This would soon become undeniable. On two legs, she orbited her parents, making quick spins at precise times so that at every completion of an orbit she would complete exactly ten spins. At every spin, she would bring her paws closer to her chest, and she would have them spread apart in between the spins. And there was more that words could barely do justice to. The level of detail seemed otherworldly. From the tip of her tail to the tip of her snout, Winston was mesmerized by her.

At the third orbit, the female pup sniffed the unfamiliar scent. She opened her eyes and quickly saw Winston through a gaping hole in the shrub behind her mother. Winston was astounded. He had been seen! But he couldn't dare to turn away. She sensed the mesmerization and blushed. Winston blushed in return. Upon finishing the orbit, she gave a soft giggle. Her parents then noticed Winston.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here, Jerry?" said the mother.

"Looks like Lilly has an admirer, Margaret." Winston placed the vole on the ground.

"Admirer? No, no, no..."

"Aww, it's okay, sweetie!" said Margaret. The natural softness of the Omega was jarring. Winston had become acquainted with many Omegas but none were as genuinely cordial as this one. Winston realized that it was because this Omega was not aware of his future Alpha rank. He decided to keep his true identity hidden from these Omegas—for now—and see what would happen. "Aww, the little pup is shy."

"'Little?'" The father tilted his head. "Look at them muscles on him. If he ain't to be an Alpha, he be more fit to be a grizzly!"

"Quit that, Jerry! One would think you be an Alpha with that judgemental-like attitude! Some muscle never hurt anyone. You could use some of it yourself." The she-wolf turned back to Winston. "It be alright, dearest! Come out! Come out!" She beckoned to Winston. He nervously approached. For once, he felt fairly intimated by the lower rank. But what was making him feel so weak? The answer neared him. The pup known as Lilly looked at him curiously.

"I... I liked your dance," he managed to say. "It was exemplary."

"Exemplary? What kind of word is that?" Lilly appeared saddened. Winston thought she assumed the word meant something bad.

"Sorry! It means good! Great even! You were incredible!" The white pup blushed again. Winston couldn't believe what he was experiencing. What he was potentially engaging in was more than just bad, more than illegal; it violated the actual bedrock of wolf society, which was the separation of the ranks. Such a violation in the West was punishable by death. And yet... the Omega remained alluring... He could not help it. "Would it be a shame to forget myself, just for tonight?" he wondered aloud.

"What did you say?" Lilly asked.

"Err... Um... I said my name is Wi..."

"How cute, Jerry! He's interested in our dear Lil! He can barely put his words together! Ahh, and he's kept the blue eyes! How rare that is!"

All wolf pups were born with blue eyes. The overwhelming majority would then lose the color after three weeks of age, but for the very few pups who kept them, it was a sign of good fortune to their families.

"A handsome one, ain't he? He's a keeper!" Jerry turned to his daughter. "Don't let this stud slip! Eyes like his... Well... they only come once in a blue moon! They say it be the best and most noble wolves who retain the blue irises."

"Daddy!" she exclaimed in embarrassment. For a fraction of a second, Winston thought about the Sigma, the only other wolf he knew that had blue eyes.

"Windall! That's my name. I'm not from around here."

"Are you a lone wolf?" Lilly asked.

"Something like that. I wish not to talk about my past. It hurts..." The white pup then hugged him tightly. It awakened something deep in his memory. The last time he felt a hug was not long after he was born. It was his mother, Winslet, who had given him one. He began to cry upon knowing that Winslet's hug was the sole memory he had of her.

"It's okay... We are no strangers to pain. I lost fourteen siblings to parvo."

"Fourteen siblings?!" The white pup nodded. "What is parvo?"

"It's a deadly sickness that ravages these woods every few years," Margaret answered. "Alphas don't give us diddly-squat, so... there are days..." The Omega struggled to finish the sentence. She suddenly burst into a sob, prompting her daughter to finish it for her.

"There are days when we must eat our own excrement to feel full." Winston was appalled. The conditions in the Omega districts were much worse than previously thought. Randall never mentioned the real suffering of the Omegas. "Parvo spreads from the ingestion of feces," she continued. "To have parvo is to expect death. By the time my brother and sisters showed symptoms it was too late."

"Oh, gosh... Why don't you guys just leave this wretched place?"

"That's what them Alphas want," said the father. "They know we be dead on our own since we can't hunt. They mean to exterminate us! But 'we won't stand for it!' That's what our leader says."

"Your leader?"

"A wolf by the name of Randall. He be an Alpha but one of Omega parents. He be the only Alpha we trust. Dear lad guards the Entry, keeps us safe from other Alphas wanting to cause trouble, especially urine mobs. 'Fore him, Alphas would come here and force us to stand while they peed directly on us! And Alpha urine is nothin' like Omega urine, you see. It can linger forever. I still carry a mark on my left hind paw that simply says, 'You are nothing.' That's how they view us."

"Perhaps they're right," said Lilly, sounding defeated.

"I think not," Winston replied with newfound confidence. "Everything I've seen since I've been here does not speak of worthlessness. I am proud of you Omegas! Each and every one of you has worth. You may be of a lower rank, yes. That is the way society is built, but no lower rank deserves this. No lower rank deserves scraps or parvo or urine mobs. Those things are far below Omega. They're below any wolf for that matter. They say wolves are among the noblest forms of life on Earth. Well, what is noble about what these Alphas do? The creation of the ranks came with an unwritten agreement. If there were to be wolves lower in status than other wolves, the higher wolves had to promise to let the lower wolves live their lives free from oppression and intimidation." He then focused on Lilly. "To tell me a pup as stunning as you has no worth is insane beyond measure." The white pup hugged Winston again, even tighter than before.

"What kind of heavenly country did you spring from, Windall, to offer us such undeserved faith?"

Winston did not know how to answer Lilly's question. His heart twisted and ached. He felt hypocritical. He was right about the Alphas violating the ancient agreement, but he himself was violating the agreement but in a different way, by having feelings for the white pup that was to be an Omega. The agreement also said that Alphas and Omegas couldn't be involved romantically with each other. But he couldn't help the desire to be with Lilly. The urge was as biological as the need to sleep. Being this hypocritical was a dangerous path, Winston thought. He was the heir to the pack leadership! It wouldn't be wise to enter this web of deceit that would merely engulf his life when he was expected to assume the great responsibility of the pack! Sanja and Randall were enough hidden things for one pup to safeguard. To lead a double life with Lilly would definitely be more than he could bear. As much as it pained him, he had to kill this new urge before it become too powerful. He had to let Lilly go. "Are you okay?" she asked him.

"I'm sorry... I must leave now." Lilly quickly picked up Winston's anxiety.

"Wha... What?!"

"I shouldn't have come here."

"W-w-what?! Why?! Will I see you again...?" There was a short pause.

"I don't know," he replied sternly. And from that, he ran into the darkness. Lilly's parents proceeded to sit behind her. The three of them watched in shock and consternation as the peculiar stranger was consumed by shadow.